Cutting Off Your Parents Is Identity Politics, Not ‘Boundaries’

The practice of severing family often takes on an authoritarian tenor that presumes the adult child cutting contact is always right.

Good Men Are Hard To Find, So Why Are So Many Women Divorcing Them?

Divorcing a good man is not an act of bravery but an act of self-destruction that harms many others in the process.

Taking the fentanyl challenge: Whacked-out American junkies now big in Japan



The United States' fentanyl crisis is being mocked on the other side of the planet.

Videos with millions of views show Japanese content creators mimicking a bizarre and all-too-common sight in cities like San Francisco and New York: half-conscious drug addicts bent over sharply at the waist but somehow still standing.

'Japanese social media influencers are going viral for mocking America’s fentanyl addicts.'

Typically from the effects of heroin or fentanyl, this telltale folded posture has become known as the "fenty fold."

"Japanese social media influencers are going viral for mocking America’s fentanyl addicts who are often seen hunched over and flailing on the streets," one user wrote on X. An attached video that showed a young woman in Okinawa, Japan, hunched over has received more than 2.5 million views.

RELATED: How to win the opioid fight

Know when to fold 'em

On TikTok, similar videos have captions like "Bringing American culture to Japan" and show participants folding over in locations typical of American drug addicts, like a subway station. One such video has garnered over 1.2 million views.

Other videos take place in parking garages, city centers, and public parking lots. Most of the viral content uses a Japanese song labeled "Anime Girl," although the song is actually a combination of the songs titled "Don't Forget Me" by Schinya and "Sparkle" by Radwimps.

Cleaning up

Drug seizures have increased under the Trump administration, resulting in a slight increase from FY2024 versus FY2025.

However, if FY2026 continues on trend, there will be a significant jump in the amount of annual drugs seized (measured in pounds), according to CBP statistics.

RELATED: Mexico has cartel armies. Blue America has cartel politics.

Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

For example, in October 2025, approximately 51,500 pounds of drugs were seized by the federal government. In October 2024, that number was 40,700 and just 37,400 in October 2023 under President Biden.

Overdoses down

Fentanyl, however, represents one of the least confiscated drug types in terms of weight, likely due to its potency. Marijuana, methamphetamines, and cocaine are the most seized by weight, in that order.

At the same time, overdose deaths have significantly dropped in the United States between April 2024 and April 2025. There was a 24.5% decrease during that time period, the CDC reported. The number of overdoses peaked around August 2023 but have since been declining.

Some of the biggest decreases in overdoses have come in states like Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

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Kids have already found a way around Australia's new social media ban: Making faces



The liberal-dominated Australian parliament passed an amendment to its online safety legislation last year, imposing age restrictions for certain social media platforms.

As of Dec. 10, minors in the former penal colony are prohibited from using various platforms, including Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube — platforms that face potential fines exceeding $32 million should they fail to prevent kids from creating new accounts or from maintaining old accounts.

Australian kids were quick, however, to find a workaround: distorting their faces to appear older.

'They know how important it is to give kids more time to just be kids.'

Numerous minors revealed to the Telegraph that within minutes of the ban going into effect, they were able to get past their country's new age-verification technology by frowning at the camera.

Noah Jones, a 15-year-old boy from Sydney, indicated that he used his brother's ID card to rejoin Instagram after the app flagged him as looking too young.

Jones, whose mother supported his rebellion and characterized the law as "poor legislation," indicated that when Snapchat similarly prompted him to verify his age, "I just looked at [the camera], frowned a little bit, and it said I was over 16."

RELATED: App allegedly endangers ICE agents — now its creator is suing the Trump administration

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images.

Jones suggested to the Telegraph that some teens may alternatively seek out social media platforms the Australian government can't regulate or touch.

"Where do you think everyone's going to?" said Jones. "Straight to worse social media platforms — they're less regulated, and they're more dangerous."

