Highlighting Teen Dating Violence and Emotional Abuse Awareness

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with Us Today’s Lynshua. What does Lynn do? She runs Lynn’s Warriors, protecting our kids, and that’s one of the most important jobs I could ever imagine. Well, Lynn, what’s going on this week that our listeners should know about?

0:18 Speaker 2 Good morning John. This is a very important month. We are on a mission with the Warriors, cutting through all the noise that we’re all witnessing because this is teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. So while I don’t know the media is chasing celebrity gossip and political theater, real kids, our American kids are being trapped in these cycles of control, manipulation,

0:40 and a lot of fear. There’s a lot of silent fear among our youth. So this is happening in our schools, our homes, and on our phones, all these digital devices. So we want to pull the curtain back. We want to provide some warning signs, and we want to empower kids to come forward, especially teens, and empower the parents

0:56 to recognize, you know, different signals that the kids are giving out. And we want to make one thing clear. Silence protects abusers and awareness protects victims. So let’s get to some facts. First of all, love shouldn’t hurt. Love is respect. We go into schools, we teach this all the time, that love is respect. What does this mean.

1:17 Let’s have some facts. Dating violence among teams and young adults college age is so prevalent. One in three US teams are reporting that they experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from somebody they’re in a relationship with. And they’re not even adults yet, and so this is unbelievable. And also remember the numbers are always higher than what we

1:39 know about, right, this is what’s reported. A lot of this lives in the dark. Now, we also know about forty five percent of US college age women report experiencing beyond violence. They say it’s abusive dating behaviors from the get go. So we want to really spread the word about February and really raise national awareness of what’s going on.

2:01 So the theme this year we actually have a theme real love respects right respect. We need to respect each other. But one of the kids witnessing, but the adults and what’s happening in our country today, they’re mirroring a lot of this and also the behaviors online. So what we’re going to talk about is, you know why, why we

2:20 should even care about this or listen, is this right now? Is because this generation of our youth and college age, Remember, they have grown up under this digital bubble, this pressure cooker. So relationships I don’t end, you know when the school day is over, or you know, their Friday night date is over. It is NonStop because of online. So there’s control, jealousy, harassment,

2:43 and so much John emotional manipulation that follow them twenty four hours a day and into their bedrooms, onto their phones. Right, they can’t escape it. So what used to be private moments, right, are now public constantly. They’re permanent and also shareable. You know, nobody’s downloading and sharing and retweeting and all of this.

3:03 And you know that clicks and likes, it’s always on horrible things online. That’s what gets all the traffic. So the changes that we need to do, Look, it’s so hard and fast as what we continually talk about on the Warriors. We’ve got to get the kids. Look, we live in a digital world, but we’ve got to get

3:20 them to put down the devices at some point, even if it’s fifteen thirty minutes a day. Let’s start there. But here’s the thing John, adults have to wake up that this is happening. It is unacceptable that kids as young as you know, fourteen fifteen dating are being abused because this is what they mostly learn on the internet.

3:39 So I think the biggest misunderstanding parents still have about this team dating violence is they really think they’re going to see their child beat up or you know, these screaming matches. But in reality, the abuse is emotional. It starts emotionally. You can see somebody your child, slowly shrinking, not being themselves. For instance, a kid who used to

3:59 laugh or talk a lot, they don’t do it anymore. They don’t laugh, they don’t talk. Somebody who have friends, a lot of friends, a few friends, even, they suddenly isolate themselves. They start apologizing constantly for their behavior. And so the abuser, and this is the scary party, don’t They don’t do this with their fists. They start with

4:17 emotional control. So by the time the physical violence shows up, the team is already emotionally damaged and they’re worn down, and they don’t fight back. So sudden secrecy, mood swings, fear of upsetting a partner, constant texting, you know, they hide their phones, hide their laptop, dropping sports activities, dance.

4:39 Speaker 1 Yeah, this is the results are mostly electronic media that our kids are growing up with.

4:48 Speaker 2 Absolutely all of these SATs and studies are showing us it’s a direct correlation, and our kids are learning this and becoming you know, habituated. They think this is normal that you go on a first date and a a strangles you because that’s what they’re mirroring. They’re seeing this online.

5:05 And also that behavior online gets the most traffic, so everybody thinks that’s the things to do. And we’re not blaming boys or girls. It’s happening both ways, more to the girls. But if this is what boys are seeing violence towards you know, girls and young women, and this is what they’re learning, John, where will we be in

5:22 five years with all of this?

5:24 Speaker 1 Yeah? Right, And what I’m worried about the most, and we’ve talked about in the past is AI because of the AI stuff we see is false information.

5:36 Speaker 2 Absolutely, and forty five percent of teens admit to having an AI chatbot, which is a machine, as their friend. So I think, John, we need to do a separate hour on this AI and really talk about it. Parents have to be aware, kids have to be aware, they’re not realizing again they’ve become habituated to the Internet. Now

5:53 we’re sitting on this AI danger danger, danger, Let’s talk about that more.

5:58 Speaker 1 Lynchha, thank you for everything you do for our children, bringing making everybody aware, and we’ll catch up again real soon.

6:04 Speaker 2 Thanks John Lyndswarriors dot org. We’ll talk again soon.