🤍Child Influencers | Free Children's Books Delivered to Your Door | The Perfect Morning

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Technology Shaping Culture

^{Cultural translations to ensure we’re equipped to handle this technology heavy world.}

Sobering article from the NYT: “A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men”.

Trigger warning: mentions of sexual harassment against minors

The bottom line: there’s a marketplace for male pedophiles and predators on Instagram, targeting underage girls and fueled by none other than their moms. 

And we’re not talking moms in underdeveloped countries that may desperately need the funds…these are moms in the US, Australia, etc. These are dance, gymnastics, and cheer moms or simply moms with a child turned influencer.

Let’s start with the data: 32 million connections of male followers linked to 5,000 accounts of minors “run by mom” accounts. The accounts featuring girls wearing more tight/form fitting clothing (think bathing suit, leotards, gym/sportswear, or cheer uniforms) received the most interactions/followers.

“…’You are so sexy,’ read one comment on an image of a 5-year-old girl in a ruffled bikini. '“Those two little things look great thru ur top,’ said another on a video of a girl dancing in a white cropped shirt, who months later posted pictures of her 11th birthday party…”",

What is the marketplace (i.e. the moms) selling? Monthly subscriptions for extra photos of the girls or other exclusive content, exclusive chat sessions, worn outfits that appear on the photos (yes, used, unwashed leotards, etc.) “The most devoted customers spend thousands of dollars...”". And to clarify: yes, moms are selling these things.

“In monitoring multiple Telegram chat rooms, The Times found men who treat children’s Instagram pages and subscription services as menus to satisfy their fantasies. They trade information about parents considered receptive to producing and selling “private sets” of images.”

Why does it matter, even to the average parent? “…Social media is reshaping childhood, especially for girls, with direct parental encouragement and involvement.” We’re creating a culture where it’s OK to tolerate sexual harassment, to shrug it off because “men will be men”. Even if you don't have a "child influencer", if/when children eventually get on social media, this is the environment they'll witness. The concept of healthy boundaries goes out the window and minors are learning to tie their worth to online complements about their body.

What about boy influencers? This is also taking place with male child influencers, but at a much lower rate.

What is the Christian response? Prayer, discernment, hunger for guidance from the Holy Spirit when it comes to our children’s social media accounts. And also, a higher standard (for our sons and daughters) when it comes to teaching them that our bodies are God’s glorious creation, to be cared for as His temple, that intimacy is for marriage. And lastly, justice…in future issues we’ll share about ministries working to put an end to this type of marketplace and bringing healing to victims of abuse.

You can read the complete article here.

Short Reads, Big Gains

^{Quick write ups highlighting valuable content, habits, approaches, products, etc that can make a big impact when applied to your life.}

📱Do this with your smartphones, it will help your children & your eyes: Set it to black & white…it will make it less appealing, which means less screen time for you and (hopefully) less interest from your children.

Steps: Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters. Turn Color Filters toggle switch on > select Grayscale.

Note: To easily switch on/off from the grayscale: Settings > Control Center > Accessibility Shortcut (under “More Controls”). Now you’ll be able to toggle between full color & grayscale from your Control Center.

For Android: Open Quick Settings (using two-finger swipe from the top of screen) > Pen icon on lower left > drag Grayscale icon into the panel of icons.

🌅Envision your perfect morning…for you this may be:

Wake up before the kids → Personal hygiene → Prayer/Bible reading → Start breakfast (wow we’re being so ambitious!) → Greet the children as they wake and get them ready for the day → Eat breakfast → Family prayer…

You get the idea! NOW: Attempt this perfect morning and even if you accomplish 25% of this vision, isn’t that better than 0%? Yes…yes it is!

Adjust: Let’s say you only wake up early enough (before the kids) to wash your face → Take 5 minutes and engage in ACTS prayer while the kids are awake, then turn on some worship music and praise the Lord out loud while you carry on with your morning. Maybe later you can still enjoy a nice breakfast followed by family prayer. It’s all in the baby steps.

💻️ Remote Job Posting

Company: JetPubs Inc

Role: Remote Executive Assistant, PT (25 hrs)

Qualifications: Three years experience as an executive administrative assistant, senior executive assistant or in other secretarial position

Apply via The Mom Project, a seriously great online job board designed to help moms remain engaged in the workforce. Note: you’ll have to create an login to view the posting.

Things on the Internet We Liked

☕️Let’s Talk! There’s a person behind this email. Let’s chat! Have a prayer request? Is there anything you’d like to say in reply to this issues? Would you like you or your business to be featured here? Reach back out! All communication will remain confidential unless you give permission to publish it 🙂 Love, - Andrea

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👉️ Next Week: Bed-time routines (for adults), fighting Noro naturally…without the Pepto, and exploring the “Amazon video review” market through a Christian mama (she’s making $2k/month with 10 hrs < of work per month).

^{Please note: links don’t equal endorsements. We’ll always aim to link to wholesome sites, but we can’t control their ads, which frequently change. At the moment, none of our links are affiliate links}