Parents could get more control over dirty library books (04-01-2025--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] Last hour, talking about the bill that the state legislature is looking at to go after social media platforms for allowing kids under the age of 14 to be on their sites, be able to sue them, they'll be able to fine them and whatnot. There are also other restrictions for 14 and 15 year olds. My view on it is no smartphones for anybody under the age of 18.

[00:00:56] Now, you know, lowercase l libertarian here. And so I'm kind of uncomfortable with an outright, like, advocacy campaign for GovCo to ban this stuff. But I'm hard pressed to see a reason why anybody under the age of 18 needs a smartphone when they can have a phone that has texting that has, you know, phone calls has GPS on it.

[00:01:24] You know, a very limited stripped down version. So you don't have all of the social media apps. So because just all of the evidence I've seen, it just creates more harm and doesn't really provide any good whatsoever. Right. So, but again, that like that, it makes me uncomfortable to say GovCo should mandate that. I don't know where I'm, I don't really know where I stand on like getting the government to outright ban it, but okay, fine, ban it.

[00:01:53] I'm convinced. No, I don't know. I wrestle with this. I wrestle with it. You know, maybe there's like a different level of phone you get at 17 and 18 that has the ability to take pictures and video. I don't know. I understand that people are going to find ways around all of this stuff. Always. There'll be black markets created always. Right.

[00:02:20] I don't know what the fines would be or the penalties or whatever. You catch a kid who's 16 with a, you know, with a black market adult phone or something.

[00:02:28] Yeah. Like I haven't thought about any of that stuff. So like right now, the first thing is to like set as a standard for the society with a penalty of, you know, shame and an enforcement mechanism of essentially peer pressure among parents to not give the phones to the kids to make that the abnormality.

[00:02:59] Also legislation was filed in the state house of represent. Oh, hang on a second. Before I get to that, the new legislation, let me did have some messages here.

[00:03:11] Um, this was from Ray Noshi who says, uh, really appreciate your insight into that topic. Uh, and screen strong.org is the website. Um, no phone till 18 free, more free play, uh, with friends. Yeah. Like those are the things that you can do to help combat, um, the harms, uh, that social media has created.

[00:03:37] And it's mainly social media. And I, and I don't hate social media. I just hate everybody on it. No, I'm kidding. But no, the, the juice is not worth the squeeze for the, for the kids. It's, it's just not. Seth says, I wonder how many kids in therapy would quit using their smartphone if the shrink told them that that's why they are sad. That's a, that's a good question. And that there is a connection.

[00:04:06] I don't know how many, uh, mental health professionals advise their clients, reduce your smartphone use. I try, try not to try to delete your social media apps. I mean, I can't do it. I mean, I could quit anytime I wanted to, but I need it for my job. You see? So I'm different.

[00:04:31] Um, but I, I honestly, I use Twitter now differently than I did probably even five years ago. I, I, I engage with trolls at a far less frequency than I used to. I would argue and mix it up with the trolls and all this. Uh, I don't, I don't really do that so much anymore. Okay. Every now and again, you know, just to kind of convince myself that, uh, yeah, still got it.

[00:05:00] Um, so I, I, you know, I'll take a bite of that forbidden fruit every now and again, but mainly I use it as, as a wire service. What stories are moving? What are people saying about stuff? And then I, I bookmark stuff. In fact, I think probably using the bookmarks in order to flag things.

[00:05:19] That's, that's now become my primary use of Twitter. I, I don't really use Facebook anymore. I have the accounts. I have an Instagram account. I think I've never posted. Um, because of what I do, I go out and I reserve my names on the various sites so nobody can take them. Um, but I don't, I don't, I don't, I, yeah, I don't post on these, on these other apps.

[00:05:47] Uh, because you, you, you spend what I spend way too much time on them and I have a justification for them. Um, because if I didn't have to do, uh, or if I didn't have to keep up with almost literally everything going on in the world at any given moment, you know, you always have to kind of be, I talk about it like being on a treadmill and, you know, I took Friday and Monday off.

