California has a habit of importing some of the worst tech-regulation ideas from overseas. After lawmakers enacted a censorial statute cribbed from the U.K. in 2022 — and watched it run headlong into an injunction — the Golden State now appears eager to borrow from Australia, which in December barred children from major social media platforms.

Earlier this month, California lawmakers introduced a bill to impose “a minimum age requirement to open or maintain a social media account.” Governor Gavin Newsom (D), who usually avoids weighing in on pending bills, publicly endorsed the idea.

Will America keep light-touch rules that protect consumers without strangling innovation — or import Europe’s heavy-handed, fear-driven approach?

However well intentioned, the Australian model collapses on prudential grounds. In the United States, it also invites a swift constitutional challenge — and likely a swift defeat in court.

Most proposals that force platforms to distinguish between adults and minors require age verification. That means users must hand over sensitive personal information — usually government ID documents or biometric data — as the price of entry to the platforms where everyday digital life happens. Once companies collect, process, and store that data, it becomes a tempting target. Hackers do not need ideology, only opportunity.

The roster of victims reads like Don Giovanni’s catalogue. The list includes corporations such as Target, Equifax, Marriott, Capital One, MGM Resorts, and T-Mobile. Platforms from Facebook to X.com to the “Tea” app were also hit. So were third-party verification services. Even in France, where regulators tried to build a privacy-protective system, a third-party age verifier exposed sensitive user data. In the digital age, breaches and leaks are simply a fact of life.

Legislation promoted as “child protection” thus runs into a basic contradiction: it can expose children to new forms of harm. As the R Street Institute and Experian have reported, 25% of minors will become victims of identity fraud or theft before they turn 18. Age-verification mandates would widen the attack surface and increase the odds that minors’ information gets stolen, misused, or sold — and that families spend years cleaning up the wreckage.

Some advocates now treat constitutional objections to “child-safety” bills as impolite. Courts don’t share that squeamishness. In recent years, judges have enjoined multiple constitutionally defective state laws, leaving behind little more than wasted taxpayer dollars and public frustration, while state attorneys general mount doomed defenses.

Newsom’s favored approach also clashes with a Supreme Court precedent California already lost: Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. In that 2011 case, the court struck down a California law that restricted minors’ access to violent video games. Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion applied strict scrutiny — a demanding standard — and rejected the state’s argument that the law simply “helped” parents.

Scalia’s point applies with even greater force here. A sweeping ban on minors’ access to social media would function less as parental support and more as state substitution. The state would not merely empower parents; it would decide what parents should want, then impose that judgment across the board.

RELATED: Kids have already found a way around Australia’s new social media ban: Making faces

David GRAY/AFP/Getty Images

In American law, parents generally hold the duty — and the right — to decide what media their children consume. That principle does not stop at the edge of the internet.

The broader fight over technology policy often turns on a single question: Will America stick with light-touch, sensible regulation that protects consumers without strangling innovation — or will it import the heavy-handed, fear-driven regulatory posture popular abroad, especially in Europe?

The American technology sector grew and thrived in the internet era. Many foreign regimes, more focused on expansive “safety” mandates than innovation, privacy, or consumer benefit, have not.

Lawmakers should borrow good ideas wherever they find them. But California keeps shopping in the wrong aisle. If Sacramento wants to protect kids, it should start with tools that don’t require building a mass ID-check system for the entire public — and that don’t hand criminals a richer trove of data to steal.

It’s wise to learn from other countries. It’s foolish to copy their worst mistakes.

​California, Social media, Social media ban, Age restrictions, X, Facebook, Instagram, Black market, Opinion & analysis, Australia, First amendment, Social media censorship, Constitution, Identity theft, Hacking, Supreme court, Antonin scalia 

As readers of Blaze News are aware, porch pirates have been a rampant and widespread problem for quite a long time. But one Philadelphia couple recently decided to issue a bit of payback to crooks who steal their delivered packages.

Travis Giarraffa and Lauren Goffredo told WTXF-TV they took action after someone stole a box of toilet paper while they were just feet away.

‘I shook it to make it all dirty in there, so if they even put their hands [in], it’s all over their hands.’

“[The package thief] walked off with a big thing of toilet paper, so last night [Travis is] like, ‘You know, I got to clean up all the poop in the yard. Let’s just box it up and put it outside,'” Goffredo told the station.

Goffredo added to WTXF: “This is Louis. He’s our poop-machine French bulldog.”

With that, the couple boxed up their canine’s waste, shall we say, and left it outside overnight, the station said.

RELATED: Package thief leaves snarky ‘thank you’ note for victim. But she hopes to have last laugh with decoy box featuring ‘a little gift’ from her dog.

Giarraffa and Goffredo told WTXF that surveillance video actually captured someone taking the package at 4 a.m. last Wednesday.

“It was probably disgusting and gross and a lot — and I shook it to make it all dirty in there, so if they even put their hands there, it’s all over their hands,” Giarraffa noted to the station.

