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#1 Best Selling Author, Kristen Jenson, has written two children’s books that will help you start the conversation about pornography with your little kids. We discuss the books, why they’re important and the addictive and mental health challenges associated with porn.
#1 Best Selling Author, Kristen Jenson, has written two children’s books that will help you start the conversation about pornography with your little kids. We discuss the books, why they’re important and the addictive and mental health challenges associated with porn.
Kristen A. Jenson is the founder of Defend Young Minds® and the #1 bestselling author of Good Pictures Bad Pictures and Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr; both are read-aloud books to teach young children how to reject pornography. Her books have been translated in over a dozen languages and are now augmented by a Guidebook for Counseling Kids which supports child therapists and educators. Kristen and her team have developed a wide range of resources, including the Brain Defense Digital Safety curriculum, downloadable guides, and timely articles to help millions of parents raise empowered, resilient, screen-smart kids.
Kristen is a trusted guest on a variety of media platforms as she speaks up for defending children from pornography and all forms of sexual exploitation.
She has raised her strong voice at international conferences and symposiums such as the United Nations Civil Societies Conference, the American Association of Christian Counselors, and the National Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit. She has testified before the Washington State Senate Law and Justice Committee on the public health crisis of pornography and supported national legislation to protect kids online.
Kristen received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature and her master’s degree in Organizational Communication. She is a mother of three and grandmother of two, and currently lives with her husband and adorable dog in Washington State.
Company: Glen Cove Press LLC
Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Next Talk podcast. We are a nonprofit passionate about keeping kids safe online. We’re learning together how to navigate tech, culture and faith with our kids. Today we have Kristen Jensen with us. She is a best selling author, kristen. Welcome to the show. Thank you, mandy. It’s so good to be back here with you. Kristen, welcome to the show. Thank you, mandy. It’s so good to be back here with you. You’re not a stranger. We have known each other man almost eight to 10 years. We met at a conference. We were both really new to this line of work back then and it’s been really cool to see your books be such a resource for parents. I mean, I know when I found them, they were so fantastic. You’re the author of Good Pictures, Bad Pictures and everybody who’s listening is like, oh, this is the lady that Mandy’s always talking about. But I want you to take us back to why you wrote it, the backstory of what led you to write this book.
Speaker 2:
Yes, well, it was not in my my plans, not a life goal, but I met a mom of a large family, very faithful, and it turns out her 17 year old son was molesting his younger brothers and sisters, from the 14 year old down to the four year old, and it really had some very negative consequences, not only for him but for the family, and pornography was definitely involved in promoting that behavior. And so I talked to her late into the night, like 1.30 in the morning, and I just couldn’t get this thought out of my mind that they’re, you know, young children needed to be warned about this problem of pornography and what it can do to their minds. I went and looked. I thought, oh yeah, I’ll just go on online or on Amazon, whatever, I’ll find a book and I’ll get it for her. And I couldn’t find anything. And I thought this is ridiculous. There has to be a book. There has to be a read aloud book. There was all these books about body safety. Read a lab book. But you can, you know there was all these books about body safety. Right, I thought there’s gotta be a mind safety book, you know, uh, for digital dangers, um, but I couldn’t find it.
Speaker 2:
So I started like doing some research and and started educating myself. I mean, I already knew that pornography could be an addiction, but I didn’t know that children were being impacted at at the rate and at the seriousness that they were being impacted. So, yeah, that was the beginning of writing good pictures, bad pictures. I have a lot of help from a lot of other really smart people and that came out in 2014.
Speaker 2:
And then parents came to me and said, what about a book for younger children? And that was like I remember the first mom that asked me that after a presentation and she’s like what about for three-year-olds? And I’m like what? And then I looked around and so many three-year-olds are on tablets and iPads. And so we wrote Good Pictures, bad Pictures, junior for like three to seven. And then the original Good Pictures, bad Pictures, porn Proofing to Days Young Kids is for seven-ish to 11-ish. You know, it really depends on the child. I know parents that use it as a like a, even as a guideline for teens although there’s a lot more that teens need to know but just to begin conversations about the brain, about addiction and about some of the harms of pornography. So I’m so very grateful that I could provide a resource for parents in that way a resource for parents in that in that way.