[00:06:14] I went up to New York and saw the parents there, uh, they're, they're doing okay. Um, but, uh, you know, they're almost 80. So they've got some health issues going on. And so we went up there for, uh, for a long weekend to see them.

[00:06:29] Um, and I could, and I was talking with them about this is that whenever I go on a vacation, I'm really like, if I take a week vacation, my vacation is really only about half of that time because the first three to four days I can completely unplug.

[00:06:46] And I don't look at any social media. I don't look at the news or anything because when I come back, nobody's really expecting me to talk about a topic that popped in the news and then went away almost immediately from a week ago. So I can tune out at the beginning of a week's vacation, but about halfway through, I now need to start ramping up again. I have to get back on the treadmill. I mean, I'm not going to go like running immediately.

[00:07:12] Oh, you know, started at like a level three, just walk, you know, walk slowly, whatever, just kind of touch base, see what's going on, scroll through a little bit and then put it away. But then as I get closer to coming back on air, like all like yesterday was, you know, going through the websites, going through the show prep material like that, that's just part of the routine.

[00:07:34] If I didn't have to do that, I wouldn't do it. And that's why I guess there's part of me. I don't understand why go on to all of the social media for so long. I guess maybe you're getting fed a lot of stuff all the time that's of interest, but I don't like, I don't know. I, I wouldn't go there. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to.

[00:07:57] Now I can say that because, you know, because I do have the justification for it. So I know that I can say that and, you know, but I do enjoy the detoxing. I do. Like when I went up, uh, I looked at it a little bit at the airport and then that was it for the first day. And usually on the weekends, I put it away on like Saturday and I don't, I try not to look at my phone at all.

[00:08:23] Uh, you know, unless I'm eating, I'll, I'll pull it up. I'll look through something and while I'm eating lunch or something, and then it goes away. So I tried to make an effort and that's, you know, baby steps here, people, baby steps. Okay. Um, Chris said, Pete, I don't think any kids still in junior high should have a smartphone or social media access. I say ban both outright for anybody under 15 between 15 and 18. Wait.

[00:08:49] So ban smartphones and social media for anybody under the age of 15 between 15 and 18, the high school years, they can have both, but comments and likes or dislikes should be automatically disabled. So the kids can post and view, but they cannot receive any comments or likes and dislikes on their posts at all.

[00:09:14] Once they turn 18, then everything opens up like normal. This seems pretty reasonable to me. That's from Chris. Um, I mean, that's an interesting idea. I don't know. So again, see, this is where the industry itself would really do itself a favor, really help itself out. If it, if they all got together and said, this is what we are going to do.

[00:09:37] We're going to set an industry standard, but they don't want to do that because the whole point is to get the kids hooked and to get their personal information, to get all the data points they need about them so they can market those kids. Because again, if the service is free, then you are the product they are selling. Always keep that in mind. You're the product.

[00:10:01] They are targeting you with the algorithms and the data points that they're collecting on you. So when you watch that one video, now they know, hey, let's send more videos like that. And let's sell some advertising targeting people who like to watch those videos. That's how they make their money. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime.

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[00:10:59] I urge you, do not wait until it's too late. This spring, celebrate your past. Visit Creative Video today and let them preserve your legacy with the love and care that it deserves. Creative Video, preserving family memories since 1997. Located in Mint Hill, just off 485. Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. All right, let's go over and talk with Dean. Hello, Dean. Hi, Pete. How are you today? I am all right. How are you?

[00:11:30] They sound really good. Well, I'm a good faker. Hey, you were just talking and I didn't hear a lot of it, but you were talking about smartphones and controlling them. And, you know, everything you want is very good. I just don't think that I think it's like trying to get the horses back in the corral after the barn door has been open. I just don't think it's going to happen. I don't think there's a way to do it. People just aren't built that way.

[00:11:58] Well, when the barn doors get open, the horses go out into the corral. But then you can bring them back into the barn because they're just in the corral. Well, let me clarify that. And I'm interpreting the corral as the rest of the world. The, you know. So this would just be a corral-less barn.

