0:00:02 – Speaker 1
Welcome to the nextTalk podcast, where we share real stories and practical advice for parenting the digital world.
0:00:09 – Speaker 2
We’re your hosts, Mandy and Kim. Mandy is an award-winning author and the founder of nextTalk, and I’m the director of nextTalk, a nonprofit organization created to strengthen families through open communication. You can check out all of our resources at nextTalk.org.
0:00:24 – Speaker 1
We’re your wives, moms and friends, tackling culturally relevant topics from a Christian perspective. We’re sharing what we’ve learned and where we’ve failed. We’re so glad you’re here for this conversation. Hey guys, we have a very special guest on the show today. You guys know him as Officer Gomez B-O-G.
0:00:47 – Speaker 3
I feel like this should be intro music.
0:00:50 – Speaker 1
Right? Do you know that you’re kind of famous amongst parents, do you?
0:00:55 – Speaker 3
get that now. I live in a little bitty town in the mountains. We have 400 people, so it doesn’t feel that way all the time.
0:01:03 – Speaker 1
I love it. I love what you’re doing. I want you to tell our listeners who you are and what you do and what got you this O-G recognition that you have today.
0:01:15 – Speaker 3
So I started my life out as an electronics engineer working on semi-conductors.
I flew all around the world and one day I saw an ad in the paper for police officer and I wanted to be an adventurer. So I signed up to be a police officer. After three years on patrol they asked me to be a school resource officer at a middle school with 1200 students. So sixth, seventh, eighth grade 1200 students. When I got there I saw most of the problems were around social media, so I made a fake account to see what all the social media business was about. I made a fake account of a student at my own school. I friended 20 of the most popular kids. They all accepted me that day without asking me who I was and I never had to friend another kid. Within about three months I had about 500 kids that were my friends at my own school. Well, i started seeing all kinds of red flags. From that I would see that they were friends with sexual predators that we would arrest.
I could see bullying, i could see suicidal tendencies, i could see all kinds of things. So then I started educating my students, as well as their parents, on things to look out for, and I started coming up with my own rules and my own best practices. Like my best practices, like my very first rule for parents was no more than 200 friends on social media, on Facebook and this was 2013, when I became an SRO. Kids had four and five thousand friends on Facebook, right? So I mean, if I stop a bully today, you’re going to have, you know, 10 more tomorrow. So I said, hey, less than 200 friends on any social media platform keeps things honest and not so anonymous. And then my next one was a shoulder-plex policy. How could you tell if somebody was real? You’ve touched them on the shoulder. So when parents would call in my kids being bullied, i’m like all right let’s see.
0:02:47 – Speaker 2
Oh, they have you know 142 friends.
0:02:49 – Speaker 3
Let’s get them down to 200 friends first, right. So then that was a way that parents could start taking control of their kids’ social media. Then I became a school resource officer at a high school with 2,300 students, So it was my own little city there and I just started learning everything about kids. I started talking to them. We started, you know, building relationships with the kids.
At the same time, my wife and I were taking in high-risk teens in our home. All our kids are grown and out of the house, So we would take in very high-risk teens that have failed everywhere else and had nowhere to go. We would take them in our house on a voluntary basis. Hey, here’s our house. It’s open to you. Here’s the rules in our house. You’re welcome to come and stay as long as you abide by the rules. And some kids could abide by the rules for a couple days. Some kids could abide by the rules for a couple years. But when the kids left our house we would always tell them hey, look, we love you guys very much. You know what the rules are. You and your friends are welcome in our house anytime you want to abide by our rules.
0:03:44 – Speaker 2
And they weren’t anything crazy but high-risk teens.
0:03:47 – Speaker 3
A lot of them have never had rules in their life and you know, i say they don’t want to abide by the rules, but they just don’t know how to abide by the rules. It’s like caging up a wild animal Who’s been at free their whole life. Now you’re telling me look, you have to live within the confines of this box and it doesn’t matter how big that box is. They don’t want to do it. So we learned those things as we were going and how to better help kids and not take things so personal. It was hard for my wife, especially when kids, would you know, slip up or something. She would take it personal. But hey, look these kids, just they’re a bit broken.
