Within one minute look at culture from a Christian worldview, I'm John Stone Street with a point.

According to a report in the New York Times, there's been a dramatic increase in mental

health issues for teenagers in recent years.

Analyzing over 4 million pediatric hospitalizations, researchers at Dartmouth found that between

2009 and 2019, mental health hospitalizations increased by 25.8% and cost 1.37 billion.

While other forms of psychiatric distress decrease, hospitalizations of children for suicide

have increased by astounding 163% in the last 11 years.

According to psychologist Dr. Gene Twangy, these issues began to crescendo in 2012 when

the percentage of Americans that own smartphones surpassed 50%.

Protecting children online means taking seriously both the messages and the medium.

The message is preach ideas.

The medium assumes ideas, and together, kids are being taught that they're not good enough,

and they also have nowhere to look but inside themselves.

They're disconnected from legitimate sources of authority, even from each other.

Simply put, the kids just aren't okay, and phones are a big part of the problem.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with a Point.