Speaker 1:
Well, and what is so cool is I think I found year around 14 or 15, 2014 or 15, because my kid had been exposed to pornography through a conversation. You know, no phones were present and my thought was I’m never given her a phone, so I’m not going to have to worry about pornography. But then she got exposed to this graphic nature, this image in her mind that had been painted to her through a conversation, no screens present. And that was my moment where I was like, whether I get my kid a phone or not, I have to talk to her about pornography. And that’s when I started searching online for books and I found yours.
Speaker 1:
Didn’t know you back then and then I started using it in my home. It was a huge help for me just having that initial conversation of what do I even say in the beginning, and it got the dialogue happening, and so then I got to meet you and have you on the podcast and it’s just been a joy. And then Good Pictures Bad Pictures, junior. I mean you asked me to review this before it came out and I have a signed copy from the Miss Kristen Jensen on this one.
Speaker 2:
I think you’re listed in the back of the book too.
Speaker 1:
I think you are. That’s so funny. Your resources, I think they’ve. Just I knew how they helped me and that’s why I kept recommending them, because I thought this is going to be. And now my kids are 17 and 21. And I look back and I’m so thankful for the foundation that you helped me set in my home to talk to my kids about pornography. And of course, the conversation shifted in middle school and high school and I had to get more into the why behind the harmful effects of pornography, which I want to talk about today. But these were just instrumental and I just want to say thank you for the work that you have done.
Speaker 2:
I appreciate everything that you’ve done, not only for your own children, but for your, but for your audience and, um, you know we need about 10,000 more Mandis out there, and um, and so it’s, uh, it’s, it’s great because I know you’re inspiring so many, so many, not only helping but inspiring so many other parents to do this good work that you’re involved in.
Speaker 1:
Well, it takes courage and you’re so afraid that you’re going to say the wrong thing, and I think that’s where your books really helped me, because I didn’t want to overexpose my kids, but I knew I had to. What you say I’m going to quote you porn proof them. I knew I had to do that, whether they were going to have a phone or not, and so that’s really where your work really helped me engage in that conversation about this specific topic. So, parents of littles three and up, I want you to go get these books and start implementing them today. Kristen, I know sometimes you get some backlash. Do three-year-olds really need it? Can you speak into that?
Speaker 2:
Well, like I said, it was a parent that came to me and it was not just one, there were several. They came to me and said not just one, there were several. They came to me and said we need a need one for younger children. I’m like, okay, all right, back then I didn’t have, uh, grandchildren that were this age now I do. The problem is, is there’s so much access to pornography for even little children, um, getting on phones, getting on ipads, and oh, you’ve locked it down and there’s a way they find a way or they go to a friend’s house and get exposed. So I was asked to speak at an early childhood education conference a couple years ago to talk about the junior book, and also we have a wonderful play guide that goes with it that’s free to download. So when you get the book, look at the QR code, download that free guide and it’ll help you really improve upon and, like, make the book even more impactful with your children. So, anyway, I was going there to present this and kind of launch it and speak about it and before my second class, a woman came in and she said she was a teacher. And she said when I first saw that you were listed on this program. Like I was in shock why would we need your stuff? At a, you know, early childhood ed conference. But she said that I had this experience and it was someone close to her three-year-old girl who got into.
Speaker 2:
Uh, obviously she had access to some kind of a you know a device and she had seen, you know, our kids imitate, they imitate, they’re, they’re wired to imitate, and so she had seen, I’m sure, her, her mom, like recording things and making videos and all this stuff. So she used the device to make a video of her taking her clothes off. And so they’re like really worried when they saw this video. They’re like, oh my gosh, she’s being groomed. And they started looking into this. Then they found a video of her trying to have sex with the family pet.
Speaker 2:
This was not a grooming. They could never find a hands-on perpetrator. What they found was porn. Porn was the perpetrator and she had obviously been watching bestiality. So this is the thing you can’t control when your child is exposed to porn. I really hope it’s not until they’re way older, but you can’t like take that risk. They need to know, they need to have a heads up, they need to know exactly what to do when they see it, so even as young as three. And then the other beautiful thing about starting at this age is that it’s just normalized conversation, right? It’s just something you know that they are like oh yeah, we talk about this and it’s just one of the dangers, just like body safety or, um, you know, not crossing the street until you’ve looked both ways. All those kinds of skills that we’re teaching children need to start early, and probably earlier than you think. That’s why we have Good Pictures, bad Pictures, junior, and it’s become a number one bestseller along with the original book, and it’s just a beautiful, gentle way to begin these very protective conversations.
Speaker 1:
Well, and I know you wrote the books because you wanted to prevent. You wanted the kids to know the red flags of what to look for and I think for me that was great to educate my kids on that. But for me as a parent and I talk about this in my book it helped me to work on my parent filter. It helped me not to go crazy parent mode when they did start communicating to me that they were exposed to things, because I was also learning how to have this conversation without a lot of emotion and reaction. You know.
Speaker 2:
Mandy, in the back of this book there is a section notes to parents and caregivers and it talks. We have a whole section on how to respond and say exactly that, Right? So you may have a lot of mixed feelings but put a smile on your face and just say thank you for telling me. And we also have a guide called the smart plan. My kids saw porn Now what? I’m just looking at the title over here and guide called the smart plan. My kids saw porn Now what? I’m just looking at the title over here. And it’s a smart plan.
Speaker 2:
And the first step S is stay calm. So if you find that your kids come and tell you and you’re all freaked out, stay calm, go yell in your pillow, go talk to a friend or a spouse, work through your own emotions before you vomit them on your kid, right, just like, not to be graphic, but like you know, that’s kind of what we, we can do. Now, even if you do that, there are ways to kind of like repair some of that, of course, but so much better if you can stay calm. And I’m like I’m not a calm person, to be honest. I have anxiety issues, so I could see why people are like, ah, freak out.
Speaker 2:
But it’s so important to like, stay calm and then make a plan. And you know there’s some steps that we have in this guide that you can get on Defend Young Minds to just help you walk through, be prepared for what is going to happen. If you’ve done it right, if you’ve done it right, your kids will come and tell you and talk to you. If they never come and talk to you, it’s because they don’t feel comfortable, maybe, or they’re just. I’m not saying you’re a bad parent if they don’t come and talk to you. I’m just saying that it’s good if they come and talk to you, because then you can help them work through this.
Speaker 1:
Well, we always say it doesn’t feel like it’s a win, but it is a win when they confide in you, and I think just what you’re speaking into like if they don’t talk to you about anything, they’re not reporting things to you it’s it’s a red flag should go off in the parent’s brain that we need to do some work here on our relationship so that they feel safe with me. And we’ve all been there Like I’ve had to do that as well. I also wanted to say you know, I have had the overreaction, crazy parent mode response, and one thing that I have learned really well is if I say to my kid I’m so sorry that I had that response, I was mad that you’re growing up in a world that that’s on your app. It shouldn’t be and I’m mad about that and I’m still going to be mad about that. But I need you to know something like I’m not mad at you.
Speaker 1:
You did all the right things. You saw something on your screen and you were like oh, the right things. You saw something on your screen and you were like oh, this is, this is naked people on a screen, this is something I need to tell mom about. And you told me, and so I’m not mad at you you did all the right things but I am mad that you live in a world that this is happening, you know, and so making that distinction for them so they know why you had an overreaction, it almost helps repair the relationship and then maybe, like I’ve seen in my own kid, it kind of gets them frustrated with the world that they’re growing up in, that they have access to that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:
Well, porn is the enemy, not your kid Right, Porn is the enemy. So just keep that in mind, even though sometimes you’re just like what. I think that’s so true. And also sometimes when we make mistakes and we go and we work to repair them, that’s actually a good not that you want to make a mistake on purpose, but like that’s actually good modeling for your child when they become a parent. You know they, they see that you are willing to apologize, you are willing to say you know what? Can we do that over? Do over right, Can we do that over? Because I really didn’t mean to.
