This is the Truth Network. Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. 23 child predators in 11 days.
right here in the Piedmont Triad. How can we keep our kids safe? This holiday season and I've got Whitney From the Invictus Project. Whitney, answer that question for me. Oh, gosh.
Hold on now. That's a very big question to answer on the fly. But yeah, just to kind of give some information around that 23 predators, you know, in October of this year, we, our law enforcement partners, the Invictus Task Force, hosted an operation called Ghostwire. And you can Google it and look it up and see all the press conference and all the things. But really, basically, what it was is 23 individuals coming out in 11 days to have relations with what they believe to be a minor child.
And I think, you know, we don't have to, there's no need to dig into the details of that because it's all listed out in a press conference on plenty of news stations. But here's what it should really spark in us: the reality check that this is our backyard, and these are individuals that are soliciting and attempting to talk with our children online. And they're predators. They don't have. Good intentions for our children, and so how does that apply to our holiday season, right?
Because that's a scary situation and thought to think of 23 individuals coming out to with not good. ideas, intentions, you know, for our kids. And so, um, but really, you know, it reminds me, this time of year, we're all in the hustle and bustle of Christmas, right? And there are some things that sometimes we lose sight of. The first is that time with family because we're running busy nonstop.
I don't know about you, but I've got church plays and, you know, practices. And then we've got Christmas shopping, which is a whole nother ballgame, right? And then rapping and all the things that keep you busy and distracted in the holiday season. And those same things that keep us distracted are also taking away from that intentional time with our family and our children and allowing them just a little bit maybe more freedom than we would normally give them, whether it be on their devices or otherwise. And so it just, it creates kind of a.
Just a time lapse of we're not actively engaged in their lives. And it just happens because of the busyness, right? But there's also those gifts that we're purchasing for Christmas as well. And there's something to consider in that, right? I know I have kids myself.
So I know the conversation of mom, can I have a cell phone this year? Mom, I'm ready for a cell phone, you know, or the new game system or whatever. And those things are good gifts. I don't want to take away from that, but at the right age, at the right time, with the right healthy boundaries placed around them. And I think sometimes we just give the gift because we know it's desirable to our children, but we don't consider maybe what we are ushering into our homes through those gifts.
Yeah. And there's a reason you're telling people this. I mean, you guys are helping, working with law enforcement, the Invictus Project, by the way. You're working with law enforcement to catch. Predators, and we were talking about a show.
Oh my gosh, we hear about it all the time. Yeah, what is it to catch a predator? You know, that I think it's Chris Hansen that did that show, and you know, we hear about it all the time. But for us, the difference is it is the task force, it is law enforcement. And so, if you don't know about the Invictus Task Force, it is a combination of four different sheriff's offices right here in North Carolina, as well as partnered with the Homeland Security and the State Bureau of Investigation.
So, it allows them a lot of fluidity for jurisdictional-wise to make sure that we are able to arrest these individuals that are, you know, trying to connect with kids online or have connected with children online. The situation in this, though, is a bit different because what our law enforcement primarily deals with is internet crimes against children, and they're called cyber tips. And so, what that is, is that is when one of these lovely platforms that many of our teens and kids are on, whether it be Roblox, whether it be Snapchat, Instagram. You name a platform a child is on, and that is the platform that our law enforcement partners are dealing with, right? Why?
Because predators go where the prey is, and they know our children are on these apps, right? And so these cyber tips are generated from individuals that are usually uploading child portals. Pornographic items to these different platforms and sharing these pictures and videos of a child's worst moments on the same platforms that we are handing over to our children. we're painting this picture of why we need to set some intentional guidelines for our children if we're handing them devices over the Christmas season.
So we'll roll it all back to that. But these cyber tips To give you an idea, in 2019, there were about 4,500 of them that came through the state of North Carolina. These are cases dealing specifically with the child sexual abuse of a child, right? These are images, videos, whatever that looks like, and they're reported from these platforms. This is Instagram, Snapchat saying, hey, we saw this moved around on our platform.
We're reporting it to authority. Authority handles it from there and investigates those cases. 2019, we had about 4,500 cases. Do you want to know how many we're going to be closing out the year, estimated to close out the year this year with? How many?
Over forty thousand. Since 2019. Mm-hmm. Let's back up for a second. What happened in 2020, 2021?
