Former ESPN anchor and now Actual Friends co-host Sage Steele delivered a raw, personal warning this week about the corrosive power of social media, telling listeners how lies on platforms like TikTok have “infected” her own children and eroded their sense of truth. Her account wasn’t a vague cultural hot take — it was a mother’s plea: Big Tech’s profit-driven attention engines are not just annoying, they are actively warping the next generation.
That warning came amid the shock and grief following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college event, an act that laid bare how political rhetoric and online radicalization can metastasize into real-world violence. Americans across the country are still grappling with the fallout from that shooting, and Steele used the moment to connect the dots between online deceit and the violent consequences we are now seeing on our campuses and streets.
Steele’s candor is a shot across the bow to every parent who thinks “it can’t happen here.” She described children parroting false narratives, treating conspiratorial thinking as normal, and absorbing a steady diet of outrage that rewards extremes. This is not abstract academic talk — it is a practical parenting crisis that conservative families have been warning about for years.
Make no mistake: the platforms are engineered to addict and amplify, and when they do, falsehoods spread faster than any adult can correct them. Steele’s account underscores what many on the right already know: without accountability, these companies will continue to monetize social division and hand our children a poisoned civic imagination. Americans who still believe in personal responsibility and the rule of law should find that intolerable.
Policy and cultural responses must follow. Universities and local authorities are rightly reassessing campus safety and how public events are protected, but safety cannot be only physical — we also need digital defenses for families, stronger parental controls, and legal pressure on platforms that knowingly profit from manipulation. If activism and mourning over Kirk’s death mean anything, let it be a renewed push to protect our kids from being radicalized in comment sections and algorithmic rabbit holes.
Conservatives proud of their faith, family, and country should not shrink from this fight. We can defend free speech and insist on truth at the same time; the choice is not between liberty and safety but liberty grounded in facts and responsibility. Sage Steele’s testimony is an urgent call to arms for parents, lawmakers, and patriotic citizens to reclaim the moral education of the next generation from the hands of Big Tech and restore an honest public square.
