A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Sexualisation is not a problem about sex and sexuality, it is about turning people into objects - which does real harm to girls in obvious ways. Self-objectification is a key process of sexualisation whereby girls learn to think of and treat their own bodies as objects of others’ desires. In self-objectification, girls internalise an observer’s [...]
A survey of almost 3000 students has found 60% of girls in year 12 admit to binge drinking three or more times in the last fortnight, and half say they have had sex. Most alarmingly, 38% of the girls surveyed said they had endured unwanted sex. The most common reason for unwanted sex for women [...]
Kidsmatter, a national initiative aimed at improving the mental health and wellbeing of children in Australian primary schools, has been praised by an independent evaluation released on Tuesday. Kidsmatter is a joint project formed by a number of groups and institutions including the Australian Psychological Society (APS), the Australian Government and national depression initiative Beyondblue [...]
It’s up to us to ensure that our kids get a balance in the stories they’re told. What’s also imperative is that among the stories told to our kids by others (through popular culture) and those that they ‘cobble together’, we include one about ourselves. Kids love to learn their family history through tales of [...]
Kyle Sandilands must be one of the most unpopular guys on the planet, with his latest outburst seeing him once again facing the sack from his $2 million 2DayFM breakfast show for making grotesquely tactless and insensitive remarks that comic Magda Szubanski would lose more weight if she spent time in a concentration camp - [...]
Students of Airds High School, Campbelltown, held a protest against bullying today following a brawl on Monday which left three students injured, including one with a broken nose, and resulted in two suspensions. Only 12 students attended the protest today after teachers threatened to punish those who participated. Similar protests were held in Mullumbimby last [...]
In a disturbing new trend, children are inhaling noxious oxide in an attempt to get a high. Canisters of the gas are legally available in many supermarkets and newsagents, and there are no laws against children purchasing it unless they are likely to be using it in an attempt to get a high. Shops are [...]
The truth is most of our kids are going to be, in the great scheme of things, ordinary. And that’s perfectly all right. Not everyone can be top of the heap, a star or ‘special’ – at least not all the time. To play being a princess or superhero is fine, but believing you should [...]
The students of Mullumbimby High School in northern New South Wales walked out of class on Monday, protesting the "constant bullying" and "lack of supervision" at the school, following a brawl that resulted in the death of a student. Last Friday a lunch time fight caused a student to be sent to hospital suffering serious [...]
Psychologist and author Steve Biddulph has slammed the early sexualisation of children, blaming the early exposure of children to sexualised material for the decline in the age of children becoming sexually active. He explains, "the maturity of children has grown in superficial ways - looking, acting and speaking like adults. But the deeper signs are [...]