COVID. Mm. What do you think that did? To these numbers. Because people were home.
They were home. Kids were home. And what did we do as parents? And at that time I was a teacher. We handed every single one of them, kindergarten to college, a device.
and said, Here's online learning. Right. But unfortunately, we also took them off playgrounds and places where kids generally socialized and we worried about as parents, right? We were still in that stranger danger phase in our minds, the idea that watch out for the white van, you know, or don't pet the puppy, don't take free candy. Right.
Right. We stuck ourselves in that mindset. Unfortunately, we've carried that mindset over. Even though the playground has shifted, the playground's not outside. It's a digital playground.
It's this. This is the new white van. And we say it all the time. That's what this has become. And so we, as parents, haven't prepared ourselves for that.
And we certainly haven't prepared our children for that. But in 2020, 2021, Every child went home with a device. We weren't set up and ready to tell them what was acceptable and not acceptable, what were those healthy boundaries. And so the world then had access to our children. Mm-hmm.
Can you imagine? I mean, think about it. I don't know if you had kids during that time, but I was very little.
So I was a teacher of high schoolers and had children in preschool, elementary school level. They were, my kids were. The beginning of 2020, they were one and two. By the end of 2020, they were two and three years old. Yeah, so you and now I've got a four-year-old, and she's, of course, on the device right now while we're talking, but she, I.
I hope I know what she's watching. And that's the hard part of it, right? Because we are just, sometimes it's easy. It's that easy thing to do in the moments that we need it. It's an easy grab.
And when it is, what boundaries have we set up to?
Well, and I'll give you an example. I'm going to give you an example of something that happened with us. I've got an iPad. My wife and I both have phones, and the kids are always wanting to look it on the iPad. And we try to show them good stuff, like kids' ministry tools.
And I've had Joshua Wells on many times, or we try to get them to watch The Good News Guys, which is both Christian stuff. But we find out when they, you know, when they've got it, they play games, which is fine, and they like Mr. Beast, which is.
Okay, you know, whatever, and other stuff like that, but I. I went into my son's room last night. I was going to tell him good night. And I found him with an old iPad that we had. That nobody was using anymore, and he found it and he charged it up, and he was actually looking on the iPad.
Well, and I'm sure it was nothing nefarious, it was nothing bad, or whatever he's at, but It's a little scary. It is. It is. So, what did you do in that situation? Mike's back on you, buddy.
No, we took the iPad and I took it in the other room. But Amanda, my wife said, Mike, we need to take that and put that in a place where they can't get it. Right. Because now they're getting to the place where they know, hey, we don't. And this is what we tell them.
You guys are fine. You want to sit here and watch the iPad? That's fine, as long as we know what you're doing. But now they're getting in that sneaky, rebellious stage where they want to take it and they want to look at stuff without us knowing. And so it's something that we've got to really be careful with.
And so. You know, I heard the story. years ago of a um of somebody who was on uh They were on a beach, it was a young kid on a beach, and what he was saying was this: He said, You know, he was taking all of these starfish who were on the beach and he was throwing them back one at a time. And he was basically saving their lives. And all of a sudden, there was this older guy who came up to him and he said, What are you doing?
He said, There's no way that you're going to save all of those starfish. And the young boy took one of the starfish up in his hands and he threw it back into the ocean. And Whitney, he said, I made a difference to that one. And I'm sure that you see, like you said, there were 4,000 cases, now there's 40,000. How many cases are there that you guys just don't know about?
How much that's going on that you guys are not able to follow? But like you said, 23 cases in the Piedmont Triad, and you were able to put these people away, right? Right, they're prosecutable cases, absolutely. They're prosecutable, yeah, prosecutable cases.
Well, maybe those 23 predators, maybe it would have been your child if you're listening, maybe it would. Have been your grandchild that you're missing. And what I'm saying today, especially during the Christmas holiday season, we've got a group, it's called the Invictus Project. And you guys can actually be a part of it. It's good to listen to it.
But people can actually, what is your website with you? Yeah, it's theinvictusproject.org. And Invictus is always a tricky one. It's I-N-V-I-C-T-U-S. And it means unconquerable because that's what we want our children to understand: they are unconquerable in this fight.
And so we want them to be empowered to believe that as well.