We gotta help you know we gotta do everything we can, and a lot of that is giving them grace and Forgiving as much as we can and using lots of love.
0:04:24 – Speaker 1
Well, kids have a lot of stuff coming at them fast and then you add on the high risk teams that has haven’t had structure at home and it’s a it’s a lot. So it sounds like you’re tackling this from lots of different fronts. You started this Facebook page to educate parents and just put out there what you’re learning, which I love your post because they’re practical And their things we’ve been seeing on the front lines forever. You started this Facebook page and it just exploded. Right now you’re getting intel from all the other parents that are commenting below and giving you information.
0:04:55 – Speaker 3
Yes, so I started the Facebook page, started out kind of small. I do get some push back. You know some some parents push back because I had fake accounts. They thought I was spying on their kids, and I get some people that don’t like the way I talk. As a police officer, i don’t have to abide by the politically correct language as much as everybody else. Right, it’s like I carry a taser. I’ll say what I want. I kind of get that because I go to places where I have five minutes I’m going to spend with this family and I have to tell them quickly And so, overdoing that my Facebook posts are a little bit more blunt a little more raw than everybody else’s, because I’m going to say it how I see it, because that’s the only way we’re going to help.
If we, you know, if we kind of muddy the waters with politically correctness and, you know, not hurting people’s feelings, you can’t get the messages you need out. So I do get some pushback on my Facebook page, but for the most part it’s very positive. I get lots of people who help me. I get lots of people who send me things from all over the world hey, have you seen this, have you seen this other thing or this new software? and sometimes I have and sometimes I have it.
But then I can look and I’ve also met wonderful people who are also helping better the world in this internet age where everybody is behind on education of kids and adults.
0:06:10 – Speaker 2
I think that’s one of the things that is most important about what you do is because you are there every day with the kids and you see what’s actually happening. It’s not just hearsay all the time. You’re actually seeing how they’re responding, what they’re saying, how they’re acting, new things that they’re doing, and I don’t think a lot of parents think they want to often bury their head in the sand because it’s scary. I mean, things change every day. We really can’t keep up, and so a lot of times they just don’t want to deal with it, and so I almost think you have to be blunt and straightforward, like No, this is really happening, this is what your kids are up against.
0:06:45 – Speaker 3
So I think that’s really important, the way that you communicate those things yes, and since I’m here with the kids, i talk to them the way they talk. But it’s hard to imagine parents are inherently biased to their kids. You raised a baby from you know, you’ve changed diapers and now that baby is thirteen years old and sending out nude photos. It’s hard for me as a resource officer, i know the kids. It’s hard for me to imagine that, but I know it’s true because I take all the reports and I talk to the kids and so it’s hard.
You know I try and be. You know tell parents over and over again hey look, you gotta have these conversations early. These are the conversations you have to have and many parents are like, well, that’s not my kid, right, that’s, everybody else is good, but it’s not my kid. Because you’re biased towards your kid and that’s totally understandable, and I always give parents a lot of grace for that, because I was a parent as well, and even me at the school, not being an actual parent, young with the kids, i still have a hard time believing when you got eleven, twelve, thirteen year old boy or girl sending out nudes or talking about sex or Even having sex. Right, i have, you know, twelve and thirteen year olds Having sex. That’s unimaginable to me. Looking at the kids, i understand from parents view, but I try and be as real and honest as I can about these conversations that need to be had with kids.
0:07:55 – Speaker 1
Well, we always advocate that parents look for, to have a heads up parent in their life just to say this is what’s happening, this is what’s gonna be happening. And I think it’s really cool what you’ve done with your Facebook account because, like, you’ve become that heads up person for a lot of us. So, you know, you’ve got a lot of parents listening today And you’ve said I think one of the tips you’ve already said is never think your kid wouldn’t do it. never say, never write, don’t fall into that trap, don’t be naive. what else would you say to parents?