“It was stinky, for sure,” Goffredo added.

Bottom line: The couple told WTXF their hope is that the prank will make would-be thieves think twice before stealing packages in the future.

Giarraffa added to the station that he’s also willing to help neighbors repeat the experiment: “If you need some dog poo for a package, hit me up. We have a whole dog poo dumpster out there.”

More from WTXF:

Philadelphia police encourage anyone who experiences a theft or any crime to call 911 or visit their nearest police district. A spokesperson said, “If you experience a theft or any crime against you, it is important to report it to the police. … If you have video evidence, it can be very helpful for investigators in locating the offender(s).”

The station added that neighbors in the area are staying vigilant and sharing information to help prevent future thefts.

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​Philadelphia, Couple, Dog poop, Porch pirates, Fighting back, Decoy package, Crime 

Former U.S. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan routinely has warriors on his podcast who have battled men using modern weaponry. Last week, he spoke to a warrior who battles demons using timeless weaponry: Christ’s name, prayer, and the authority of his vocation.

Over the course of his four-hour conversation with Ryan, Fr. Chad Ripperger — a Thomistic philosopher, psychologist, and founder of the Doloran Fathers — shared insights drawn from years serving as a Catholic exorcist in the Archdiocese of Denver, as well as from his study of church history and Christian theology.

In addition to discussing potential signs of the Antichrist’s imminence and the possibility that extraterrestrials might be the trappings of a demonic psy-op, Fr. Ripperger explained the different types of diabolic influence and described how the Church’s major exorcism rite is carried out.

Varieties of diabolic influence

Fr. Ripperger — who stressed that he had “no intention of being an exorcist” and only does it out of obedience — identified several forms of diabolic influence, beginning with infestation, “where they infest houses or locations, inanimate objects, animals.”

‘The demon’s not necessarily in the driver’s seat all the time.’

The exorcist priest turned to Scripture for an example of animal infestation, referencing the ruination of pigs by the evil spirits cast out by Christ from the demoniac in Gergesa.

Fr. Ripperger suggested that infestations are often the localized byproduct of sin: “It’s because somebody has done something particularly evil in a location and, as a result, the demons have gotten their foot in the door there.”

Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

While occult activity can grease the way for an infestation, the exorcist said the sins demons tend to “gravitate toward the most — because they’re easiest to get human beings to fall into — are the sins against the Sixth Commandment like fornication, masturbation, pornography, those types of things.”

Another form of diabolic influence — “the primary way” and a universal challenge — is ordinary temptation, where demons plant notions “in our imaginations,” skew perspectives, and manipulate emotions. Though relatively subtle, Fr. Ripperger noted that this form of influence can still be destructive, particularly within relationships and families.

Diabolic obsession is another variety in which demons “attack our interior faculties, specifically the imagination and emotions again — but unlike ordinary temptation, this is extraordinary, where it’s very powerful and very strong,” capturing the victim’s attention and imagination and leaving them with a kind of spiritual “tunnel vision.”

While someone experiencing diabolic obsession may initially have periods of lucidity, Fr. Ripperger said those moments of reprieve can diminish over time if the influence persists. Eventually the victim may capitulate and commit a grave sin at the demon’s urging — or possibly even become possessed.

The priest described two kinds of diabolic possession. The first is “perfect possession, where the person has given themselves over to the demon entirely, and then the demon possesses the whole body, and the demon is manifested all the time.”

According to Fr. Ripperger, this condition — outward signs of which include malice, mendacity, animus, and destructiveness — is rare. Individuals in such a state rarely seek out priests, since they are not desirous of liberation.

Partial possession, by contrast, refers to a temporary and localized possession of part of the body where “the demon’s not necessarily in the driver’s seat all the time.”

The exorcism rite

When asked about the process of conducting an exorcism, Fr. Ripperger said the approach is structured, though the particulars vary depending on what is known about the individual, whether they have had prior encounters with dark forces, and what stage of diabolic influence they appear to be in.

“So in many cases, if the person who’s possessed can tolerate it, we’ll actually offer Mass so that the person can receive Holy Communion, which then weakens the demon significantly,” he said, noting that confession is encouraged beforehand.

After Mass but before the exorcism ritual begins in earnest, a series of prayers are recited “to provide everybody protection that’s in the room.”

“So we do a series of prayers — binding prayers — which bind the demon from being able to do certain things, and then we’ll actually start the formal ritual.”

The Latin ritual typically begins with the Litany of the Saints. According to Fr. Ripperger, this serves as a kind of diagnostic tool because a demon’s reaction to the names of certain saints can reveal clues about “the demon’s particular sin” and how best to proceed.

From there, the exorcist alternates between “deprecatory and imprecatory prayer” — the former asking Christ for help and the latter commanding demons directly, ordering the evil spirits to consider specific truths that cause them pain.