So if you want to be a part of this and you're listening, how do they donate online? Yeah, I mean, it's as simple as going to our website, and there is a donate button at the very top.
So they can simply click there to donate, which is, you know, a great and easy way to do that. And we obviously appreciate that. Our funding is community focused and funded. It is not federally funded.
So we are reliant on the same community. We're working tirelessly to protect. Amen. Amen. And so one of the things that I was talking about this morning with you before we got on the show is that you are able to maintain your joy, even with all of the stuff that you've seen.
And for me, I'm going to be honest with you, if I were you, I think it would be tough. But I was looking at Philippians chapter 4, and it says, Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown.
So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
So you got to stand fast in what you're doing. You deal with some tough stuff, but you keep fighting the good fight, Whitney. There's a guy named Ray who works with you. And he says, And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also. But then it goes on to say in Philippians 4:4, it says, to rejoice in the Lord always.
And it says, again, I say, rejoice. And so whatever we have to deal with in our life, and I don't care whether it's the Invictus Project, which is the project. with Whitney or whatever you're dealing with in your personal life. We have to put on the joy of the Lord because the joy of the Lord is our strength. And, Whitney, you said that if you did not have your Christian faith to stand on, you said it would be really hard for you to do your job.
Absolutely. I mean, I think that's any of us walking through this life, especially as believers, we see the level of. Um, depravity of mankind, right? And we see just how the enemy works. And you know, in this space, I think it's even more interesting, um, you know, thank goodness, I don't have to visually look at some of the any of the content that our law enforcement partners are, you know, licensed or certified to do, um, to look at, but you.
Even hearing the stories, and honestly, Michael, listening to our kids, when I'm able to sit in front of a group of teenagers, listening to them talk about what they're seeing and what they're exposed to online, that is that heart that breaks my heart because I see them fighting for their identity, trying to understand who they are in the mix of all of the things the enemy's throwing at them. And you're right, without my faith, I don't. I don't know that I'd be an asset to them, of course. But even further, I don't know that you could hear and understand. The things that go on and not just be broken by it daily.
And I know it's interesting because sometimes speaking in different places, people are like, How do you smile and talk about this stuff? And it's exactly what you said. My joy is not reliant on the depravity and the things that I see in this world. My joy is reliant on what's coming and who what king I serve, right? And so I think we have to remember that our joy is not contingent on the things of this world.
Yeah. It can't be. Right. Because that would be so easily stolen from us. All it takes is somebody, you know, cutting you off and on the highway, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And our happiness can be taken, but we can't allow it to steal our joy. That is something that is a fruit of the Spirit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's something that exudes out of us because of who the Holy Spirit is in us.
And so I'm thankful that you see that in me, and I appreciate that because I think it's an important piece of walking through this life, no matter how difficult the season might be or what you're working with or dealing with. I think that joy is just that peace that becomes that solid ground, you know, refocusing. And there's so many things I do to do that, right? It begins with being in the Word of God, but staying in constant communication with the Lord throughout the day is. Really, something that I find invaluable.
You know, it's, I think sometimes we get caught up in the idea that, you know, we pray in the morning, pray at night, and pray over our food, and that's good. But man, the God I serve, he talks all the time. You know, he does. Just being in constant communication with him and lifting those things up in the moment. Like, Lord, this feels heavy.
Can you help me bear this? You know, and doing that just gives you that little bit of release. And so. By no means am I, you know, have perfected anything, or, you know, but I just am very reliant. And I think one of the things, if I were you, that would give me.
Courage or that would encourage me each day when I go out is to know that you are making a difference. And that, yeah, you can't help everybody, but what you're doing is you're. You could be saving children's lives, literally. Yeah. Well, I hope that is the case.
And, you know, I know so often we plant seeds and don't get to see the harvest, but I know God is good and faithful, so I trust Him in that space. Um I will say in talking, I mean, again, I go back to talking with our kids because I think there's so much value in that. And if you're a parent listening or a grandparent, our kids are, they so deeply desire just real conversations with us where we're not the ones doing this. Oh, yeah, buddy. How was your day?
Uh-huh.
Okay, great. They know. They do. They see it. They see it.