0:08:23 – Speaker 3
So when I’m talking to your kids, parents, you know I am talking to your kids in my office. They’re in trouble And I’m gonna give them some kind of consequence, whether it’s a legal conference consequence or a school consequence. I look your children in the eye and I tell them I am on your team and I want parents to tell you their kids the same thing and be on their team. Right, do the best you can, and sometimes that includes consequences. It includes love. It includes Being a good example. It includes spending time with those kids so that they can see what a good example looks like.
And I would tell them hey look, let’s talk about the ratio of social media time to parenting time. And if the ratio is really ugly, where they’re spending 20 times the amount of time on social media as they are being parented by you as a parent, guess what? Social media is your co parent. In fact, they are the main parent. Now, right, because now I’m talking to kids and I hate. What are your values? what are you worth? And they only know what they know from social media they don’t know what they know from their parents.
And, unfortunately, parenting has become very easy to give your kids a cell phone and social media and you can get everything done. You don’t even have to participate anymore. But being on your kids team is a big deal and i run into parents who are not on their kids team. Right, there’s some survival parents. Are some parents that Are on drugs? are some parents who you have?
gotten a divorce and have new boyfriends girlfriends who are no longer there for their kids. So now the school becomes their team partner. We try and help those parents. But there are kids like that. But be on your kids team and that’s more than just let me provide for you. That’s let’s have some conversations, let’s spend some time together, let’s show you how to love, let’s show you how to be a productive member of society together, right, and that’s something everybody can do and everybody needs a champion. I hope that’s the parents, but it’s not always a parent.
So at the school i preach to the teachers hey look, sometimes you’re gonna be the most important person in this kid’s life. The crossing guard, the grocery store owner will take anybody but parents. You are the best support they have. You don’t have to be rich, you don’t have to be any kind of status. All you have to do is be there and care. That’s, that’s what your kids need.
0:10:32 – Speaker 2
I love that so much because so often people think what you would say is you know, use this filter, make this rule, do this thing. And for you to say it’s really about the relationship that’s really in line with what we believe to like, that’s so important, that parents are on their team and Are having the hard conversations and digging into their culture and knowing what’s really going on with them. And for you, as a resource officer who’s probably sees the worst of the worst, i love that. That’s the first thing that you said. We asked you what you want parents to know.
0:11:02 – Speaker 3
Yes, and when i’m dealing with kids in a group and one of the kids doesn’t do the shenanigans at the other kids hey why didn’t you do this? What? because my family would be disappointed in me and in our family. We believe whatever they believe. that is the strongest thing that can happen. I rarely get a kid that doesn’t do something because, well, i don’t wanna get punished. Until you next year, i don’t wanna get my phone taken away. It’s usually, hey, we believe this, we live this, we are this right there.
0:11:27 – Speaker 1
Part of the family goes back to the family having values, whatever, what, like you said, whatever they are. but talking about those at home, the standards, the expectations, all of that kids need i mean adults need them to Kids, even more so when they’re growing up in a world where everything goes and everything is not posted in, shared and there’s no boundaries anymore with anything.
0:11:49 – Speaker 3
You know, i had a little story that got me on to this. I had a young lady who i knew very well, 11th grade girl, came into my office and she was very upset because, you know, third boyfriend in a row had dumped her after a couple weeks. And she says what am i doing wrong? And i asked what are you worth? and she had no idea. She says what do you mean by that question? so what are you worth? what are your values Choose? i don’t know. And so i gave her the assignment will go home.
Let’s say you have to marry somebody tomorrow. Tell me what their characteristics will be. And she came back with like three pages And i said okay, check box, all of the ones that you’re good at it, those that you would want your husband to have and how strong you would want them to be. So that’s unfair no, that’s exactly what you need to be, and so then i decided to ask a lot of other questions in a school of 2300 i start asking everybody.
And maybe one in a hundred kids can tell me that they had value, that they had self work, you know. And so what the kids were telling me was politics. Well, i believe in abortion, i believe in gender, this, i believe in crt, that right. So They think they’re worth all the politics they see on social media And they think they’re worth their beliefs, not worth their actions. And i always don’t get you’re worth your actions, not, not your beliefs. It’s good to believe in something, but then you have to back it up with the actions. The world in general doesn’t have values very much anymore, i tell parents i like.