Speaker 2:
But again you’re going to have these feelings, You’re going to have anger, You’re going to maybe have shame or embarrassment, You’re going to be disappointed. Maybe there’s all these feelings that if you will deal with those first, then it’ll work out so much better for your relationship and trust. Because kids will test the waters. You know they’ll give you a little bit and then, if you don’t freak out, then they’ll give you a little bit more. You know they’re testing you. So, as you build that relationship, know that even the first little bit that they give you may not be the whole story, but they’re testing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, a lot of times too. I think kids will test with my friend did this, or my friend saw this when they were the actually the ones that did it, or to kind of see how you’re going to react to it. And so I just have to be careful about how you navigate that. Not no shaming, but just oh, they’re a kid that may not know or may not know how harmful it is. That kind of stuff, I think, is really helpful.
Speaker 1:
So we’ve got these books to talk with younger people and I’ve noticed in my own home again I said this before it was a launching pad to so many conversations through the years. And in fact, the good pictures, bad pictures, the one for the elementary age, six and up, that one I want you to explain to me, the emotional, I think it’s the thinking brain and the feeling brain. That, kristen, yes, it’s helped with pornography, but you know what else it’s helped with Teen attitude, dating, when they start feeling all the things. And I’m like you’re thinking with your feeling brain right now. Let’s move it to the thinking brain. That has been a launching pad to not only talk about porn but so many other topics drugs, trying, alcohol, like everything. Because you have you. It may feel right, it may feel good, but, logically, is this the right? Is this the right thing to do right now? So just summarize that just briefly what I’m talking about here thinking brain and feeling brain, and how you walk kids through, how to maneuver that in good pictures, bad pictures, the elementary version, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
So kids love to learn about their brain and when we say you have two brains, they’re like what? And so we do have these two major sections. Now this is very simplified, but what kids need to know is they have a very primitive feeling brain, and that brain you could also call it the wanting brain right, it’s the brain that is definitely trying to keep you alive, right, and it’s helping you with all kinds of feelings of hunger, thirst. You know drives right, and even your sexual drives right. So all of this your sexual drives right. So all of this we don’t really say that outright in the in the book, but all of these drives that that um, help to keep you alive.
Speaker 2:
Now, your thinking brain is really what makes us human. It’s that prefrontal cortex, that where we learn our values. We learn our um, we learn from our past mistakes. We learn to think of things like logically so how is that going? We learn to think about consequences, right, and we learn right from wrong. So If you know, in the book we say which, after we explain the two brains, we ask the question like which of these brains should be making your important decisions? Right, and it’s the thinking brain.
Speaker 2:
The thing about this is it’s the addiction of any kind. It puts the thinking brain in the driver’s seat. Now the feeling brain is making all the decisions and you’re bypassing that thinking brain in the driver’s seat. Now the feeling brain is making all the decisions and you’re bypassing that thinking brain. And you know what happens. When you bypass the thinking brain it shrinks. And they’ve tested this on MRIs and they’ve shown that anyone that’s an addict to anything, whether it’s substance or behavioral, they have a shrinkage in their prefrontal cortex in the gray matter. It’s well proven.
Speaker 2:
So it’s so important that we addiction proof our kids, because this world is awash in addiction, whether it’s screens, gambling, porn substances, fentanyl, whatever. We need to teach our kids how to addiction-proof their brain. And originally I was just going to write a book about addiction, right? But a good friend of mine convinced me. No, no, no, the porn thing. That’s where kids can get into an addiction easier, right? They’re not going to the corner store buying cigarettes and alcohol. We’re not going to let them do that. What they can get on and see porn, unfortunately, and we have not yet shut that down.
