Dr. Phillip McGraw, otherwise known as popular television personality Dr. Phil, sat down with Ted Cruz recently, and the two discussed how social media is affecting society. 

On Verdict, Dr. Phil laid out his thoughts on how social media is being used to target children, with the broader goal being to destroy the traditional family.

“I mean, they’re just assaulted online with social media, they’re confronted with themes and messaging and influence that is deliberately poisoning them, and what about that worries you?” Cruz asked. “And what should parents be doing about that?”

McGraw said that “a lot about it worries me because it’s not just that there’s competing information out there.”

“One of the things I talk about is the fact that our children aren’t just being exposed, they’re being targeted,” he said. “And when I say targeted, I wrote a book in I think 2004 called ‘Family First.’ And at that time, I said the family in America is under attack, that families in America are under attack, the family unit, the family values, everything that families stand for in America are under attack. This was 20 years ago. Let me tell you, it is so much worse now than it was then.”

He's absolutely correct on this point, and while I know the more libertarian-minded among us will disagree on how to deal with the situation, there is no doubt that social media, specifically TikTok and Instagram, are absolutely destroying the lives of children. They are being fed garbage that hampers their ability to develop into productive, well-adjusted adults. 

The damage goes further than that, though. How many kids have been taken in by the transgender contagion because "influencers" are grooming them online? How many kids have committed suicide because someone on social media pulled them into a fit of depression? 

That it's at least somewhat purposeful makes matters even worse. The Chinese government knows exactly what it's doing with TikTok. The CCP mandates a completely different version inside of China that contains none of the garbage that is shoveled into the United States. The goal is to cause societal decay, and it's working. 

“And when I say they’re under attack, one of the ways is what’s happening on the internet, what’s happening on the social media platforms,” he continued. “People don’t understand algorithms, including me, but I got myself in touch with experts that do understand this. And a good example of what I’m talking about, research was done where they put together some accounts, put a girl’s name on it, 14 years old, just her name, 14 years old, opened this account. And within a matter of a few hours, she started getting targeted with toxic information. By that, I mean information that led her to eating disorder sites, suicidality sites, different kinds of things that were really unhealthy.”

I don't know if government intervention, specifically regarding foreign information ops like TikTok is the right way to deal with this. What I do know is that something has to be done or there's going to be nothing left. Social media is toxic enough for adults. Children are nowhere near equipped to handle the level of subversion going on. 

Of course, this all starts at home. If you are letting your kids (including teenagers) have access to social media, you are doing them a disserve at the very least, and at worst, you are actively harming them. I know the drive to be "normal" is out there for children, but their lives aren't worth "fitting in."