News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

A report in the British Medical Journal suggests that rickets is becoming more common among children in the United Kingdom.

• Rickets is caused by a lack of vitamin D, found in sunlight.
  
• In the 1800s, many children working in factories or mines developed rickets because they did not get enough sunlight.
  
• Rickets causes bone deformities.

"Children tend to stay indoors more these days and play on their computers instead of enjoying the fresh air. This means that vitamin D levels are worse than in previous years," said Prof. Simon Pearce, one of the authors of the report.

Labels: health, computers, vitamin deficiency, rickets

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A coalition of research and anti-drug abuse organizations has created and launched a new tool for parents. "WebSafe" is an online platform aimed at educating and equipping parents to better protect their kids from pro-drug messages on the Internet.

A Sept. 16 release on the website of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America provided the following details about the effort:

WebSafe is an online community offering information educating adults about pro-drug content to which children may be exposed every time they go online. WebSafe also provides Community Alerts that regularly notify registered "WebSafe Parents" about new, potentially harmful websites and other Internet threats.

Parents and other adults can also purchase "The WebSafe Lifeguard," state-of-the-art software that can monitor and control how long, when, and what sites children are visiting  and even block children from giving out personal and family information.

Eventually, visitors and members will be invited to join local "WebSafe Communities" where they can exchange information about threats with other concerned parents, educators, and professionals in their area.

"Parents would never let children surf dangerous waters unprotected," said Carey Kriz, Unyos CEO. "WebSafe transforms parents into the lifeguard protecting Internet-surfing kids from the subtle and not-so-subtle threats they face."

Labels: internet, computers, online_safety, protection

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In both the United States and Canada, parents, teachers and school administrators have expressed concerns about the prevalence of cell phones in classrooms. Many school administrators have heard from upset parents whose kids are being distracted at best, and bullied at worst, via text messages -- and many teachers worry about the ability of cell phones to augment efforts to cheat on exams and other in-class projects.

In an article in the British Columbia publication Maple Ridge News writer and educator Graham Hookey argues that cell phone rules at school won't help unless they're also enforced at home:

Even while an attempt is made to limit communication during classes, there are few limits outside of class. Studies are showing that many teens are suffering from sleep deprivation, anxiety and in some cases depression caused by incessant computer and cell phone activity. ...

I realize I come across as some kind of Luddite when I say things like this, but whenever a parent comes to me with a sheaf of paper full of poor behaviour, I often ask if they have considered taking away their childs phone or computer. The response is almost universally the same, "Why would we punish our child for things others are doing to them?"

"Educators do not have a lot of tools, or even much authority to govern the activity of students outside of the school day," Hookey wrote. "The best we can do is educate students in appropriate behaviour and educate parents to monitor communication behavior and, if necessary, take away the options at home."

Labels: technology, computers, school, cell phones

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Too often, parents who are misinformed about today’s social networking sites (such as Facebook and MySpace) will simply prohibit their kids from logging on to them. Unfortunately, most kids will do it anyway, so the best thing parents can do is education themselves about the benefits and dangers on online social networking.

"If [parents] engage and have their own experiences on Facebook, LinkedIn, [etc], they will better understand the attraction, the possibilities, and the issues that their teenagers face," said Sue Blaney, author, speaker and teen parenting blogger at PleaseStopTheRollercoaster.com.” [Source: Mashable]

Blaney goes on to suggest that parents guide their teenagers through the process of creating privacy settings on social networking sites. If there are things you don’t understand about a certain site, ask your teenager, he’s probably an expert -- and asking for his help shows that you recognize and appreciate his level of expertise.

Of course, permitting children to use the Internet and social media sites isn't the same as allowing them unfettered access to the online world. Responsible parents should work with their children to develop realistic plans to limit and supervise children's use of computers and other technology.

 

Labels: internet, computers

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A study of 30,000 teenagers in Norway found that too much time in front of television, computers, and video games produces physical complaints such as headaches, neck, back and shoulder pain. Headaches in girls were particularly associated with computer use and television, but not video games.

The study was published in BMC Public Health.
 

Labels: video_games, health, teenagers, television, computers, pain

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

The dramatic increase in ADHD among children has the medical community looking for reasons why. One of its discoveries is that kids who play video games or watch TV for more than two hours per day have trouble concentrating.

“’I think the concern is that the pacing of the program, whether its video games or TV is overstimulating and contributes to attention problems,’ [Dimitri] Christakis says. Psychologist Craig Anderson, one of the study authors, agrees. ‘The kind of screen time that is probably most harmful… is screen time in which the viewer or the game player has to make a lot of quick decisions,’ he says.” [Source: NPR]

The study, out of the University of Iowa, surveyed teachers and parents about kids’ video game and TV-watching habits. Kids who spent a lot of time in front of a screen were twice as likely to have attention problems.

 

Labels: television, computers, adhd, attention

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments