Walker Wildmon: Ministry of preborn helps rescue babies from abortion
>> Walker Wildmon: In many ways, abortion was on the ballot this past election and there's reason for concern. There are many counties, cities and states who have radicalized abortion. And thousands of tiny babies will continue to lose their lives every day. Which is why the Ministry of preborn is on the front lines for at risk babies and mothers with unplanned pregnancies. Preborn sponsors clinics positioned in the highest abortion areas in the country. By providing them with resources that they need to rescue babies, PreBorn continues to expand their life affirming care. Their end of year goal is to equip 10 more clinics with ultrasound machines. These life saving machines cost $15,000 each, more than most clinics can afford. When a woman meets her baby on ultrasound, she is twice as likely to choose life. And when she comes to a preborn clinic, she will also be embraced with God's love. $28 sponsors one ultrasound. And now through a match, your gift is doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate just dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 and say the keyword baby dot or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating. We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage.
>> Walker Wildmon: To speak truth to live out your free speech.
>> Walker Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope. This is at the core on American family Radio. Welcome to the core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us today on the program. Walker Wildmon here, American family Radio. At the core is the name of the program and we're delighted to be with you this post Thanksgiving broadcast hope everyone had a joyful and thankful Thanksgiving, one of our several holidays as a nation that is not made possible without Christianity and without the Bible. And our first Thanksgiving as a nation some several hundred years ago was called because of our founding fathers and specifically the pilgrims, their gratefulness for God's blessing and providence in the early colonies. And that's where Thanksgiving began and we're still celebrating it several hundred years later. And of course Christmas and Easter etc. Not made possible without God, without Christianity.
Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman about living water
All right, let's speaking of that, let's turn our attention to the scriptures. John chapter four is where we are this week. Verse 13. Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman about living water. And Jesus answered in verse 13 and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst. Again talking about literal water, verse 14. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. And so the truth here that we can learn from this passage is that it is Jesus that brings about living water. Jesus is the only one that brings in us living water. That's John chapter four. Looking specifically at verses 13 and 14.
American Family Radio is partnering with Medishare for health care sharing
All right, I want to make sure I mention Medishare because we've been partnering with Medishare for many years here on American Family Radio. And as this season of open enrollment, has now officially begun, heading into the new year, Medishare is a great option. They've been around since 1993. They're one of the largest Christian, health sharing ministries in existence. And obviously they're Christ centered, for believers to share each other's health cost. And so Medishare is ironically Medishare has open enrollment year round but many of you are looking at your employer plans or looking at various options for the new year for health insurance. And so we want to be sure to mention Medashare. Their website is Meda MD M E D I share.com Medashare.com you can check out all the information there. And as I mentioned their open enrollment is year round so you can join Medishare at any time. but for those of you who are have other plans that do have specific enrollment periods, this is a good option for you to be aware of. Metashare M E D I S H a r e medashare.com go there and check out what they have to offer. You can get a quote in just a couple minutes by keying in your information and how many family members you have, etc. And then everything I've heard, I'm not specifically enrolled in Medishare, but everything that I've heard from people who are, that I know is very positive. Anyone that I know, everyone that I know who's entered the health care sharing model, whether it's Medishare or others, I've heard very good things about it. And so Medishare.com go ahead and check that out if you're interested. I promised them that I would talk about that briefly and Then our, tours, our Wildmon group tours for 20, 26 are now available. Both Boston, Washington and Williamsburg. All three of those are open for registration. And so if you're planning your trips next year and your vacation time, go ahead and check out all of those tour dates [email protected]. all right, let's, talk some of the stories. I want to get to this segment.
