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Every day, every week,
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we agree to terms and conditions.
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And when we do this,
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we provide companies with the lawful right
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to do whatever they want with our data
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and with the data of our children.
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Which makes us wonder:
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how much data are we giving
away of children,
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and what are its implications?
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I'm an anthropologist,
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and I'm also the mother
of two little girls.
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And I started to become interested
in this question in 2015
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when I suddenly realized
that there were vast --
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almost unimaginable amounts of data traces
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that are being produced
and collected about children.
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So I launched a research project,
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which is called Child Data Citizen,
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and I aimed at filling in the blank.
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Now you may think
that I'm here to blame you
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for posting photos
of your children on social media,
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but that's not really the point.
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The problem is way bigger
than so-called "sharenting."
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This is about systems, not individuals.
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You and your habits are not to blame.
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For the very first time in history,
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we are tracking
the individual data of children
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from long before they're born --
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sometimes from the moment of conception,
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and then throughout their lives.
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You see, when parents decide to conceive,
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they go online to look
for "ways to get pregnant,"
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or they download ovulation-tracking apps.
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When they do get pregnant,
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they post ultrasounds
of their babies on social media,
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they download pregnancy apps,
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or they consult Dr. Google
for all sorts of things,
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like, you know --
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for "miscarriage risk when flying"
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or "abdominal cramps in early pregnancy."
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I know because I've done it --
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and many times.
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And then, when the baby is born,
they track every nap,
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every feed,
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every life event
on different technologies.
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And all of these technologies
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transform the baby's most intimate
behavioral and health data into profit
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by sharing it with others.
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So to give you an idea of how this works,
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in 2019, the British Medical Journal
published research that showed
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that out of 24 mobile health apps,
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19 shared information with third parties.
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And these third parties shared information
with 216 other organizations.
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Of these 216 other fourth parties,
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only three belonged to the health sector.
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The other companies that had access
to that data were big tech companies
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like Google, Facebook or Oracle,
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they were digital advertising companies
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and there was also
a consumer credit reporting agency.
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So you get it right:
-
ad companies and credit agencies may
already have data points on little babies.
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But mobile apps,
web searches and social media
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are really just the tip of the iceberg,
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because children are being tracked
by multiple technologies
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in their everyday lives.
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They're tracked by home technologies
and virtual assistants in their homes.
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They're tracked by educational platforms
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and educational technologies
in their schools.
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They're tracked by online records
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and online portals
at their doctor's office.
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They're tracked by their
internet-connected toys,
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their online games
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and many, many, many,
many other technologies.
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So during my research,
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a lot of parents came up to me
and they were like, "So what?
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Why does it matter
if my children are being tracked?
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We've got nothing to hide."
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Well, it matters.
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It matters because today individuals
are not only being tracked,
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they're also being profiled
on the basis of their data traces.
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Artificial intelligence and predictive
analytics are being used
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to harness as much data as possible
of an individual life
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from different sources:
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family history, purchasing habits,
social media comments.
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And then they bring this data together
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to make data-driven decisions
about the individual.
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And these technologies
are used everywhere.
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Banks use them to decide loans.
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Insurance uses them to decide premiums.
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Recruiters and employers use them
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to decide whether one
is a good fit for a job or not.
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Also the police and courts use them
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to determine whether one
is a potential criminal
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or is likely to recommit a crime.
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We have no knowledge or control
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over the ways in which those who buy,
sell and process our data
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are profiling us and our children.
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But these profiles can come to impact
our rights in significant ways.
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To give you an example,
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in 2018 the "New York Times"
published the news
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that the data that had been gathered
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through online
college-planning services --
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that are actually completed by millions
of high school kids across the US
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who are looking for a college
program or a scholarship --
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had been sold to educational data brokers.
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Now, researchers at Fordham
who studied educational data brokers
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revealed that these companies
profiled kids as young as two
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on the basis of different categories:
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ethnicity, religion, affluence,
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social awkwardness
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and many other random categories.
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And then they sell these profiles
together with the name of the kid,
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their home address and the contact details
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to different companies,
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including trade and career institutions,
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student loans
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and student credit card companies.
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To push the boundaries,
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the researchers at Fordham
asked an educational data broker
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to provide them with a list
of 14-to-15-year-old girls
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who were interested
in family planning services.
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The data broker agreed
to provide them the list.
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So imagine how intimate
and how intrusive that is for our kids.
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But educational data brokers
are really just an example.
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The truth is that our children are being
profiled in ways that we cannot control
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but that can significantly impact
their chances in life.
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So we need to ask ourselves:
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can we trust these technologies
when it comes to profiling our children?
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Can we?
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My answer is no.
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As an anthropologist,
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I believe that artificial intelligence
and predictive analytics can be great
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to predict the course of a disease
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or to fight climate change.
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But we need to abandon the belief
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that these technologies
can objectively profile humans
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and that we can rely on them
to make data-driven decisions
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about individual lives.
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Because they can't profile humans.
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Data traces are not
the mirror of who we are.
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Humans think one thing
and say the opposite,
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feel one way and act differently.
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Algorithmic predictions
or our digital practices
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cannot account for the unpredictability
and complexity of human experience.
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But on top of that,
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these technologies are always --
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always --
-
in one way or another, biased.
-
You see, algorithms are by definition
sets of rules or steps
-
that have been designed to achieve
a specific result, OK?
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But these sets of rules or steps
cannot be objective
-
because they've been designed
by human beings
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within a specific cultural context,
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and are shaped
by specific cultural values.
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So when machines learn,
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they learn from biased algorithms
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and they often learn
from biased databases as well.
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At the moment, we're seeing
the first examples of algorithmic bias.
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And some of these examples
are frankly terrifying.
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This year, the AI Now Institute
in New York published a report
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that revealed that the AI technologies
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that are being used
for predictive policing
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have been trained on "dirty" data.
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This is basically data
that had been gathered
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during historical periods
of known racial bias
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and nontransparent police practices.
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Because these technologies
are being trained with dirty data,
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they're not objective,
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and their outcomes are only
amplifying and perpetrating
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police bias and error.
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So I think we're faced
with a fundamental problem
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in our society.
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We are starting to trust technologies
when it comes to profiling human beings.
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We know that in profiling humans,
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these technologies
are always going to be biased
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and are never really going to be accurate.
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So what we need now
is actually political solution.
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We need governments to recognize
that our data rights are our human rights.
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(Applause and cheers)
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Until this happens we cannot hope
for a more just future.
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I worry that my daughters
are going to be exposed
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to all sorts of algorithmic
discrimination and error.
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You see the difference
between me and my daughters
-
is that there's no public record
out there of my childhood.
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There's certainly no database
of all the stupid things that I've done
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and thought when I was a teenager.
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(Laughter)
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But for my daughters
this may be different.
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The data that is being collected
from them today
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may be used to judge them in the future,
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and can come to prevent
their hopes and dreams.
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I think that's it's time.
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It's time that we all step up.
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It's time that we start working together
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as individuals,
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as organizations and as institutions,
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and that we demand
greater data justice for us
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and for our children
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before it's too late.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)