Zarla Macdonald, a 14-year-old in Queensland, reportedly contemplated joining one such less-regulated app, Coverstar. However, she has so far managed to stay on TikTok and Snapchat because the age-verification software mistakenly concluded she was 20.

"You have to show your face, turn it to the side, open your mouth, like just show movement in your face," said Macdonald. "But it doesn't really work."

Besides fake IDs and frowning, some teens are apparently using stock images, makeup, masks, and fake mustaches to fool the age-verification tech. Others are alternatively using VPNs and their parents' accounts to get on social media.

The social media ban went into effect months after a government-commissioned study determined on the basis of a nationally representative survey of 2,629 kids ages 10 to 15 that:

  • 71% had encountered content online associated with harm;
  • 52% had been cyberbullied;
  • 25% had experienced online "hate";
  • 24% had experienced online sexual harassment;
  • 23% had experienced non-consensual tracking, monitoring, or harassment;
  • 14% had experienced online grooming-type behavior; and
  • 8% experienced image-based abuse.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement on Wednesday, "Parents, teachers, and students are backing in our social media ban for under-16s. Because they know how important it is to give kids more time to just be kids — without algorithms, endless feeds and online harm. This is about giving children a safer childhood and parents more peace of mind."

The picture accompanying his statement featured a girl who in that moment expressed opposition to the ban.

The student in Albanese's poorly chosen photo is hardly the only opponent to the law.

Reddit filed a lawsuit on Friday in Australia's High Court seeking to overturn the ban. The U.S.-based company argued that the ban should be invalidated because it interfered with free political speech implied by Australia's constitution, reported Reuters.

Australian Health Minister Mark Butler suggested Reddit was not suing to protect young Aussies' right to political speech but rather to protect profits.

"It is action we saw time and time again by Big Tobacco against tobacco control, and we are seeing it now by some social media or Big Tech giant," said Butler.

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Australia BANS key social media apps for kids under 16 — and platforms must enforce the rule



Australia will put the onus on social media platforms to limit access to children under 16 years old.

The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 amended Australia's reigning online safety measures and gave social media companies time to age‐restrict their platforms and "take reasonable steps to prevent Australian under 16s from having account[s]."

'No Australian will be compelled to use government identification.'

Officially taking effect on December 10, the ban includes Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, X, and YouTube's general platform; YouTube Kids and WhatsApp do not meet the criteria for the ban.

Australia introduced its social media minimum-age framework that included a list of criteria that would result in a platform being banned for those under 16. This included if a platform's sole purpose, or "significant purpose," is to "enable online social interaction between two or more end‐users."

Or if the service "allows end‐users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end‐users" and "allows end‐users to post material on the service" and "meets such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules," it will not be available for younger Australians.

The legislation can also specify certain platforms, or classes, to not include in the ban.

Social media platforms will be responsible for enforcement, and neither children nor their parents will face punishment should they gain access. Companies face fines of up to $32 million USD or just under $50 million in Australian dollars.

RELATED: How Texas slammed the gate on Big Tech’s censorship stampede

Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images

The government further defined the requirements placed upon the platforms, adding that they must "take reasonable steps to prevent" those under 16 from having accounts.

The legislation also specified that "no Australian will be compelled to use government identification (including Digital ID) to prove their age online" and that platforms must offer reasonable alternatives to its users.

According to the BBC, other countries are hot on Australia's tail in terms of implementing their own similar bans. This includes the French government, which has begun a parliamentary inquiry into banning children under 15 years old from social media, while also implementing a "digital curfew" for those between 15 and 18.

The Spanish government has also drafted a law that would require parental consent for children under 16 to access social media.

RELATED: Conservative influencers promote Qatar as a desert paradise — but are they lying?

Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images

Ruling left-wing Labour Party official Anika Wells, who serves as Australia's communications minister (and minister of sport), said that the ban is not "perfect" and is going to "look a bit untidy on the way through."

"Big reforms always do," she added.