Stephen Miller: The problem with illegal immigration is far from fixed
The, issue of immigration is back in the headlines now with the tragic, tragic murder of, one National Guardsman. Another one is in critical condition in the hospital in Washington, D.C. this happened late last week on the eve of Thanksgiving. And the, murderer, the alleged murderer, is an Afghan national that flew over under President Biden's refugee program after the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. And so, but his, his, His. His permit, if you will, had expired. So he was in the country illegally at the time of the murder, the. The alleged murder that he committed. And, But this has brought about the whole topic of immigration and what happened under President Biden. And I want to, play clip three here. This is a pretty. This is a pretty, This is a lot to take in here. Let me just say that. But this is Stephen Miller talking about the, disaster that was immigration under Joe Biden and how our country was just flooded with bad people and people that we don't know, and now we're suffering the consequences of it.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is clip three, is it, for your audience? Perfectly, Sean. This was not a loophole. The Biden administration, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas devised a scheme to fly illegal aliens into the country and then to escort them en masse across the border by the millions, and to give them something known as parole. Parole, which gives them a work permit, which gives them a social, which gives them a Social Security number, which gives them access to the voting booth. This was the plan all along to get them here illegally so they can get free government benefits, get hooked to welfare, and be able to participate in American elections. This was an attack on democracy by the Democrat Party, is the same attack that we see, Sean, when you have California, a sanctuary state that is refusing to turn over even illegal alien criminals and gang members to ice. So these are illegal aliens in California who have been arrested by California police, by California law enforcement, for serious crimes, for crimes against children, for felonies, for crimes that threaten public safety. And they are refusing to hand these criminal illegal aliens over to ice. Instead, they're freeing them back into the cities to offend and offend again. By any definition, what California is Doing is criminal. It is a violation of our laws. It is one of the most heinous things that I have seen.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, that's Stephen Miller. And there's no, there's no mincing words with Stephen Miller. There's no mincing words of Stephen Miller. But the point here is that, is that this problem is far from fixed. And that's kind of the point I want to drive home, is that even under 10 months of, which is what we've roughly been under 10 months of, TRUMP policies of mass deportations, of which they've been doing a pretty good job at, although the numbers need to go up, the problem's nowhere fixed. Because when you look at the sheer number of illegal immigrants that have been allowed into our country over the last, let's say, 10 to 20 years, it's tens of millions. It's tens of millions. And I'm not a believer of the 20 million figure just under Biden that some have been mentioning. some actually in the Trump administration have been mentioning that number. I, just don't think that happened. I think it was more than what they told us. But 20 million is quite a stretch. but what I will tell you is that the cumulative number over the last 20 years, I believe is far above what we're being told. And I've voiced skepticism on these numbers for a long time. But when you look at the Pew Research data. They were telling us, and let's just go back to.07, we were being told in 2007, under Barack Obama that there was about 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. Totally unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. Now, here's what Pew is saying now. Well, this, this is just released, but it's looking at 2023 numbers at the peak of President Biden allowing millions of illegals into our country. All right. According TO Pew, in 2023, they say that there's an estimated 14 million illegal immigrants in the country. All right, so let me get this right. So according to Pew's data, during roughly a 15 to 16 year period from 2007 to. To 2023, you want me to believe that there was only a net increase of roughly 2 million illegal immigrants. When under Joe Biden alone, he was letting in at least roughly 2 million per year under Joe Biden. And so this is why the numbers are unbelievable. The conservative numbers of, well, we've only got about 14 million illegal immigrants in the country. No, no, no, no, no. Y' all have been saying that for decades. Y' all have been saying 10 to 14 million for at least two decades. So the question is, how long can you keep telling me when you're letting in 1 to 2 million a year, can you keep giving me these same numbers? It just doesn't add up. And so I firmly believe that we've got 20 to 30 million minimum illegal immigrants in this country, just purely based off the number of illegal entries. And once again, these are the number of illegal entries that we are aware of. These are the apprehensions and releases into the country that have been given a court date and never shown up. and then you add in the deportation numbers. We're at 20 to 30 million minimum, illegal immigrants in this country. President Trump has reported self deportation numbers of roughly 2 million, and then another several hundred thousand forced deportations just over the last 10 months, which is moving in the right direction. So the reason I bring this up is to drive home the point that we are far from having this problem fixed. We are millions and millions of deportations away from putting a dent into the problem of illegal immigration. And then you can tether this problem to the economy. But by looking at the strain, that illegal immigration is on all of our services in our economy, specifically our government services. The number of illegal immigrants on welfare and all kinds of other benefits and programs, then you add in the emergency services, strain of illegal immigrants showing up in emergency rooms that don't have insurance, illegal, illegal immigrants calling 911 and needing law enforcement involvement, fire department services, all these government services that illegal immigrants have access to without paying into the system via taxes. That's a problem as well. Then you get into the housing side, and Vice President Vance has mentioned this, the number of illegal immigrants using up housing, whether it's rental properties or homes, whatever you're looking at there, that's a problem as well. And you can't tell me that that's not going to help alleviate the housing shortage. We've got 20 to 30 million illegal immigrants in the country and they've got to have somewhere to live. So it just naturally, when you do mass deportations, it is naturally going to help relieve some, maybe not all, of the housing shortage problem that we have in this country. And the good news is rental prices is actually coming down pretty drastically, on the rental side of things, from a housing perspective. So that's a good thing. Maybe that's in part because of the mass deportations, over the last 10 months. But the problem of illegal immigration, even without the tragedy in Washington, D.C. with the National Guardsmen, the two of them being shot this is still a major news story that President Trump is working on aggressively that they need to lean into. The ramifications and the alleviation, really, of a lot of the strain on our system can be fixed through mass deportations. They must continue full speed ahead. We'll be back.