[00:12:26] So open the barn doors, the horses get out. And so you're saying it'd be like closing the barn doors after the horses have gotten out. But I would submit not all the horses have gotten out. I would submit that there are pregnant horses still in the barn. They were not able to get out because they were pregnant. And so that's the next generation. Wait a minute. I'm going to have to consult with, I'm not, well, you know, yes, that's probably true.

[00:12:55] I can't deny it. Right. There are other generations that are coming along. And so if we take your approach, which is to say, well, we screwed up on, you know, not closing the barn door for those horses. So they're all now running wild and we could never get them back. So we just write them off. And so, therefore, we have to write off every subsequent generation of horse to come. I don't think that's logical. Oh, no. Anything's possible. No, I said logical. How can I deny the future?

[00:13:24] And nobody knows what it's going to be. I just say if I was going to be a betting man and I was going to put money on it, I would bet against it being reasonably controlled because there's just, I mean, there's too many incentives for people to work around. So what are the incentives for parents to give their kid a smartphone at the age of six? Oh, I agree with you totally. You know, but, okay.

[00:13:53] So, but you just threw parents into the conversation. I said, I included parents in most of my discussion about it last hour. I talked mainly about parents. Yeah. And how, I agree with you. That's who would have to take the initiative. Unfortunately, the parents are deteriorating.

[00:14:19] 20 years from now, families, you know, who knows where families will be. You can't say the family's gotten stronger over the last 20 years or 30 years. There has to be, you know, yes, anything can be stopped, but somebody has to take the initiative to make it happen. And I don't, I don't see anyone actually making it happen, maybe besides parents.

[00:14:46] So have you ever, has anybody ever said to you, Dean, that you come across as a defeatist, as a pessimist? No. Really? More like a realist. No. You know, yeah. No. Believe me, I was the biggest optimist in the world at 35, you know. The harder I worked, the more I did, the more involved you were. You could change things and all that. That's true.

[00:15:15] I just think that that's why ignorance is bliss and you're so excited because they don't know. And the more you know, the more realistic you are. No. Realistic is not the opposite of ignorance, which is not the opposite of being a pessimist. These are different things. Like, I can be a pessimist and a realist.

[00:15:39] You, you, but you, like, what you are advocating, and I don't know if this is just like you working through a thought or a position in real time, but what you are saying is, like, nobody can make these changes. You don't think anyone's going to make the changes. So what's the point? That's a defeatist mentality because that says, why bother even trying if success is not assured? No, I, I, I think you should try. I think parents... Right. So that's what we're doing.

[00:16:09] But I think it's going to be a one-off kind of thing. I don't think you can legislate. Yeah, I don't think success will legislate this or... Sure you can. You can, you, you can do some things. It just depends on what they are. But you're rejecting all attempts at putting up any kind of guardrail, which, again, is a kind of defeatism. Because, and I, I said this earlier as well, that there are always going to be these kinds of trade-offs,

[00:16:35] and there are going to be people that make, you know, end runs around the laws and such. And you've got to talk about what kind of penalties that would incur and all of that. But to say then that, well, we just can't do it, that is, again, a, that is a defeatist mentality, is to say that, oh, there's, 100% success is not on the table, so therefore we shouldn't even try to do anything. And let's just say it's the parent's job. Right, but, but parents are asking for help because you're dealing with a societal peer pressure campaign.

[00:17:05] And, and so government can actually help back up parents on some of these things. For example, in the schools, you can ban the cell phones in the schools, right? That's something that governments can do. That would help back up the parents. So, and that's why I bring the topic forward, and that's why the lawmakers brought their proposal forward, is to try to help support the parents who are saying, I'm not so sure I want to do this,

[00:17:32] but they're just under this relentless barrage of peer pressure from their, from their kids, from their kids' friends, from their kids' friends' parents, right? Everybody just constantly hammering away, and the, even the schools and the, the, the football and, and soccer programs and whatever. And they're like, oh, you got to be on the Facebook group, or you got to be, you know, plugged into this so I can get you your schedules and all that. Like, no, you don't need to be on the smartphones to do this sort of stuff in all cases.