0:13:05 – Speaker 1
What are your values at home? how do your kids know?
0:13:07 – Speaker 3
you tell them or do you show them?
0:13:09 – Speaker 1
i love that. It’s more than just talking about it but living it out. You know, like if you talk about integrity, are you modeling the integrity? I want to dive into some specific things that you mentioned recently on your facebook page, because you have so much good information out there. One of the things that sparked my interest was your foot picture post that you did recently, because i have a teenage daughter and i wrote about this in one of my books previously. But what i was seeing was this fetish of getting girls to take pictures of their feet and then it would evolve to something else and it was kind of just almost like a grooming desensitization of selling yourself for money. But your post went into great more detail about the cost of pictures and what their worth and all of that. So if you could just dive into that and give us some more information.
0:14:01 – Speaker 3
So everything about social media starts desensitizing your kids and it’s desensitizing them to a world of predators. Some predators are you have a small amount of predator and some have a big amount of predator in them. But as soon as you let your kid on social media, the grooming starts, whether you want it to or not. And, as kids see, especially a tiktok is like the king of grooming. They see Adults who are making lots of money by selling their naked pictures, are naked videos, and they see people that make money by modeling, by selling feet. Instagram is full of just lots of people that make money by selling pictures. So now what these predators do is they want to get kids desensitized to that, so they offer them money for pictures of their feet, and this does a couple things. Number one if they offer them money for pictures of their feet, it ensures that they have a digital account. Right now, a lot of kids don’t have a digital account until they get offered money for pictures of their feet. So when they send their foot picture, that the person says well, i don’t use cash, how can i pay you? we got Venmo, paypal, cash king, apple pay, whatever it is. That’s other than that child will go and get an account either from their parents, and a lot of times it’s super easy for them to get it from their parents. Hey, mom, dad, i need to get some money for something at school. Start me a PayPal account, start me a Venmo account, start me a whatever account. And then the child has a digital account. Once they have a digital account, we can start offering money for other things, you know, and we go to bra and panty pictures. We go to, you know, shorty, short pictures, but then we go to full nude pictures, to videos, and it’s very, very common, not only for them, but for all their classmates as well. So we not only desensitize them, but at the same time, we set them up to get paid for this. Now, the other thing I see is that we have digital pimps. Now, as soon as kids turn 18, they can get a bank account and they can be a digital pimp for the younger kids that want to sell pictures online. Same thing happened with vapes and alcohol and everything. When you get somebody that hits the legal age now, they sell to their younger classmates because they’re friends, they’re siblings, they’re whatever, but the naked picture thing on TikTok we are desensitizing people like none other.
Every challenge is either how badly can we hurt somebody, how close can we have to come to death, or what are your body parts worth? right? And I tell them that the plank challenge is a perfect example. You do the plank challenge. If you’re fully clothed, you get like 10 likes. Now you’re facing the camera. If you put a loose shirt people are looking right down your shirt you get 50,000 likes. Now you do it with no bra, you’re getting 500,000 likes. And because we’ve been sensitizing them from the age of six to be worth your likes, guess what kids feel like they’re worth something when they show a picture and they get 500,000 likes. And if you’re a girl, it’s super easy you are worth your body parts. If you’re a boy and you want to get those likes, you have to hit somebody over the head with a shovel, but with the feed picture we just start on multiple levels. We start grooming kids to be sex trafficked later on and you know, by being worth their body parts.
0:16:53 – Speaker 1
Well, and you know we even tell parents. You know you think of sex trafficked, as your kid is physically taken and sold into sex slavery, which obviously happens. We have to be concerned about that. But a lot of these kids are literally trafficked from your homes every night because they may have a pimp demanding that they do this, because they’re being held hostage or blackmailed with some nudes or whatever that they’ve already sent in this relationship. And so if we switch our mind and thinking, man, my kid could be trafficked under my roof in their bedroom because they’re kind of being held hostage to do this and their pimp’s collecting money for it, i mean, i think it kind of wakes us up to, wow, sex trafficking isn’t that thing that happens over there.