American Family association is planning spiritual heritage tours for 2026
>> Tim Wildmon: Hello, everyone. I'm M. Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. A vacation with a purpose. That's what we call our tours here at American Family Radio. American Family association, because we go and we see and we do, and we have great fellowship and fun and food. But we also, we also have a purpose in visiting the places we go to. A spiritual purpose, a historical purpose, and that's going to include our tours in 2026. Here are the tours. We're going to Washington, D.C. we're going to George Washington's Mount Vernon. We're going to Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. We're going to Boston, Massachusetts. So if you want information on any of those tours for 2026 that don't dates, the prices, the itinerary, go to this website, wildmangroup.com w I l-m m o n group.com and we hope to see you on one of our 2026 spiritual heritage tours.
>> Walker Wildmon: At the Core. Podcasts are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
Walker is the director of the American Family Association charitable gift annuity
Welcome, back to the core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on today's edition of the program. I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving with family and friends. And speaking of family, my sister is in with me. Wriley is with me. Wriley, welcome to the program.
>> Wriley Wildmon: Thank you for having me. Walker.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes. You are the director of the AFA foundation, and I bring in sometimes, but not enough, clearly. Well, this.
>> Wriley Wildmon: This morning, I was, like, reaching out to y', all, and I was like, hey, you wanna have me on? And then Bobby over here said, today. Bobby's like, yes, that Bobby over here said, 120.
>> Walker Wildmon: I said, okay, 120.
>> Wriley Wildmon: I'll be there.
>> Walker Wildmon: You were thinking, like, next week or the next week?
>> Wriley Wildmon: Right, Right.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. Well, family is a priority. So my sister comes in and says, hey, can I be on? Absolutely, you can be on. Hey. No, seriously, Wriley, the AFA foundation has a lot of different offerings as far as ways to give to the ministry here. one of the most known and the most utilized is the Charitable Gift Annuity. So give our folks a little bit of background on the cga.
>> Wriley Wildmon: Okay. The Charitable Gift Annuity, Walker. CGA is just a outright gift. To the ministry. The minimum amount to fund the gift annuity is $2,000 or anything above that to give to American Family Association. And our donors receive a permanent income coming back to them for the rest their life. And when they pass away, it's a gift back to American Family Association. So it's a win win. You, while they're living, you receive income, permanent income for their life. And then when they pass away, it's a gift back to American Family Association. That is a charitable gift annuity.
>> Walker Wildmon: Let me ask you this. I've always been curious. What's the, what would you say is the average. And I love asking questions that I don't tell you I'm going to ask.
>> Wriley Wildmon: That's okay.
>> Walker Wildmon: So we'll see how it goes. Okay. What, what is the average, deferment. When do people usually like to start receiving the payments for the. From the annuity.
>> Wriley Wildmon: From the annuity. So it kind of varies. But a lot of people, we have what they call a flexible deferred gift annuity, which means Walker, where, somebody between ages 65 and 75 in between that 10 year span, can let us know when they want to receive the income. That makes sense.
>> Walker Wildmon: So, so sometime during that 10 year window they can let you know?
>> Wriley Wildmon: Correct. So if somebody calls today and they're 55 years old, I would say, about 90% of the time they, hey, I want to defer the income. And we say, okay, well you can receive the income anywhere between 65 and 75 or sometimes it's just a five year 65 to 70. So the longer they wait to defer the income or receive the income, the higher the rate of return is. So we always kind of suggest people to, the longer they wait to receive the income, the higher the rate is.
>> Walker Wildmon: So the charitable gift annuity, is part of your retirement planning? for most people, the vast majority of people, it's part of their retirement planning. Secondly, Wriley, charitable gift annuity, the annuitant, gets a tax deduction on the year the CGA is set up. Is that correct?
