A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Flickr Images It was nearing midnight when she slipped out of bed, padded across the wood floors and peered into the room across the hall. Her 15-year-old son was still awake, like she knew he would be, sitting in his bed, staring at his laptop screen. This had long been his nightly ritual: [...]
TongRo Images Inc./Getty Images If there's one rule that most parents cling to in the confusing, fast-changing world of kids and media, it's this one: No screens before age 2. As of today, that rule is out the window. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which first issued that recommendation back in 1999, has [...]
Pixabay Images Recently a primary school in Brisbane informed its Prep (Foundation) parents that all of its students would be required to have an iPad for school and this would be done at the parent’s expense. Needless to say this raised much discussion and debate. As part of this discussion I found myself [...]
Pixabay Images I admit we were naive. We didn't quite get when computers entered their classrooms and their bedrooms ("the teacher said I have to do it online mum!"), that the Net – while holding incredible opportunities for learning – also opened up a whole new nefarious world of shallows and shoals, of [...]
JGI/Tom Grill/Getty Images/Blend Images Our love of social media seems to have grown and grown in the past decade, but recent studies show the tide may be turning for some platforms, with young people in particular ditching Facebook. One study claims that more than 11 million teenagers left Facebook between 2011 and 2014. [...]
Flickr Images Susan* bought her 6-year-old son John an iPad when he was in first grade. “I thought, ‘Why not let him get a jump on things?’ ” she told me during a therapy session. John’s school had begun using the devices with younger and younger grades — and his technology teacher had [...]
Flickr Images People convey meaning by what they say as well as how they say it: Tone, word choice, and the length of a phrase are all crucial cues to understanding what’s going on in someone’s mind. When a psychiatrist or psychologist examines a person, they listen for these signals to get a [...]
Pixabay Images Pokémon GO is only days old, but already it’s a monster success. It’s all over the news and social feeds, crashed servers here in Australia and compelled millions of big and little kids world-wide to hit the streets to chase colourful creatures that don’t really exist. Yeah great, you say, but [...]
Pixabay Images The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is reiterating its long-standing appeal for parents to keep children away from violent movies and video games. “Although there is broad scientific consensus that virtual violence increases aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, there has been little public action to help mitigate children’s exposure to it,” [...]
I’m not from Australia originally, but since arriving I’ve come to embrace this continent’s unique sport of Aussie Rules Football. I enjoyed a Friday night game at a friend’s house recently, and watched Channel 7’s post-game Friday Front Bar for the first time. Filmed in front of a live audience at a Richmond Hotel, it [...]
