Babies are important for many reasons. Not least of which, they are the future. Literally.

Unfortunately, every developed nation in the world, and too many underdeveloped nations, are not having the babies needed to simply replace their present population, much less see essential, healthy growth. This is a very serious problem.

Compelling women to have more babies than they desire is an ethical problem. But let us not assume this underpopulation is necessarily a problem of desire.

We must ask these obvious questions: Are women having all the babies they desire? Or are they just not wanting enough babies to replenish the human population?

These are important questions because helping women accomplish their most important life goals is critical to life satisfaction. And nearly every mom will tell you at length that their babies easily rank at the top of the most important parts of their lives.

So how many babies do women actually desire and how many are they actually having?

Demographer Lyman Stone wrote in The New York Times some years ago that this gap is “far short of what women themselves say they want for their family size.” Women generally report that they would like to have an average of 2.7 children, while in reality they will only have 1.8 on average. Men report essentially the same ideal fertility rate as women.

As any parent knows, most teenagers spend way too much time on their phones; the average is seven hours and 22 minutes per day. However, a group of teenagers recently decided to put their screentime to good use.

A recent report from CBS News highlights the CLEO initiative, started by a group of helpful teens who put their knowledge of technology to work, helping elderly care patients figure out how to use their smartphones.

The group of high school students — Derrick Hueniken, Christian Laquis and Aaron Smolyar — started CLEO, short for Computer Literacy Education Outreach, in 2021.

The teenagers “were joking about how bad their grandparents were with technology ... When the laughter faded, Aaron Smolyar was struck with an idea.”

The group decided to walk over to the Brookdale Senior Living center after class to help any senior in need learn how to operate their iPhones and Androids.

“They’ve been volunteering ever since, showing seniors how to connect using technology. Jonathan Smith, a resident at Brookdale, said he couldn’t figure out how to text a picture until one of the CLEO kids explained it to him,” CBS News reports.

“The volunteers also helped Nancy Kirkpatrick clear out her inbox, which was chock-full of emails — over 122,000 unread messages.”