The goal, Fr. Ripperger explained, is to allow the demon’s pain “to build to where they finally give you what you need to know in order to get them out.”

Canon law stipulates that “no one can perform exorcisms legitimately upon the possessed unless he has obtained special and express permission from the local ordinary.”

Such permission is granted “only to a presbyter who has piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.”

The Catholic Church also requires that a suspected demoniac undergo “thorough examination including medical, psychological, and psychiatric testing” before being referred to an exorcist.

The Church distinguishes between minor exorcisms — used, for example, in baptismal preparation — and major exorcisms, the rite discussed by Fr. Ripperger, which may only be performed by a bishop or an authorized priest.

Fr. Ripperger told Ryan that “Protestants have a certain degree of efficacy [in exorcisms] by using Christ’s name because it has a force of its own.”

However, he suggested that certain types of possession require the authority of the Catholic Church and its clergy — authority that traces back to Christ’s commissioning of the apostles.

Bad signs and end times

Asked where evil appears to be gaining ground in society, Fr. Ripperger said the forces of darkness have increasingly targeted good families — “families that historically led good lives, were raising their kids properly, very often very religious, doing the things that they’re supposed to do.”

The priest suggested this “full-blown attack” on previously resilient targets may indicate that demons are emboldened by a worsening moral climate — or that they “know their time is short,” possibly because a divine “corrective” is approaching.

‘That is not a reference to the Jewish temple.’

Ryan asked whether such developments might signal the approach of the end times.

While acknowledging that “we don’t really have any certitude,” Fr. Ripperger said several conditions traditionally associated with the Antichrist appear increasingly plausible.

Among them:

“A worldwide implosion of people’s morality,” in which “people just aren’t following the laws of God or the natural law in any sense of the term”; The emergence of technological and institutional systems — such as unified global financial systems and digital currencies — capable of controlling populations on a mass scale; and Internal crisis within the Catholic Church prior to a future renewal.

Fr. Ripperger also expressed skepticism about the idea that rebuilding a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem is a necessary precursor to the end times. He argued that the Church Fathers consistently held that such a temple would never be rebuilt and that the prophecy often cited in this context has been widely misunderstood.

RELATED: Understanding hell — Part I

Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

“The difficulty is people tend to misinterpret the Book of Daniel, which says when the abomination of desolation takes its seat in the temple,” he said. “What they don’t realize is that that is not a reference to the Jewish temple.”

Instead, he suggested that the New Covenant superseded the Old Covenant and that the “holy place” referenced in such passages should be understood as the Catholic Church.

‘It permanently robbed a person of the possibility of the beatific vision.’

Whatever the signs of the times, Fr. Ripperger emphasized that Christians must remain faithful.

It is critical, he said, that believers “follow Christ regardless of the personal cost.”

Demonic psy-op

Former President Barack Obama claimed in an interview last month that aliens are “real.”

Although Obama later walked back the remark, President Donald Trump announced he would nevertheless be “directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”

Asked about UFOs and extraterrestrials, Fr. Ripperger suggested that some sightings could simply be government experiments — a suspicion reinforced by a 2025 Wall Street Journal report that found the Pentagon had at times disseminated false information about aliens to obscure sensitive weapons programs.

However, he noted that many accounts of alien abductions closely resemble descriptions of demonic encounters.

RELATED: What Shia LaBeouf’s public struggle shows us about Christian redemption

Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

“If you strip the veneer of the alien aspect of it off, then in point of fact what you’re dealing with is just — they’re just demons,” he said.

Fr. Ripperger added that some unidentified anomalous phenomena could also be what he called “diabolic mirage[s]” — supernatural illusions permitted by God in rare circumstances.

Abortion: Demonic empowerment

After Ryan brought up Baphomet — the goat-headed occult figure whose likeness the Satanic Temple adopted as its logo and displayed in a statue in the Iowa Capitol in 2023 — the conversation turned to abortion.

Ryan asked about the demonic interest in child sacrifice.

Fr. Ripperger said demons are empowered by abortion not only because it involves the killing of an innocent but because it denies the child the opportunity for baptism.

“We know of no other means of their salvation other than baptism. … And so historically, the Church always considered abortion to be such a heinous crime because it permanently robbed a person of the possibility of the beatific vision. This is why the Church considered it so evil,” he said.

Obtaining an abortion is an excommunicable offense in the Catholic Church.

The priest argued that demons “are so wed to” the widespread practice of abortion that they will “expend enormous amounts of energy protecting it” in order to prevent children “from ever seeing God.”

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an estimated 1,038,000 abortions were executed in states without total bans in 2024. There were nearly 600,000 abortions in the first six months of 2025.

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​Align, Faith, Religion, Catholic, Exorcism, Exorcist, Demon, Demoniac, Devil, Diabolical, Diabolic, Possessed, Possession, Evil spirit, Evil, End times, Apocalypse, Ripperger, Shawn ryan, Satan, Abortion, Lifestyle