>> Wriley Wildmon: That is correct. So that's why I wanted to kind of come on the program and stuff. For 2025, you have up until really, we like to say December 18th, but we'll take it all the way as December 31st or the December 30th. But December 18th, we would like for everybody that want to do a charitable gift annuity or stock or an outright gift, we would love for everybody to do that before December 18th, just so we can get everything and processed and, before 2025.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And part of this is paperwork, right? And you have to send agreements back and forth and, and work with the banks, etc. So the sooner folks start this in December, the better. It gives you guys time to get it done before January 1st. so there you have it, folks. Charitable, gift annuity. That's the primary offering of the AFA Foundation. Of course, they help with other things as well, such as putting AFA in your will. another, thing that I want to mention, Wriley, is an outright stock gift. So a lot of people do this, and what it is. It is what it is. what it's explained as. And that's an outright stock gift. So if you own appreciated stock and you would like to, cash it out, if you will, so to speak, then you can donate that stock to the ministry and then get a tax deduction based on the amount donated, correct?
>> Wriley Wildmon: That is correct. So you can do it one or two ways, Walker. Like you were mentioning. You can do an outright gift of stock where they receive a full hundred percent tax deduction for, giving that to American Family Association. In fact, over Thanksgiving break, we've had up to five or six people already. give, an outright gift of stock to the ministry, like you said, for an outright gift of 100% tax deduction. But mentioning the charitable gift annuity, they can also, give a gift of stock to fund a charitable gift annuity. So I just kind of wanted to plug that in both. They can do a charitable gift annuity through the stock, or they can do, like you mentioned, Walker, outright gift donation to American Family association with stock.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. So if you want to benefit from the donation down the road, then you do a stock.
>> Wriley Wildmon: Ah.
>> Walker Wildmon: To CGA conversion.
>> Wriley Wildmon: Correct.
>> Walker Wildmon: And turn it into permanent income down the road. Excellent.
Walker: Tell our folks your website and how they can reach you
All right, well, Wriley, tell our folks your website and how they can reach you. Yes.
>> Wriley Wildmon: So they can, visit, our website at afafoundation. Again, that's afafoundation.net and there, Walker, on our website, you can run an illustration, or they can run an illustration, and put in the amount that they wanted to possibly give for a charitable gift annuity. Or they can give me a call at 800-326-4543.
>> Walker Wildmon: My direct extension is 2332-3380-0326-4543. Extension 23 3.
>> Wriley Wildmon: Yes, sir.
>> Walker Wildmon: You got it. All right, thanks, Wriley.
>> Wriley Wildmon: Thank you so much.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right. High five. Glad you came on. Anytime you need to come on, you have Priority.
Riley Cliptu says mass migration needs to be met with mass deportations
All right folks, that's my sister and the director of our AFA Foundation, Wriley. And she is, there with the team at the AFA foundation. And they can help you with all things giving to American Family association with the most frequent, tool being the charitable gift annuity. But they also help out with outright stock donations. If you want to do a qualified, ah, charitable distribution from your charitable account, you can work with the AFA foundation on that. And they have they can help you with putting American Family association in your will and all things giving once again to the American Family Association. Afafoundation.net is that URL and as Raleigh mentioned, they have multiple tools there where you can run illustrations, run scenarios if you will, on your giving and on your charitable gift annuity and what it would look like for you in your situation. Afafoundation.net well, back to the issue of immigration. I was listening this morning to a report and a clip from Senator Eric Schmidt from the state of Missouri. And he was talking about, the need to just lean in to this, immigration enforcement and reforms to our immigration system. And when I was talking earlier about the economic effects of deportations, Senator Smith here is talking about the need for reform on the work visa side of things to open up more jobs for the American citizen. Cliptu I do.
