An article in the medical journal Pediatrics this month makes significant additions to what we know about youth risk online in two areas: parenting and risk factors for older teen girls (the sample was girls 14-17). The authors of "Association of Maltreatment With High-Risk Internet Behaviors and Offline Encounters" pointed to what we already know: that "95% of American adolescents have Internet … [Read more...] about Important granularity on Net risk for teens: Study
at-risk youth
How to help fix a world problem 1 child at a time
This may seem a little off-topic, as it's not fundamentally about technology, but social media can be a tool in the healing process. Let me explain. More than 5 million US children (275 million worldwide) are dealing with domestic violence – what UNICEF calls "one of the most damaging unaddressed human rights violations in the world today" – and 40 million US adults were once children who lived … [Read more...] about How to help fix a world problem 1 child at a time
FB & Google+ videochat + kids: Should we worry?
Based on old fears around online chat and Webcams, should all the news about videochat in Facebook and the new very social Google+ concern parents (when the latter goes public)? Not really. Not the sort of engaged parents who tend to be concerned, and definitely not those who approach these things from the kid out instead of from the technology or the headlines in (see this). In other words, it … [Read more...] about FB & Google+ videochat + kids: Should we worry?
Important new resource for online risk prevention
A third major mile marker in our collective (global) understanding of how to mitigate youth online risk just fell into place: "Munch, Poke, Ping: Vulnerable Young People, Social Media and E-Safety," a brand-new report to Britain's Training & Development Agency (TDA), the agency responsible for the training and development of that country's school workforce, including counselors and social … [Read more...] about Important new resource for online risk prevention