And I'm watching these kids' heartbreak and identity be found in in their algorithm on Instagram. When really, we as parents should be setting that understanding and idea up of who they are and who God has called them to be. And so I think that that is probably a that's a that's probably one of the most heart-wrenching spaces in this. But I hope that when I have those opportunities to speak with youth, that they feel Known and seen and worthy, because that's what we're all looking for, right? That love, acceptance, worth, safety, right?
It almost falls, it falls back into that Maslow's hierarchy of needs almost, but it's biblical as well. These are things that are placed in our hearts and we desire, and our children desire them. And when we're not able to give that to them at home, they're seeking it. Individuals they meet online, and those individuals are very quick to tell them what they need to hear. And so, and that's where we see this.
This fight is not a fight of kidnapping and white vans, this is a fight of. Identity and runaways. You know, I mean, these are individuals our kids are leaving to meet with people who are telling them the same things they are desiring to hear from us, but we're too busy. We're too busy. As parents, as guardians.
And so I think that if we can shake that up, We'll see a change in this, right? There is no enforcement that is going to shift this if the engagement and education component don't happen at home first, right? We the fight starts at home. And so you had the ability to make just as much of an impact. You had the ability to make just as much of an impact as I do, because it starts in our own homes.
It starts with our own children, our own grandchildren. That's where it begins. Yeah, it does. And you know, what I've found is that your kids are gonna wanna get involved in something. Everybody wants to have a purpose.
Absolutely. We all want something to strive for. We all want to be involved. We all want friends and stuff like that. But my son the other day, he had one of the parents from school.
said to my uh said to my wife, said, Hey, we're gonna have a play date and we wanted to see if we could pick up your son Michael and we'll take him and then we're gonna toe take him to a movie. And we said no. Hard, right? Not really, I mean, to be honest with you, after all this stuff that I've heard and seen and talked to you guys about, I mean, I hate to say it, but it's not hard. I don't want, and it's like you said to me before, people say, well, I.
Okay, what is it that we look for in a predator? What is the type of person? Or how do we find out who this kind of person is by looking at them or by hanging? And what did you say? Oh, they look like, I mean, you walk in the grocery store with them, you sit beside them in church.
I mean, these are people you see on a daily basis. They are in trusted positions of authority over children so often. You know, I mean, looking back at even the arrests, because we hit. over two hundred arrests this year.
So from our beginning in January of last year to date, we've gotten over two hundred arrests, our task force has. And so and out of those, I mean, we have had Pastors. We have had Pediatric nurses, we've had coaches, we've had the highest of high to the lowest of low. It's not, there is not a perfect profile. to determine that someone is a predator.
And so often it's people that are in high positions, trusted positions. Why? Because that's a leverage point. When that child goes to say, hey, this is what happened to me, and I didn't feel good about it. Or hey, this didn't make me feel so great when my coach said this or did this.
It just gave me that weird feeling. And so often, what do we hear kids say their parents said back to them? Oh, I mean, I think you're misreading that. I think they didn't mean it that way. I think, you know, and it's like, just listen to your kids.
We teach them when we get out, and a lot of what we do is educating our communities.
So when we talk to our kids, it's like, hey, that feeling in your stomach at whatever age, whether you're two years old or 20 years old, you know that feeling. It's like walking in the dark and feeling like something's following you, right? Like, ugh. Trust it. Because that's discernment.
That is that feeling of something's not right here. Yeah. You know? I would rather believe the worst case scenario. And later on, find out that it's not as bad versus believing the best case scenario and later on find out that it's much worse.
And that is a very hard balance as a parent because what we don't want to do is totally put our kids in a bubble, right? Because here's what we see happen: we become so, we watch people become so afraid of what's outside that they shove them inside. and hand him a video game or a tablet. And that becomes their social life and the way they engage. And so there has to be a healthy balance because that's not good for them either.
It's terrible for their mental health. Terrible. It's isolating, which we know the enemy works in isolation.
So we have to find that balance.
So maybe the next time it's, hey, maybe we do a Chick-fil-A play date or a whatever, maybe we all go to the movie.
Well, that's what, and that's what we suggest: say, hey, we've got tickets the day before. We could all go to the movie. And they say, sorry, we already had tickets for Friday.
So we weren't saying that they can't play. Exactly. But for me, one of the things that my wife and I talked about that is out of the question is sleepovers. Us too. That's a good one to talk about.