>> Tim Wildmon: I think we need to take away every incentive possible that made this wide open board the Biden administration, constructed. That's what they did. And whether it's remittance tax, whether it's making sure that illegal immigrants aren't getting taxpayer benefits, we approached some of that on the one big beautiful bill. But I think what you see here, Jackie, is all this mass migration needs to be met with mass deportations. So we have plenty of laws that are now being enforced by this administration to get people who shouldn't be here, to go back to where they came from. That's. We have to have the resolve as a country to go do that. Because what the left wants to do, they want to, you know, create controversy, create chaos, make it look like the ICE agents are the bad guys in all this. They're picking up bad folks and sending them back where they belong, not in the United States of America. So we have immigration laws that need to be enforced. I would point out, though, that it's not just an illegal immigration problem. We have real abuses with our legal immigration system that should be addressed. Take the H1B program, for example. You have white collar Jobs. Now that the, American have the humiliation of training their foreign replacements in order to receive their severance pay, they don't have any additional M skills, they're just being paid less. The OPT program, which has become a visa mill by universities because they get paid full freight, that's taking away American jobs too, where you have some of the highest unemployment rates, for engineers and physics majors who we, you know, we have plenty of in this country, but they're being squeezed out through some of these programs. So there's a lot to do on, on this front. But the good news is we have a president that wants to enforce the laws. And, that is not what we saw last administration when 20 million people came here in four years illegally.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's Senator, Eric Schmidt from the state of Missouri talking about even the legal side of immigration and how there needs to be some massive reform there, especially on the visa programs. The, asylum and refugee programs are a big problem as well, because some of these, individuals that are either convicted terrorists or, they are suspected, related to terrorist groups overseas, whether in the Middle east, other parts of Africa, that's a problem as well. And so we're one of the most generous nations from a legal immigration standpoint, letting in over a million legal immigrants every single year. That's not even factoring in the number of illegal immigrants that are let into the country. And so, when you're facing an, employment problem that we are, when you saw, President Trump's Department of Labor and, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, bls, revise the jobs numbers on the back end of the Biden presidency, and you saw that we were, losing jobs by the hundreds of thousands at the end of the Biden presidency. And then you're importing over a million legal immigrants who have full access to the workforce and employment, that's a problem. That's a problem. And so it's really just a matter of getting back to focusing on the American people, the American taxpayer, and using immigration in a manner that works for the country. And that's the whole point here. I mean, the main point is that we need to let our immigration system work for the country and work for the people of our country and not vice versa. We can't just be a safe haven for everybody. And a lot of these other countries, it's very sad what people have to go through in these other countries, but America can only do so much, and we can only take so much as a country and be as generous as we can. but we can't fix everybody's problem. And that transitions us into the foreign policy, debates that are going on right now. You know, President Trump has spent a lot of time overseas, a lot of time trying to solve other wars, other problems. And, the American people are looking around going, hey, we've got our own issues, we've got our own problems. And that's kind of the issue that's being raised right now by some when it comes to what's going on in Venezuela. There's a lot of different reports about what President Trump is doing, what's the military doing by positioning assets near Venezuela. But the fact of the matter is that America can't afford another war. we can't afford another war. And so we don't have enough time, the rest of this segment, to really parse out what's going on in Venezuela and whether or not what the US should do on that front. But I think that the sentiment is pretty broad and pretty, deep within the Republican voters that America doesn't need, another war going on. We got out of Afghanistan, even though the way that we withdrew was a disaster and didn't have to be that way, but nonetheless we got out of Afghanistan. we resisted the urge to further engage with Iran, despite the fact that some in Congress would just love to go to war with Iran. It's really, kind of a bizarre phenomena, the way people talk about war, like Lindsey Graham, they get excited about war. It's kind of weird. but Venezuela, we need to be very careful with the situation going on in Venezuela about not getting entrenched, in another war that takes a, ah, decade, two decades to resolve. And what does resolution look like? That's a question as well. And so I don't think President Trump would do that. I think he knows better than to engage in an actual war with Venezuela. there's probably some pressure campaigns going on right now. but nonetheless, the domestic policy, the point here is that the domestic policy front, has so much that needs to be resolved and worked on, that the last thing that America has time for is solving foreign affairs for everybody. And the point with this Russian Ukraine conflict, which came up over the weekend because, Secretary Rubio and others had a meeting in Florida with the Russian side regarding the Russia, Ukraine conflict in war. You know, at what point