It can happen, like right here with me, and good, i mean, we see it. This is the other thing. We see it in good families, ones that are talking about character traits at the dinner table. Sometimes we’re talking about all the character traits but we’re not saying, hey, this is what’s happening, like clearly, how you just laid that out for us. To me, that needs to be a topic at the dinner table with your kids. If they have social media. That’s how parents need to be laying it out for their, their kids. So it’s very specific on what is happening.
0:17:59 – Speaker 3
The sex trafficking like you just talked about in good homes. I had a situation and you know this is where I have. The advantage is that I go and investigate real stories, real reports. So I had a girl at my school who I had a good relationship with. She said hey, my friend at a different school is in trouble. She is having to send naked pictures to a guy all the time and she’s been doing this for about nine months. He’s held her hostage to sending naked photos. And so I went to the other school and I talked to this girl and I could see the whole history of it. She had sent out an underwear picture to her boyfriend which got shared everywhere.
An adult male, who she didn’t know, contacted her and said hey look, i have this underwear picture of you. I’m going to send it to your church if you don’t send me a new naked photo. And she was very religious, from a very good family who loved her very much, but the embarrassment factor of her family and her church seeing that was worth everything. So then she sent a nude photo. So then two weeks later the guy says hey, i want you to send a video. And she said wow, i’ve sent you a nude photo. Yep, well, now your church will really see your nude photo. So then she sent a video. Well, it turned out, the guy actually had her meet him for dates And she was so embarrassed because she did come from a good family, she did go to church all the time.
And for nine months she lived in this nightmare scenario of being sex traffic from her own bedroom and parents had no idea, right? And of course, the parents were like, well, how come you didn’t tell us? Well, yeah, because she is embarrassed, and that’s what these predators are counting on. Is that kids are going to be embarrassed to tell their parents which they are.
0:19:27 – Speaker 1
I mean I even. I even say to my kids and I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but I even say to them even if you make a mistake, even if you send a bad picture, even if you do like I’m going to love you, just talk to me so we can figure it out together. We can figure out what’s going to happen together. Right, i just want to be your place, that you process all this stuff, and that’s the other thing. Even if they’re not doing it, they’re carrying the weight of their friends’ stories. So, like this sweet girl who came to you thank God she alerted you so you could go help this I mean, they’re carrying that. These kids are carrying these stories every day And the weight of that is so much.
0:20:06 – Speaker 3
Yes, And that’s where building the relationship as an SRO or a teacher or an admin, anybody can build those relationships with those kids And it is so important to have those relationships where somebody can trust you enough to come with to you with something like that. And there are, we have some fantastic people around that kids will trust because they know they’re honest. And kids can spot they call them fakes, right. Sometimes, hey, you’ve got a wonderful family. It’s like, well, my mom’s fake or my dad’s fake or my teacher’s fake, you know whoever it is. Kids know this pretty quickly, right? Adults don’t know that, kids know this, but kids can spot a fake a mile away.
0:20:41 – Speaker 2
So when the kid tells me somebody’s fake.
0:20:43 – Speaker 3
It’s like yep, i believe it.
0:20:45 – Speaker 2
A couple of things that came to mind when you were sharing that story. One of the things is that we heard recently from a dad who had lost his son And he said you know, a lot of times we’re thinking, you know, like Mandy said, it’s not my kid or my family, and he said it’s the kids who have something to lose often. You know they are involved in their church, they’re on the football team, you know they’re involved in things at school and they have a lot to lose And so that embarrassment factor is really high for them because they’re imagining their friends seeing them, they’re imagining their church family seeing their pictures. For parents. I think it’s really important for them to think of it through that filter. Your kids feel like they have everything to lose And then on the other side of that is the way that you explain that feed and the way that it progresses.
Parents need to say that to their kids and not assume that they know. This is what Mandy and I see all the time. Like I thought my kid would know not to send a nude photo. Like why do I have to say that And I’m sure you would agree with this You have to say that. You have to say all the things to your kids. They don’t know. This is their culture. They post everything. Yes.