[00:18:02] So, uh, Dean, I appreciate the call. Um, I try to look at the glasses half full. I try. I'm not always successful. But I do feel it makes me happier. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain? And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big ol' reunion,

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[00:19:24] and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Let's talk to Ray. Hello, Ray. Welcome to the show. Hey, Pete. How are you doing? Hey, I'm good. I'm doing all right. I just wanted to bounce off your, I think it was your last caller, where you made reference to his defeatism. Yeah, Dean is his name. Okay, Dean. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like he is a defeatist, but I just wanted to give a little example.

[00:19:52] He seemed to be saying, you know, we can't let this, can't put the horse back in the barn or whatever. But I would say there was a time in our history when there was no age limit on children smoking or buying cigarettes and tobacco and alcohol and using that, but they seemed to have got that under control.

[00:20:18] Well, I mean, smoking particularly, but it wasn't simply, you know, the government actions. There was also, you know, a pushback on the, in the, you know, in civic life as well, right? To get kids not to start smoking at 11 years old, right? To essentially shame people into allowing their kids to smoke that early. And then everybody becomes aware this is a bad thing. You shouldn't do that.

[00:20:45] And that creates sort of the, you know, a structure, a societal structure around what is acceptable and what is not. Right. So wouldn't that put that kind of in the same category as the cell phones? Yeah. Cell phones? I mean, I think so if you, right. And that's the thing is the more people that stand up and say, yeah, you know what? We probably shouldn't be letting the kids have access to these things until they're 18 years old.

[00:21:12] And, and we make, we create a permission structure for that. Right. And that then supports more and more families and parents that, that want to do the right thing, want to do the thing that's going to be in the best interest of their kids. That they will now have more support for, for doing that versus all of society saying, no, no, no. Give your kid the phone. Give your kid the phone. And if you don't, something's wrong with you. You know, now you go the other direction. Say, no, something's wrong.

[00:21:41] If you do give your kid the phone. Can I, can I ask you one other quick thing? Okay. Yeah. Maybe. Okay. Sure. Um, I was just always wondered, I never could figure it out. Um, if you could speak just a minute to this thing of why is there a law that you can be drafted at 18 and go fight in a war, but you can't buy a beer? Why, why is that? Do you know?

[00:22:08] Um, probably what did they, cause they raised the alcohol age after. Cause it used to be 18 and then they raised it to 21. I don't remember the arguments for raising it. I mean, I wasn't a lot. I don't, I don't think I was alive. Yeah. Did they tie it to federal funding of the highways? Did they do that?

[00:22:35] Um, they say like every state has to raise the drinking age to 21 or else you forfeit your, uh, you forfeit the, the, the federal highway dollars. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm talking about the, the common sense behind it. It just doesn't make sense. It's to limit people drinking at 20, uh, you know, 19 years old that, you know, uh, are in college or not in, you know, in service driving around, um, drunk.

[00:23:05] Okay. Making bad decisions, driving drunk, causing accidents. Right. I assume that that was the rationale. Well, thanks for, uh, answering that. I don't know if I answered. I'm just guessing. I'm sure I think mothers against drunk driving may have been behind the push too. Maybe I'm just guessing though. Okay. Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, man. All right, Ray. I appreciate it. Good to hear from you. Yeah. Uh, no, I, I, I think that's a fair analogy with the cigarette smoking, right? There are things that, you know, government can do.

[00:23:34] There are things that government cannot. And that's why, that's why I speak to this issue of the smartphone use for the kids, because I'm trying to support parents who want to, you know, create a, a different norm for kids.

[00:23:53] And just because we have messed up on one generation or two generations, doesn't mean we have to keep making those same mistakes over and over again. Right. As I said in the, in the last hour, the research now is in, we do not have to wait anymore to find out what the long-term impacts of this sort of stuff. But we know they've, they've made the, they've made the connections. It's very clear.