And, you know, I think it is a controversial topic. And not with ill intent, but I think, you know. Just knowing the things we know now, we are the same way. We have the same rule in our home that we do not do sleepovers. You know, our kids don't sleep over other people's houses.
And that's been really hard because, you know, we have everybody's doing it. Right. Well, and we have close friends that, like, their kids have spent the night at our house. But even then, I've kind of prefaced, like, hey, you know, Charlie wants some kids to come hang out, right? Or whatever.
But I need you to understand, like, we are not a, like, my kids can't sleep over at your house. And it's not because I don't. It's not because I don't trust those individuals. It's really, it's two-part. One, I'm kind of like you are.
I don't want to. open that door for something. That shouldn't be, right? But also, I have younger kids too, right? And so I have an older one and a younger one.
And I can't, if I allow the older one to follow through with that, then I also am setting the stage for the younger one. And I mean, truth be told, really, it boils down to I just don't want to take the risk of it. And it's not even like the. Sexual abuse component, as much as it also is the fact that other kids have access to things my kids don't. We have held off on cell phones, and that's they don't have free reign over technology.
They don't. And unfortunately, a lot of other kids do. And so, when the average age of a child first viewing pornography is eight years old, I don't need you said the average age is eight. Eight years old, eight, I've got an eight-year-old, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh, I mean, that is so.
Understand that that that component alone is like, I just don't. I know how algorithms are set up, right? And we've been told for a long time in the business world that, you know, that. Sexiness sales, right? Unfortunately, that is.
We've all heard the term with people a lady or a guy can't get any attention. They're trying to get a following on Facebook. What do they do? It's called a thirst trap, right? Yep, and if there are any teens listening to this, they got a good kick out of that one.
But you're right. That's what they term it as, right? And that's, so we know that that is. For longstanding, that's what has sold in the business world. We're naive to believe that that same thing, that same mentality is not what's selling our children and their algorithms as well, which is why they are exposed to things like that, content like that, at such a young age.
If you were to set up a 13-year-old boy's account, 12-year-old boys, 10. 10-year-old boys account on Instagram, which I don't technically think you can. I think you have to be 13 to use Instagram. By their By the checkbox. Right, right.
That doesn't deter our kids, so keep that in mind. It's easy to say you're 13 if you're not. Yeah, it's a click of a box, right?
So that's a whole other ballgame. But, you know, if that's, if you were to set yourself up as a 13-year-old boy on Instagram, the algorithm that it produces off gate. Is very, very hypersexualized content. And so you're setting your children up. And I hate to say it, but that's what they want.
And that's why they're doing it. Is that right? Yeah, I mean, I remember. I remember when I was 13. You know, I had one thing on my mind, you know, and I, you know, and we don't want to think our kids are thinking that, but I remember when I went to the school that that's, I mean, it was.
That's what the kids talked about: sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. And it's so sad because they're in middle school. Yeah. And I sit here and I go, well, I'm sending my kids to a Christian school. Fuck.
Yeah, that doesn't change. And there are those natural curiosities, right? But when you couple that with Exposure to things, you know, content that is not being supervised by parents or adults. I mean, it happens so easily. Like, we've had people Tell us stories about having their kids on YouTube kids watching a bluey cartoon, and all of a sudden, that particular cartoon, the words were normal captions or normal audio of a cartoon, but the content was not.
And so, they would have never known that their children were exposed to that had they not been walking by while they were watching that video on YouTube kids. On YouTube kids, you know.
So, we have to be engaged parents. If you take nothing from this, you must be engaged in the lives of your children with 31. And we can, and they can follow you on the website if they want to donate and get involved is theinvictusproject.org. That's right. They can follow the Invictus Project on Facebook.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Yep. YouTube. We've got it all. Just find us out there.
Give it a quick Google. You'll find a wrap sheet of arrests that have been done by the Invictus Task Force. That's our law enforcement component that we're partnered with.
So it's all there. And if you're on our website, check out that education tab. We've got two. Two really big events coming up in Alamance County for youth and for parents and community members.
So they're really worth checking out. If you're local to that area, please make sure. Absolutely. And I live in Alamance County.
So thank you, Whitney, from the Invictus Project. We're going to do another one.
Alright, for my YouTube channel. If not for God with mighty switch Just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. Yeah. So you'll be alerted when we have our next video. This is the Truth Network.
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