Free Republic

A New Jersey bill requiring parental approval before a minor can join social media has garnered opposition… from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business. Last November, Democrat Herb Conaway introduced a bill that would require children in New Jersey to have parental approval to use social media, including required verification of the adult’s age. “We have to get a hold of this,” Conaway told NJ Advance Media at the time. “Everyone in our country should be alarmed in the rising prevalence of mental illness among our children. Much of it can be laid at the feet of social media....

An online trend that involves using tiny magnets as fake tongue piercings has led the NHS to call for them to be banned amid people swallowing them.Ingesting more than one of them can be life-threatening and cause significant damage within hours.In England, 65 children have required urgent surgery after swallowing magnets in the last three years.The NHS issued a patient safety alert earlier this month and is now calling for the small metal balls to be banned.It said the "neodymium or 'super strong' rare-earth magnets are sold as toys, decorative items and fake piercings, and are becoming increasingly popular".It added...

While there are many threats to religious liberty, few are more consequential over the long term than the state’s ever-expanding role in private life. If the government is able to vacuum up tax dollars, create programs large and small for public benefit, and then exclude religious individuals or institutions from those programs, it has functionally created two tiers of citizenship. Secular individuals and institutions enjoy full access to the government they fund, while religious individuals and institutions find themselves funding a government that overtly discriminates against them. That’s the issue the Supreme Court addressed today in Trinity Lutheran Church...

According to the Centers for Disease Control, drowning is the leading cause of death for kids 1-4 years old and is the second-leading cause of unintentional deaths for kids 1-14 years old. As many as 5,000 kids 14 years old and younger are hospitalized each year due to drowning-related incidents, 20 percent of whom suffer lifelong neurological disabilities. Wow. And Mr. Obama has worked overtime to convince Americans that kids are being slaughtered with guns.

These days, if a stuffed animal's plastic eye so much as wiggles, that toy is recalled faster than you can say "class action lawsuit." Back in the day, though, child safety consisted of just getting out of the way and letting natural selection do its thing. If a kid was too dumb to play with a toy the right way, well, he'd just have to learn to get along with one less eye.

The third Stranger Danger Alert in as many weeks went out in Metro Detroit. This week; it was the second in Sterling Heights. This happened Wednesday when a 13-year-old Sterling Heights girl was approached that morning by a male driving a blue SUV as she was walking to school. According to WDIV-Channel 4, the Sterling Heights police have notified parents after a second Stranger Danger incident has been reported in the city in the last month which has to have parents and the community to be thinking what else can be done. The answer to this dilemma might just be...

Jarred Harrell, 24, who had lived in Orange Park, Florida last year according to AP reports has been named a “person of interest” in the abduction and murder of 7-year-old Somer Thompson after he was arrested last week on federal child pornography charges. Somer’s body was found in a south Georgia landfill last October, and her suspected murderer is reportedly fighting...

Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation Thursday that is intended to give parents and guardians more information about potential problems at licensed child-care facilities. The bill by Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes, stemmed from the March 2004 drowning of Aryanna Sanchez in an above-ground spa at a Riverside day-care center. A social worker had cited the center's husband-wife operators at least once for leaving the spa uncovered. But Aryanna's mother, Anita Aguilar, never knew of the violation. Under AB 633, child-care centers are required to make available investigative reports and other paperwork, including evidence of the state's intent to pull a...

I've had requests to get this safety list out there. It's just some quick notes so any additions and comments are welcome. Admin can move it as they wish. Smith, who murdered Carlie Brucia, had once before been up on attempted kidnapping charges on a young woman. Miss Stinson escaped due to quick thinking.SARASOTA --- Stinson, who was 20 at the time, struggled, lost her footing and fell down, then offered Smith $50 to leave her alone. He jumped on top of her. "If you don't quit screaming, I'll cut you," Smith said, according to records. Smith pulled her up...

<p>PORTAGE COUNTY -- A mother traveling from Detroit to Pittsburgh got into trouble in Portage County while trying to drive and breastfeed her baby at the same time.</p> <p>Twenty-nine-year-old Catherine Donkers had fed the baby before she left Detroit but said her seven-month-old daughter was hungry again.</p> <p>"I knew I was doing nothing wrong when I was breastfeeding her," Donkers said.</p> <p>Donkers doesn't consider her actions excessively dangerous.</p>

<p>The Supreme Court struck down a law banning virtual child pornography Tuesday, ruling that the First Amendment protects pornography or other images that only appear to depict real children engaged in sex.</p> <p>The 6-3 ruling is a victory for both pornographers and artists such as moviemakers, who argued that a broad ban on simulated child sex could make it a crime to depict a sex scene like those in the recent movies "Traffic" or "Lolita."</p>

CHILD SAFETY TOPS AGENDA FOR NEW MEXICO GUN RIGHTS GROUP Group will focus on measures to reduce gun violence among children ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, July 2 – The New Mexico Gun Owner’s Forum unveiled today the group’s legislative agenda for the 2003 legislative session. Included at the top of the list are several measures designed to reduce the number of gun related injuries and deaths among children. “Data shows that children are vulnerable when it comes to accidental injury or death with firearms,” said David Ware, Founder of the Forum. “Our top priority is to reduce those numbers significantly through...