This is happening to real kids right now

Hey Friends!

We’ve been in full spring energy over here for a while and with the official beginning of spring here? Its like we’re vibrating and it’s been carrying straight into the podcast recording studio. We dropped new podcast episode recently that felt like an important one.

Mid-conversation, we had a bit of a realization: phones are shaping a generation, and most of us aren’t fully prepared for what that means. In this episode, we unpack what your child’s device habits can actually reveal about their sleep, mood, and mental health, and why understanding those patterns is becoming a parenting superpower. We also talk about why no phones isn’t enough, and how to start building real digital self-control instead.

This idea of parenting with insight (not just instinct) is also why we’ve been loving Aura Parent. It helps you actually see your child’s digital patterns instead of guessing what they’re up to. They’ve also created a quick, free Digital Stress Test with Common Sense Media that’s worth a few minutes if you’re curious where your child might be at. And if you’re looking for more support with turning digital blind spots into clear insights, you can access a 14-day free trial plus $7.99/month through our exclusive link.

A teen's school photo was turned into CSAM by an AI tool.

Three teenage girls in Tennessee are suing Elon Musk's AI company xAI this week after their school and yearbook photos were taken and turned into explicit sexual images using a feature of the Grok AI tool called "spicy mode." Someone took photos that exist publicly and fed them into an AI that had almost no guardrails in place. The images then spread on Discord and Telegram, traded like currency among people who prey on children.

This is the first class-action lawsuit of its kind against an AI company for generating what legally qualifies as child sexual abuse material. Researchers estimated that Grok produced over three million sexualized images in just eleven days after spicy mode launched — including around 23,000 that appeared to show minors.

The reason this matters so much isn't just the legal case. It's the fact that your child doesn't have to do anything to become a victim of this crime. A photo from three years ago. A yearbook picture. A screenshot from a group chat. That's all it takes. This is exactly why we talk so much about what kids share publicly and what their privacy settings look like. And why we built our AI guide for parents. If there's ever been a week to have that conversation, this is it.

Here’s what you can do with this information today:

1. Start with a quick audit of your child's public-facing profiles — Instagram, Snapchat, even old Facebook posts you may have shared of them. Make sure accounts are set to private.

2. Talk to your kids about why photos that seem totally innocent can be misused by people with tools that didn't exist a few years ago. You don't need to scare them, but they do need to know the truth in an age-appropriate way.

Edmonton police are warning Canadian parents: sextortion targeting teens is no longer rare

The Edmonton Police Service issued a public warning this month that sextortion targeting teens has become a regular part of what their school resource officers deal with. Between 2018 and 2025, EPS received nearly a thousand sextortion-related reports involving young victims.

Sextortion happens when someone convinces a teen to send an explicit image or video, then threatens to share it with their friends, family, or school unless they send money, gift cards, or more images. It often starts somewhere that feels completely normal: a game, a DM, a comment section. The person builds trust first. They might claim to be another teen. They can be genuinely charming. And then things shift very quickly, often before a kid even realizes what's happening. Police note that while 84% of offenders are male, some are as young as sixteen themselves — meaning this isn't always a stranger. Sometimes it's a peer.

What makes this so hard is that most kids caught in a sextortion situation don't tell anyone, because they're terrified of getting in trouble or having their parents see what they sent. That shame is exactly what the offender counts on. Your job is to make sure your kid knows (before this ever happens) that if they're ever in this situation, they can come to you without judgment. No lecture. No "I told you so." Just: we will handle this together.

What you can do:

1. Have the sextortion conversation before your kid hits thirteen, because the risk window is thirteen to sixteen. Say "If anyone online ever asks you for photos, or if something happens and you feel scared or embarrassed, I need you to know you can come to me. I won't be angry. We'll deal with it together."

2. If you believe your child is being victimized:

   Canada:

   • Report to Cybertip.ca 

   • Contact your local police or RCMP right away (especially if threats are serious)

   USA:

   • Report to NCMEC CyberTipline 

   • File with the FBI (via IC3 or call 1-800-CALL-FBI) → ic3.gov or fbi.gov/sextortion

We know this week's newsletter was heavy. Both of these stories are hard to sit with. Mostly because they're not hypothetical and they're not happening somewhere far away. They're happening here, to real kids, in real schools.

But here's what we want to leave you with on this first official week of spring: the fact that you're reading this means you're paying attention. You're not looking away. You're doing something a lot of parents haven't done yet. Not because they don't love their kids, but because nobody told them. So please, share this. Forward it to a friend. Drop it in your school parent group. Text it to the mom you had coffee with last week. The more parents who know, the safer all of our kids are.

Happy spring, everyone. You made it.

—Cat & Nat