do we just kind of throw our hands up? President Trump's been at this, really, 12 months, if we want to be technical, because even post election, during the transition, President Trump was working on some type of deal with Russia and Ukraine. So technically we're at more like the 12 month mark of this Russia, Ukraine conflict and President Trump and his team trying to resolve it. And nobody seems to want to move at all on the negotiating side. And so how much longer does President Trump exhaust, countless resources trying to resolve the Ukraine, Russia conflict? I mean, at some point haven't you exhausted all your options? At some point, haven't you exhausted all your options? So that's where we are on the Russia, Ukraine conflict, on the Israel and Gaza situation. That seems to, at least for now, to have settled down. Now what's the long term ramifications? What do we do, what's done with Gaza? What do you do with the people there? The humanitarian side of this, I'm not really sure. but at the same time that's on Israel's back doorstep. And so there's got to be some pressure on Israel and the surrounding countries, most of them Muslim majority, to figure out what the best path Ford is on that front as well. All of this is going to play into the midterms. All of this is going to play into the midterms. The Republicans already have an uphill battle. The, just the pure historical nature of the midterms with the majority party holding the trifecta and the White House, it typically doesn't go well for them. Now that's there. There's some exceptions to that. We've talked about it, whether it's under the Clinton era, the latter part of Clinton's administration or President, Bush's, administration post 9, 11, they were able to retain the congressional majorities on those two instances, but the other 20 plus midterms since World War II have gone the opposite direction. The ruling party has been ousted during the midterms. And so, so whether or not President Trump and the Republicans can focus in on our domestic policy issues enough to energize voters on the Republican side is going to be the real question over the next, let's say eight to 10 months. All right, folks, Walker Wildmon here at the Core here on American Family Radio. We've got a segment left and an interview. You won't want to miss it. Stay tuned. This is at the Core on American.
>> Tim Wildmon: Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us. This last segment, afr.net is our website. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Just go to your podcast library or store, type in at the core, click the subscribe or the follow button, depending on which platform you're on. And, each day we have the video up on our AFR social media handles and over at stream.aca.net as well. Melissa McKay is with us. Melissa is president and chair of the Digital Childhood Institute, and she's here to talk about some of the tech policy, and mostly how it should be aimed at protecting minors. Melissa, welcome to the show.
>> Melissa McKay: Thanks so much for having me.
Tell us about the Digital Childhood Institute, which focuses on child safety
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Melissa, before we jump into the policy side of this, which is interesting and I love talking about it, tell us about the institute, the Digital Childhood Institute.
>> Melissa McKay: Sure. So, I've been doing policy for about 10 years and with a lot of different people who are just policy geeks like me. So the Digital Childhood Institute is just kind of a collection of policy geeks that mostly work for other organizations like Institute for Family Studies. But we just all get together and hash out what's going to protect kids most, which policies should we promote? Which ones are we trying to kill? So that's what the Digital Childhood Institute is.
>> Walker Wildmon: Melissa, the talk right now, well, let's focus on the App Store Accountability act and then we'll talk, about AI and tech in general.
The App Store Accountability Act aims to fix deceptive app ratings and age verification
but tell us about this congressional act that you guys are working on, the App Store Accountability Act.
>> Melissa McKay: Sure. So very early on, about eight years ago, I realized that if we were actually going to fix the child online safety problem, we have to move farther up the tech stack that we've been working. So right now people are trying to regulate social media and then chatbots, all of which are great, but basically some new threat pops up every two to three years. And then advocates have to, like, start this education campaign and then we have to start trying to get the attorney Generals going. But I finally figured out if we could fix Apple and Google way up the stack and they had to sell responsibly their products, then we would solve all of these problems with one piece of legislation. Basically, that's what the App Store Accountability act is. We're trying to fix the three most exploitative parts of app stores with one bill. The first element is that we're trying to fix the deceptive App Age ratings. Right now, app stores are just the Wild West. It's not like movies or video games where there's a third party body that's coming in and looking at the ratings and saying this is accurate or this isn't. The developers fill out a two minute Online form and then that's what their rating is basically. So the vast majority of developers, 90% of them in the Google Play Store, say their apps are safe for a four year old or everyone because if they're advertised as being safe for everybody, more people are going to download it. So there's mass deception in the App Store, right now. So the App Store can Accountability act says you can't do that anymore. It's deceptive advertising. We're going to tie that to state deceptive advertising laws and we try to nip that in the bud. The second part is age verification at the App Store level because it's actually the safest place, the most privacy preserving place to do it because they already have your age. When you sign up for an account, you're