[00:24:23] So, again, just my opinion. But I, I, I would like to see kids enjoying childhood in a way that I don't think the last two generations have been able to because of the rise of the smartphones. And the technological experience or experiment, I should say, that we ran, it turned out not to be good. The outcomes were not good.

[00:24:50] Again, if you can show me some net benefit that the kids experience by being able to log into Snapchat and TikTok and Instagram, and that those, that those benefits outweigh the costs and the risks, I'm open to hear it. But again, I've been reading a lot of this stuff for, for about a decade on the research. And none of it comes back saying that.

[00:25:19] None of the research comes back saying, you know, on the whole, you know, having a TikTok account is fantastic for the kids' development. It never comes out that way. So, when do we say, okay, you know what? It didn't work. That is not good. Let's not keep doing that. Let's change course. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why?

[00:25:47] Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too.

[00:26:08] I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:26:35] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Legislation filed Monday in the North Carolina House of Representatives aims to enhance parental oversight in health and sex ed. Also, to ensure age-appropriate instruction and to regulate access to materials in schools and libraries. Standard disclaimer here.

[00:27:06] Leftist educators, you did this to yourselves. Okay. Yeah. Because the other team, politically speaking, right? The other side. And I guess in this case it means like most normal people. Not the leftist activists. They are a part of public education too. See, that's the whole thing. Public education doesn't mean controlled by you. It means public education.

[00:27:32] And that means the public gets to help decide what the curriculum is and who has access to what materials, what's appropriate, what's not, right? If you don't like that system, then I'm perfectly willing to entertain a discussion about how to get rid of the public education system. But if your only complaint is that you don't control all of the levers of power inside the public education system, well, then I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. Your arguments don't matter.

[00:27:59] It's just all a cover story for you wanting control. So you can advance a particular agenda, right? Because the other side gets in that turn at bat here. It's a public entity. They get to weigh in. They get to run candidates. And if they win control, then they get to do what they want to do. And they turned it over to you guys for a very long time. And now nobody knows how to read. So you did this to yourselves. House Bill 495, Parental Rights for Curriculum and Books.

[00:28:29] That's the name of the bill. It is filed by representatives John Torbett from Gaston County, Republican, and Hugh Blackwell, Republican from Burke. It provides changes to the standard course of study in health education. It ensures age-appropriate instruction. It establishes processes for selecting library books and health safety materials.

[00:28:55] It requires instructional material repositories so people can go look at what it is that you're teaching their kids. And it restricts public library access for minors to materials that are harmful to minors. So age-appropriate restrictions. You can read more on this at the Carolina Journal, carolinajournal.com.

[00:29:20] The bill prohibits instruction on gender identity, sexual activity, or sexuality from kindergarten through sixth grade, whether it's via school personnel or third parties. You don't get to bring in some activist group. It's like, well, it wasn't us teachers that were doing it. For grades seven through 12, school instruction in such topics will require parental consent without consent mechanisms to be,

[00:29:48] or sorry, with annual consent mechanisms to be established by the local school boards. So you'd have to re-up it every year. There will also be a program for fourth and fifth graders focusing on puberty and biological changes. The section would be taught in single-sex groups with no gender identity or sexuality content, and it would require parental consent for participation. That's what my school did. Lo, those many years ago.

[00:30:18] We came in after school. It's like an evening thing on like a Thursday and a Friday. You picked one night to come in with, you know, a parent, and you sat through a very uncomfortable film with mom or dad. And then you went home for an even more uncomfortable conversation. That's how we did it in my day. Let me see. I got a message from Brandon on Twitter who says,

[00:30:54] And Russ said, Navigating phones and social media is a nightmare. Our oldest got his first phone after age 14, years after most of his peers. As cautious and tech savvy as I am, I realize the hardware and the apps are designed not to be able to really filter or restrict anything. For the younger one, we tried a dumb flip phone. Good luck finding one that doesn't have a built-in browser. Thus, access to everything. We looked at Gab and others and ended up with Trumi.

[00:31:24] T-R-O-O-M-I. It's been okay. Just okay. There really aren't any solutions. Only trade-offs. Probably the best option is not having a smartphone at all. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:31:53] Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.