0:21:49 – Speaker 3
And when I’m talking to kids especially, they’ve sent a naked photo you know, I get a 13, 14 year old that sent a naked photo. I always invite the parents down. They let’s talk about this with your kid And usually I’ll call the parents and like, hey, your kids sent a naked photo.
No, my kid would never do that. No, i’m not asking, i’m telling. But when they get there, i tell the parents. I said look, if you’re okay with it, i’m going to have an honest conversation with your kid about their naked picture in front of you, that way you guys know what I’m saying. We call the parents in and we sit down with the kid, and we have probably one of the first honest conversations there is.
And a lot of times especially if it’s a girl, i’ll ask her. All I’m like okay, let’s talk about what’s going to happen with that picture. You sent it to your boyfriend because you love him, and he sent you one and he said he’d never share it. But now it’s shared. So now, what do we think is going to happen? Right, some old guy is going to get ahold of it and they’re going to be masturbating to that picture of you, and that can happen for the rest of your life. And then some other person is going to come and they’re going to park outside our house because they have a naked picture of you and they’re going to look at your sister, they’re going to look at your mom, they’re going to follow you to school, they’re going to go to your volleyball games and look at you from the top tier of the bleachers. Right, you have to have conversations like that, because that’s what’s going to make the difference. And I said look, you send out a naked photo. It’s like getting a tattoo on your forehead. It will last the rest of your life And you can’t ease her off.
You can’t get it back. Trying to get that back from the internet is like trying to unscramble an egg. It can’t happen. So now let’s prepare. These are the things that we need to know. These are the things we need to do. These are the things. That’s how you’re going to be contacting the future.
Somebody’s going to send you an email. Hey, I see you’re going to get married in a week. What’s it worth to you if I don’t send?
your high school naked picture to your whole wedding party, right? So I have this disc conversation with the kids in front of the parents and you can tell the parents are a bit shocked, the kids a bit shocked, but those are the realities And that’s the exact thing that I’m worried about. I always tell the kids hey look, what police do to you for the illegality of sending out a naked photo is nothing compared to what these creepers are.
0:23:39 – Speaker 1
What these creepers are going to do, I love the bluntness and the non-political correctness of your answer there. What we are trying to do is get the parents to have that kind of conversation before the news are sent. What they often say to us is well, that’s too much information. And what I say to the parents is if they have social media, it’s not too much information. You say the words. You talk about the old man masturbating to your kids picture because we see that all day long. I mean, we’ve had kids that have received pictures on TikTok old man masturbating to their kids. We’ve seen it like over and over again. But parents are afraid to say that because they’re afraid they’re going to overexpose their kids. And my thing to the parents is if your kid is on social media, you can’t overexpose your kids. Say it. Say it. Say it because that’s what’s going to prevent them from making a really silly mistake like this that could. That could haunt them for years.
0:24:33 – Speaker 3
Yes, And I tell parents look if, with social media, your kids are being sexualized at NASCAR speeds while you’re having go-kart conversations.
0:24:40 – Speaker 1
Oh, i love that So good, that’s so good. Say it again, officer Gomez. Say it again.
0:24:46 – Speaker 3
Yeah, If your kid has social media. they are being sexualized by social media at NASCAR speeds while parents are having go-kart conversations.
0:24:54 – Speaker 1
That is gold. That is so accurate. All the dads listening are like yes and amen for that one.
0:25:02 – Speaker 3
Yeah. So I set the example of a conversation. When the parents come in, right, let’s talk to your kid, and when a kid is in trouble for anything, let’s show you an example of what this looks like And I’ll have a conversation with their kid, or sometimes I’ll even go to their house and I see a screaming match between father and daughter or mother and daughter, and I’m like stop doing that.
0:25:20 – Speaker 2
And then well, they won’t listen.
0:25:21 – Speaker 3
otherwise I’m like, let me show you, and as the kid starts screaming at me, i just get quieter, and I get quieter And pretty soon we’re having a conversation. I do this with adults too, and when I show up to domestic fights and somebody’s screaming at me, it’s like, hey, let’s get quieter, let’s get quieter And pretty soon we’re having a good conversation.
0:25:39 – Speaker 2
We need one of you in every school, or maybe 10.