Speaker 2:
So, yes, the so important for them to understand in very simple ways, and it’s super powerful, like you said, which brain is in charge right now? And let’s move that from that feeling brain to the thinking brain. In the books we give kids a definition, a warning and a plan, and part of that plan is taking it from the feeling brain into the thinking brain. That’s a very important. It’s all like based on science and how the brain works, based on science and how the brain works. But if you can take that initial like whether it’s arousal, curiosity or whatever and then put it into the thinking brain and think about it and what you should do, and one of those steps is labeling it that’s pornography, right, and so so important for kids to understand their brains and have that defense, I love the science behind it and, like I said, it started out as a way to talk to my kids about porn, but it has translated into so many other things as they’ve gotten older and we’ve talked about screen addiction, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, all of it.
Speaker 1:
It goes back to that feeling bring, thinking bring that you outlined in this book. I also want to say it’s a science based, non non faith book. So I mean, honestly, I feel like it should be in every elementary school library in America, like that’s what I’ve been advocating for in Texas Get these books in in our school libraries. You know it’s so good to start that foundation. But I also want to talk about, like, how does pornography impact our mental health, our well-being? Because I know these kinds of conversations have been very important as my kids have gotten older, to explain that why behind it. You know they have the plan, they know thinking to feeling and all of that. But as a lot of their peers are watching it and getting educated by it and they may feel left out because they’re talking about it all the time, reinforcing the why, honey, there’s so many harmful effects of pornography, and so can we talk about that for a little bit here. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Well, you know, early on I would hear stories about people committing suicide because they could not stop and they hated themselves and it was ruining their marriage and whatever, or they were divorced and I thought, oh, that’s terrible. But like, where’s the science? Like, where are the studies? Well, now we have so many studies that are linking pornography use with poor mental health outcomes and in fact, I was just not too long ago at a conference and gave a presentation on mental health disorders and pornography. You know a review of that research and it’s all over the world. These studies come from all over the world, not just the United States, it’s Europe, it’s China, it’s, you know, australia. They’re all over the world.
Speaker 2:
Early intentional exposure to porn is associated with depression among youth. This was a longitudinal study out of China. There’s more suicide ideation and suicide attempts for frequent users. This was a study of kids ages 12 to 18 who are using internet porn, and it was in Korea. More kids are lonely. More people are lonely Report being lonely as they use pornography more, which is so true for all addictions. You may start drinking with your friends or doing drugs with your friends. You’re going to end up alone. It doesn’t last long with friends. It is something that will make you lonely. All addictions will. Porn is no exception. More depression, less self-worth is another study. This was done in the United States with college students. Porn users experience more negative mental and physical health. Even that was a study done, I think, in the US, in I believe that was in the Seattle area Users with problematic porn use scored significantly higher in obsessive, compulsive behavior, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety and paranoid ideation hostility, phobic anxiety and paranoid ideation.
Speaker 2:
As you go through all of these and these are just a sampling right of studies you see the impact on mental health. And when you talk to people who have struggled to get out you know I was just talking with a mom she goes yeah, I got into porn and she goes in the moment you think it’s going to distract you from. And that’s another thing these studies show is that kids use it for a distraction, like they’re having a negative emotion, and they know if they go and use porn and do the things associated with it, that they’ll be able to forget for a time their problems. But then, after they use it, she said I just felt like terrible, just horrible. You know, I hear a lot of people telling me this, and then I see the research.
Speaker 2:
So if we want our children to have good, positive mental health and to be successful and have successful relationships, we need to have these conversations, honest conversations. We’re not trying to scare them to death, but like they need to know, you know, they need to know what this can lead to and just like anything like I had, my own own dad was an alcoholic and it did not end well, and so and I know others that the first drink, that’s it right. So there’s always a spectrum of how quickly people can like get into this and how quickly they can get out of it, but it definitely is associated with poor mental health outcomes. That we want to, you know. We want our kids to have good mental health and porn is not going to help them in that regard.
