NYC Mayor Eric Adams prays kids will ease up TikTok, ‘baffled’ by ‘what is happening’
The kids are not alright, according to Mayor Eric Adams.
Hizzoner on Monday defended his repeated calls for more spirituality in schools while slamming social media — specifically the Chinese-owned company TikTok because he said it exposes children to the worst of society.
“I’m really concerned of what I’m seeing. And sometimes I’m baffled,” Adams said on the “Sid & Friends in the Morning” talk show.
“Am I the only one that sees what is happening to our children?
“You have China giving our children a version of TikTok that they won’t show their children,” he said. “This is a Trojan horse moment if I’ve ever witnessed it before in my life.”
A recent Post report revealed that TikTok’s algorithm geared toward a 14-year-old kid’s account often bombards young teens with a disturbing mix of racist, misogynistic, and violent content.
The offensive content includes videos featuring heavy underage drinking, guns, and the sexualization of women.
“Depression, suicide among our children — Instagram and [other] social media … they have hijacked what we normally will instill in our children,” Adams said. “So I’m concerned about our children, and I think one thing that is missing is the level of spirituality with our children.
“Who are we kidding here? We are a country of faith,” he said in arguing for more spirituality in schools.
Adams had decried the US Supreme Court-guaranteed separation of Church and State last month to an audience of interfaith leaders, explaining it is hard for him to disconnect from his personal religious beliefs.
He has since argued that kids need more spirituality in their lives – especially in school – to cope with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse brought on by the pressures of the Internet.
“If you dismantle the children of a culture or a country, you’re dismantling the future … [with the] proliferation of drugs, access to fentanyl, access to cannabis in our communities with our young people,” Adams said.
“We just had a young man the other day – a young teenager under the age of 15! Stabbed his sister, who was also a young teenager under the age of 15,” Adams noted, referring to a Queens kid who angrily attacked his big sister multiple times with a steak knife because she was “bothering him.”