0:25:43 – Speaker 1
Yes, yes, the work you’re doing is so great. There’s one more question that I want to ask. We had posted about some AI voice cloning like a ransom, and I think this actually happened to one of your students, and I wanted you to share that story because I think a lot of parents read it on our page and they’re like, oh great, that’s an article in New York, that’s really not going to happen in my school. Can you tell us about that?
0:26:05 – Speaker 3
Yes. So I’m in a little bitty town of 400 people And this is actually the second time this has happened to one of my students here. But one of my students in particular, mom, works in our town. We know mom very well And mom’s co-worker we know everybody in our town of 400 knows everybody. I got a call in my office from a co-worker of the mom that said hey, you know, is this kid in school? Yeah, i just saw them. Well, are you sure? Because there’s something weird happening, i’m like I’ll go look And it took me 30 seconds to go look. Yeah, have eyes on them. Well, we’re coming to the school right now And I can hear mom was frantic in the background. But then when we got to the school, mom comes in and gives her kid a hug and it lasts like five minutes And she’s crying. What’s going on? She goes. Well, somebody said that a drug deal had gone bad. They had my son in Boise and they were going to kill him unless I gave him a certain amount of money.
And she was still so shook up Even after I told her I had eyes on him as I’m talking. She still couldn’t believe it because she heard him yelling for help on the other end of the line. That’s how powerful that was. I had another person called it that the husband was telling the wife this is not real. And the wife’s like well, we got to pay it right now because we can’t take that chance with our son. I can hear him in the background No, do not pay it, do not pay it Right. So these things happen all the time.
0:27:18 – Speaker 2
But that is a powerful thing as a mom.
0:27:20 – Speaker 3
You get a call out of nowhere You’re going about your day and all of a sudden you hear some evil person say hey look, there’s a drug deal gone bad, we’re going to hurt your son or your daughter unless you pay us $2,000 in the next. You know they say 15 minutes or 10 minutes, so you don’t have any time to call and verify. This is your only opportunity. This is how you need to wire us money.
0:27:40 – Speaker 2
However, you need to wire money and that money is gone.
0:27:43 – Speaker 3
But that’s a super powerful thing And unless you’ve been in it as a mom or dad, you can’t understand the level of fear that is going to hit you when that happens.
0:27:53 – Speaker 1
Well, and I think we’re just scratching the surface on what AI and voice cloning and all this is going to do with our kids. It’s going to be a whole new level of predatory behavior that we see coming at it from all angles, from grooming I mean. We’re living this out in real time. One of the things we always tell parents is you know, we’re not expert. Nobody’s an expert in this, like we’re all learning as we go. That’s why sharing information is so important. Tech is changing every day, and so we got to be vigilant and we got to share the information, and that’s why we love what you’re doing. You are getting out there on the front line sharing the information and keep doing what you’re doing, man. Keep being our heads up Officer Gomez, out there in the front lines feeding us the information that you’re seeing, because it is so helpful.
0:28:39 – Speaker 3
Well, thank you guys as well for the help and the opportunity to share this with everybody. Every little bit helps right, And even if we get one or two parents to switch over and start paying attention, that’s one or two kids more than we had yesterday.
0:28:52 – Speaker 2
We really appreciate you. Thank you so much for what you’re doing and thanks for being on the show.
0:28:55 – Speaker 3
All right, thanks for having me. You ever want me back? Just let me know We got lots to talk about.
0:28:59 – Speaker 1
Thank you so much for joining us, listening and sharing our podcast. Because of you, this show is in the top 5% of over 2.9 million podcasts.
0:29:11 – Speaker 2
We have lots of resources for you, from counseling to live events. Or if you have a show idea or a question for our team, visit our website at nextTalk.org. We’d love to hear from you.
0:29:22 – Speaker 1
At nextTalk. We’re more than cyber parenting. It’s conversations to connect.
0:29:27 – Speaker 3
This podcast is not intended to replace the advice of a trained healthcare or legal professional, or to diagnose, treat or otherwise render expert advice regarding any type of medical, psychological or legal problem. Listeners are advised to consult a qualified expert for treatment.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