going to put in your age in the App Store and then all adults are going to put a credit card in their digital wallet, basically. So and then you can add kids to your family sharing and then parents can attest to their age. So this bill really doesn't require any extra personal data for the vast majority of Americans. And then they can ping that age signal to the app in kind of a double blind, privacy preserving way rather than you having to upload your driver's license to every single app that you have on your phone. So that's the second part. The third part is the parental consent piece which is really critical right now. Kids over 13 or I guess over 12 on their 13th birthday, they are considered digital adults on a smartphone. So if a child has an Android device, they can actually boot their parents off the parental controls on their 13th birthday on an Apple device. Kids are not required to link to a parent after 13, so most parents just forget about it or don't go through all the steps appropriately. So we're saying every time you download an app, even contracting to have an App Store account is a 50,000 word terms of service agreement where the kid is indemnifying the company, giving the company access to their exact location. We're saying kids shouldn't be able to do that. Like where else do kids sign 50 page legal documents? With trillion dollar companies it shouldn't be allowed. So we're saying Everybody up to 18 should have a parent review every time that there's this, this big legal document. So it's very simple, it's very common sense. I'm actually shocked at all the pushback tech has given us and all the smoke that they're. Yeah, but that's the bill.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, we've worked with Apple on this, this topic. Generally speaking, we got them American Family association as of a couple weeks ago. We got them to make the parental controls own by default for even 13 to 17. Previously, they weren't on by default, and so the parent would have to consciously go and cut on parental controls for the teenager. To your point about the. I call it a loophole. It's not. It's very intentional. It's not a loophole. But, so that was a step in the right direction. We got them to clean up some of their App Store recommendations. They were recommending adult apps for minors. Even though you couldn't download it, they were still showing them the adult Reddit apps. Makes completely no sense. Apple's done some recently, to clean up, but this is all working with the company. What you're talking about is creating a uniform standard that protects miners across all these platforms. But the pushback to me, Melissa. Once again, we're talking to Melissa McKay with digital childhood Institute. The pushback to me, Melissa, is that the companies, generally speaking, don't want to have to be held accountable to these standards. That's why they push back against all these state laws, because they don't want to really have to do anything and be held accountable. Because why? Because they could be held liable if they don't follow the law in some of these instances. so this accountability act for the App Store, this would be federally put in place. Is that your proposal?
>> Melissa McKay: Well, yeah, we've already passed in three states, so we passed in Utah, Texas and Louisiana, where I think we're up to be in 30 states next year. So it's really exploded. And we all know that federal, we hope they pass something, but they really haven't in 25 years rather than the Take It Down Act. So we actually have a hearing on this bill tomorrow in House Commerce. I'm flying out to D.C. for it, but we'll just.
>> Walker Wildmon: So you're working. So you're working both paths. You're currently moving this bill through the states, which you've had success doing, but you're also holding out that maybe Congress does something on it. At a minimum, it has. It brings up the conversation, correct?
>> Melissa McKay: Yeah, absolutely. And we're taking the FTC path. I mean, I had tried to work with Apple, and even speaking to the parental controls by default, that 13 to 17 feature that they just instituted, it's malicious compliance because they actually don't put a passcode on it if a kid's not linked to a parent. So I'm actually working with my state attorney general. He actually just emailed me about five minutes before this call about how Apple, like, does the minimum possible for every, you know, when they get, you know, groups like yours come and say this is a problem, they'll put out some little tiny cosmetic fix and then we have to go and like, fix their fix.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, they can, they can. To your point. They can, they can always do more. And it should, it shouldn't be this, it shouldn't take this much pressure to be honest.
>> Melissa McKay: like, obviously, which is why we're taking every path possible. We're talking to the companies directly, going to the ftc, we're going state, we're going federal. I'm, filing an amicus with Texas to help Paxton defend the law. We're doing everything we can because we know that getting these companies to behave is just so difficult.
I'm skeptical of Washington doing anything on the tech front
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, Melissa, let's talk about the federal side of this. Beyond just the act that you guys are hearing on in the Commerce Committee. I'm skeptical of Washington doing anything on the tech front because right now the move is on behalf of the companies, of these multibillion dollar companies. Their move is to say we need a uniform federal standard, which is why I'm not buying President Trump has bought this thing hook, line and sinker. And I'm not buying it. No, we don't need Congress, who is paid off by the tech industry through their campaign finances, to mel around with tech policy because it's only going to favor the tech companies and shield them. So I don't think Congress needs to do anything on this broad AI topic. I think the states just need to keep doing their thing. What do you say?