Speaker 1:
It’s not a it’s not a positive thing for their life. I mean, yeah, and and and. Their brains just aren’t fully capable. Like they’re getting educated about sex through porn, which is often what we’re watching on a screen, is often rape or trauma or sexual abuse. Right, I mean that’s. We have studies on that right, showing what we’re actually watching trafficked victims on pornography.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely so. They’re getting a very toxic view of sex and when they’ve done studies and reports there’s I’m thinking of a report done in the UK where kids were like I don’t even want it If my parents are doing it like that, like I don’t know, I don’t ever want to have sex like some. Some people are just like turned off because they don’t, they don’t know, I don’t ever want to have sex like some. Some people are just like turned off because they don’t, they don’t want to do, they don’t want to.
Speaker 2:
The violence, the violence in porn, and the reason is the reasons become so violent. One of the reasons is because when you put sex and violence together, you get a bigger like rush of chemical brain chemicals and so it feeds into addiction. You’re always chasing the high. You can’t get it with the same old vanilla porn, so now it’s got to become this or more like you know. Uh, people get fetishes with certain kinds of porn. They spend hours and hours and hours looking just for that right clip that will arouse them and and it becomes such a time waster.
Speaker 2:
So there’s another thing. I mean it’s toxic. There are things they do in porn, very common things I will never, ever say, on a podcast. Not only that, but caught like, as far as cognitive development, the time that they waste it sucks them in. The time that they waste on porn, the time that they waste on screens even, is getting in the way of them developing normally and naturally. And so, again, we need to be, we need to warn kids about this so they have the facts. Mandy, they’re not going to be happy when they get older if they haven’t been warned and they’ve been pulled it. I’ve heard of many kids complaining that their parents never talk to them, so we need to do them a favor.
Speaker 1:
Well, and I think I think one thing too is just, you know, I would just, on a real practical thing, say to my kids look, when you see that, when you see that on a screen, you’re going to go to school tomorrow and you’re going to see people differently. And I don’t want that for you. I don’t want that You’re going to be thinking about what’s under that mini skirt or what’s under that those pair of shorts, instead of like seeing the person you know and that does something to your developing brain, like just making them aware that it makes you see the world differently. When you go to bed at night and close your eyes, you’re going to see different things.
Speaker 1:
You know, we talked a lot about the mental health stuff, but also and you and I have talked about this because I know, when I first started seeing this at Next Talk I mean I remember talking to you about this specifically at a conference I pulled you aside and I said is this like I’m seeing a lot of this? Are you seeing this? And it was the child on child sexual abuse stuff, because back then, when we were starting to see it early on, we didn’t have a ton of research to back it up, but it was like so many families were coming out of the woodwork after my event saying you know, I have an older boy or an older cousin with a younger boy younger and pornography is always involved here, and so that’s even another level of how it’s affecting their mental health. They’re literally experiencing trauma from sexual abuse that will take years to recover from.
Speaker 2:
Really quickly. We started hearing about this nine, 10 years ago and seeing that again, porn was a perpetrator, porn was causing kids to uh perpetrate on other kids even if they had never had a hands-on um abuser. I was at a uh child abuse conference uh this last year. But one thing that was interesting is that it used to be 40%, so we’d always quote this like 40% of child abuse is done by other children, minors right, child on child. Now it’s 70%, 70%, so in 10 years it’s gone up to 70%. What is driving that Really? Is there that many more perpetrators that are hands-on? I believe a big part of it is pornography is the perpetrator. They’re learning and kids are wired to imitate. That’s how they learn. We all know it. As parents, we see our kids imitate us, you know, and it can be funny, it can also be terrifying, but they do. If they see this, it’s just not a stretch to think that they can then go and perpetrate on another child and in their mind it’s just another form of play. But it’s a very harmful form of play.