Australians under 16 will still be able to access content that is available on a website without being logged in or being a member, as there is virtually no way to prevent that without restricting access to the internet entirely.

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Confirming Covid Jabs Killed Kids Reinforces Gen Z’s Distrust Of Government

American teenagers have a fractured relationship with the federal government, one that may never be healed.

Brave New Words

A book promising to explain the cynical, attention-grabbing tricks of social media while casting an adoring eye on the linguistic novelties of Reddit, Facebook, TikTok, X, and so on, aims to perform a worthy public service. It looks to expose the hidden dynamics of online culture while giving benighted readers a chance to know the linguistic progeny of young influencers. That is before, in all likelihood, taking a hard pass on their slangmaxxing.

The post Brave New Words appeared first on .

Meta had 17-STRIKE policy for sex traffickers, ex-employee says



A former safety lead for one of Mark Zuckerberg's social media apps alleged the company is not very strict when it comes to those who engaged in human trafficking.

The claim comes from a plaintiff's brief filed as part of a lawsuit against Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. The lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California alleges that the social apps "relentlessly" pursued growth at all costs and "recklessly" ignored the impacts their products have on the mental health of children.

'You could incur 16 violations for prostitution and sexual solicitation.'

Vaishnavi Jayakumar, Instagram's former head of safety and well-being, testified that she was shocked when she learned Meta had a "17x" strike policy toward those who reportedly engaged in "trafficking of humans for sex."

"You could incur 16 violations for prostitution and sexual solicitation, and upon the 17th violation, your account would be suspended," Jayakumar claimed. The former employee also said that she considered it to be a "very, very high strike threshold" in comparison to the rest of the industry and that internal documentation from Meta corroborated her claim.

As Time reported, plaintiffs in the case claim that Jayakumar raised the issue in 2020 but was told it was too difficult to address. This reportedly came at the same time it was allegedly much easier to report users for violations surrounding spam, "intellectual property violation," and the "promotion of firearms."

In a statement, Meta strongly denied the claims.

RELATED: Florida attorney general announces lawsuit against Snapchat for allegedly empowering child predators

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"We strongly disagree with these allegations, which rely on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions in an attempt to present a deliberately misleading picture," a Meta spokesperson told Time.

"The full record will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched issues that matter most, and made real changes to protect teens — like introducing Teen Accounts with built-in protections and providing parents with controls to manage their teens' experiences. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we stand by our record."

Still, the lawsuit claims Meta was aware of the harms its platforms caused and even knew about millions of adults who were trying to contact minors through its apps.

Moreover, the lawsuit also alleges that Meta halted internal research that would have shown those who stopped using Facebook became less depressed or anxious, NBC News reported.

The study, reportedly titled Project Mercury, was allegedly initiated in 2019 as a way to help "explore the impact" that Meta apps have on "polarization, news consumption, well-being, and daily social interactions."

RELATED: Blaze News investigates: Is social media really a 'breeding ground for predators' — or are we worrying too much?

Additionally, the lawsuit compares the social media sites to "tobacco," likening the platforms to cigarette companies marketing their products to kids.

A Google spokesperson said the lawsuit "fundamentally misunderstand how YouTube works and the allegations are simply not true."

"YouTube is a streaming service where people come to watch everything from live sports to podcasts to their favorite creators, primarily on TV screens, not a social network where people go to catch up with friends," the Google spokesperson stated. "We've also developed dedicated tools for young people, guided by child safety experts, that give families control."

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'Biggest F—ing Babies in the World': Activist-Turned-Congressional Candidate Cameron Kasky Bashes 'Stupid' White Boys

Cameron Kasky, a former gun-control activist now running in the Democratic primary for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D., N.Y.) congressional seat, declared "shortsighted" and "stupid" "white boys" responsible for President Donald Trump’s victory last November in a TikTok video posted soon after the election.

The post 'Biggest F—ing Babies in the World': Activist-Turned-Congressional Candidate Cameron Kasky Bashes 'Stupid' White Boys appeared first on .