>> Melissa McKay: Totally agree. These preemptions or moratoriums or whatever they're trying to slip, and they're literally trying to slip them in every bill now. They tried to slip it in cosa, all of the AI bills. It's, it's a disgusting overuse of, federal power. In my opinion. States are the laboratories to kind of experiment with these different things and nobody should take that power away. So I'm 100% with you. If federal is going to do something, it should not be at the expense of the states.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, ah, I agree completely. but I think I'm, 99% confident at the tech lobby is trying to use this kind of AI, topic and trend to get Congress to do something to further shield them. this is what they do every single time. We can Talk about Section 240, everything else they want to be shielded from liability, they want to be protected. They want to corner the market and have zero competition. And states are getting in the way of some of that shielding that they want to, to get through. what states? by the way, Melissa, let me ask you how this is holding up in the courts, because there's been multiple. you mentioned some briefs you're working on with Paxton. Has this generally been received well in the courts or not so well? What's your history there?
>> Melissa McKay: So, the Paxton is the first legal challenge we've had because Texas is the one who goes into effect first, which is in January. I've read the motion for injunction, and there's no substance there. They try to conflate all of these things that have nothing to do with each other. And the fact that the judge in Florida just ruled their social media bill could go forward, you know, without an injunction to further, you know, let it go on, it just shows how much more legal that this bill is. It is completely content neutral. So I would, I would guess that we're going to win that they won't be able to get a, preliminary m injunction on this law. And I mean, we spent two years writing it to make sure it was constitutional. We ran it through probably five different constitutional experts. All of the attorneys in Utah, national attorneys, even international people weighed in. So I think it has a really good shot compared to even other really good legislation that we're also promoting.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. To your point about if you can get Apple and Google to do the right thing even though it's by force, that's a game changer because they dominate the tech market. And, they've got the, I mean, they're even dominating the browser, market with the vast majority of users in the browser are using, a browser on the Apple or Google device. And so that would be a huge step in the right direction. And honestly, if I'm these tech companies. I would like some kind of standard that tells me, hey, here's how you need to handle this so that you don't face liability issues. But continuing kind of this Wild west mentality and having no protections for children, that is just, not only is it harming children, but to me it's keeping the door open for these companies to be held legally liable for not protecting minors.
>> Melissa McKay: Well, so funny you should mention that. They are actually introducing their own version of our bill the same day we're. We're having our hearing on ours. It's called the Parents Over Platforms act, but it's completely written by Google. And if you want to go see what the tech companies are hoping the regulation looks like, you can go check it out. But basically it's status quo and then enormous carve outs and then enormous liability protection. So it's. Yeah, so it's. Yeah, we're all like gathering our forces to write a couple good hit pieces on it, but they do not, they don't want to give an inch. Like they're going to claw back as much protection and status quo and children and attention and lack of responsibilities as they possibly can. So in all the states we've run it, it's just been this huge, ugly brawl.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, exactly. Well, hey Melissa, McKay, tell our folks your website with the Institute there how they can read more about your work.
>> Melissa McKay: Yeah, sure. It'[email protected] and you can read our two FTC complaints there against Apple and Google and keep on top of the work that we're doing.
Melissa McKay: I just don't think Congress has the independence on AI
>> Walker Wildmon: All right. Hey Melissa, thanks so much for coming on.
>> Melissa McKay: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's Melissa McKay, President Chair of Digital Childhood Institute, digitalchildhoodinstitute.org is that URL? You can read all about Melissa's work there. Well, ah, Senator Josh Hawley has been speaking on this and others, a few others as well, about the AI, evolution and revolution really. This is The whole talking point about needing a moratorium or federal uniform law or regulation on this at this point, folks. I just don't have confidence that Congress and the White House have the independence needed to pass something good here. I just don't think they do. I think that this will be fully used, as a shielding of tech companies, if Congress were to do something. I just think the tech lobby is too powerful, too strong in Washington to get anything done of significance of good in Washington D.C. and when you look at, for better or worse, when you look at who was at President Trump's inauguration, it was the tech billionaires of the world. And so they're helping fund the ballroom at the White House once again, for better or worse. And so there's just way too much going on, way too many, too much inroads with tech and the White House to expect Republicans to get this right. I just don't think it's going to happen. I think there's way too many conflicts, of interest there. I think tech has way too much leverage over the White House with this whole AI boom. And so let the states take care of this let the states keep working to protect children across the country. We'll see you next time. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
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