Speaker 2:
I was on a plane going to a conference years a conference um years ago about this problem child on child Right and sitting next to me was a, a guy who was a pilot, a private pilot. He was going to his next job and he asked me what I was doing and we’re like, well, this is what I’m doing, this is where I’m going, it’s kind of heavy. And he just his face just fell and he, he’s probably like in his late thirties and he just said to me he goes. You know, that happened to me, that happened to me when I was a kid. He says I’m still not over it. Honestly, it can go for a lifetime. So it’s not just protecting your own children from sexual abuse and there is really actually I have so many stories and again, maybe this is another podcast but so many stories of children who their parents have read the book Good Pictures, Bad Pictures to them and it has saved them from a hands-on abuser because they recognized and reported the number one grooming toll, which is pornography. And I’ve got lots of stories about that where kids have just, you know, they went and reported and then they got away from a potential perpetrator, a child predator. But it will keep your child, help your child not to become again.
Speaker 2:
That child is also a victim. The perpetrators that are children. They’re also victims of pornography and I’ll tell you if you get in this situation. I don’t want to be scaring you, but I’m telling you depending. I’ve looked into this and we’ve written up about it on Defend Young Minds If you get into this situation, it depends on the laws in your state and it is something you really want to avoid at all costs. You know, don’t think that your child could never have this happen to them. Prepare them, talk to them so you don’t look at porn. You want to be safe from predators, but you also don’t want to be someone acting out like this on another child ever. We don’t want to raise a predator.
Speaker 1:
We don’t want to raise a predator. We don’t want to raise a predator, and I know they’re victims too if they’re kids. But we have to be careful about that. And it’s so important too that if it does happen in your home or your family, that steps are taken to report it, because the victim child needs to see that something is done too. And then it’s not right, and then you get into the different state laws there.
Speaker 2:
So we have some really good articles about this on Defend Young Minds. If you feel in your heart, you should just check it out, maybe for a friend, honestly, before you would report it or do anything like read up. Give yourself a few days to read up, because there are some things that you should be doing to help your own child and the child that was hurt. Both of them need help, both of them need counseling and there are some really good programs out there for kids that have offended on other children and so you can learn about them at Defend Young Minds. Okay, great.
Speaker 1:
You have all these research articles. Everything that we’ve talked about is at Defend Young Minds. That’s your website. I want to thank you for all the work that you’re doing. Do you have any other new upcoming projects that we need to be looking out for?
Speaker 2:
Yes, so we are. I am writing a book for girls. So good pictures, bad pictures for girls. Because, as you know, more and more girls are getting into it and they get into it in slightly different ways, and there’s a lot of body image issues with it which can lead to, you know, all kinds of other problems, and so we want to talk to them about objectification. We want to talk to them about some of the harms of pornography that’s in books, right? So pornography is not just pictures in a book, a video. It’s pictures that can be created in your mind through what you’re reading, and that’s just as harmful and addicting as the visual videos that often boys start with, but girls will often end up there, whether it’s videos, whether it’s anime porn, which is called hentai. You just want to make sure your girls because we have kind of been ignoring girls oh, they’re girls, they’re not going to be interested in this. It’s a boy problem. It’s not a boy problem, it’s not a girl problem, it’s a human problem. And so we’re writing, I’m writing a good pictures, bad pictures for girls.
Speaker 2:
I’m also preparing to pull together one for teens, like a conversations for teens, because we just get asked so much. You know how can I take this information from good pictures, bad pictures, and pump it up right and make it relevant for teens? So we’re working on that. So lots of good things coming out. It relevant for teens? So we’re working on that. So lots of good things coming out. So I will put in a shameless pitch to subscribe to Defend Young Minds and get our weekly newsletter, and you will be hearing all about these new projects coming out.
Speaker 1:
Well, Kristen, thanks for being here and taking time out of your busy schedule. Come back on our show and just thank you for all the work you continue to do. I’m very excited for your new projects coming out. Thank you, Mandy.
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