Date: August 26, 2026
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Bonnie Gasper
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Bonnie Gasper is the chairman of Child Protection League. They educate the public and expose issues that harm children in our schools and in our culture.
Through the years, the U.S. Surgeon General has issued various warnings and advisories. Perhaps the one we’re most familiar with is the one on the use of tobacco and nicotine. The Surgeon General has also listed a warning on opioids along with addiction and substance abuse.
In more recent years such as 2021, we saw a warning on youth mental health, a warning in 2023 on “Social Media and Youth Mental Health,” and another warning that year on “Loneliness and Social Isolation.” In 2024 there was a warning on “Parents’ Mental Health and Well-Being,” in 2025 it was a warning on “Alcohol and Cancer Risk,” and now in 2026 a “Warning on the Harms of Screen use.”
In this latest report, Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr. indicated that, “…while screen use can have some benefits, the evidence of a range of risks to children’s overall mental and physical health is mounting. These negative outcomes are related to harmful use, including use by children with vulnerable medical conditions, along with the ubiquity of devices and features deliberately built into many tech platforms to promote ‘engagement,’ a positive sounding word that, for too many young people, is a path to addiction-like behavior.”
This broadcast looks more specifically at the numerous facets of this topic that Kennedy pointed to . For example, Bonnie mentioned how today’s modern devices promote “skimming.” This motivates users not to deeper learning, but instead to rely on simply looking things up on the internet. Such activity doesn’t train the mind to retain information as occurs through reading books.
Then there’s the harmful physical ramifications related to vision and social ramifications as well. In the latter case, digital devices are known to cause dating reluctance for boys and men, a phenomenon which Bonnie explains in detail.
Keep in mind, this is not a mere advisory, but a warning. There is hope, however, as Bonnie discusses a tool kit on how to protect children and adolescents.
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