A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
The number of young people in the UK who say they do not believe that life is worth living has doubled in the last decade, amid a sense of overwhelming pressure from social media which is driving feelings of inadequacy, new research suggests. In 2009, only 9% of 16-25-year-olds disagreed with the statement that “life [...]
"If you'd seen what I'd seen, you would never allow your child alone in their bedroom with an internet-capable device." Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, from Queensland's Taskforce Argos which investigates internet-facilitated crimes against children, has delivered a chilling warning to parents. He was among detectives to speak in a video released by the Queensland Police [...]
More than one in three Australians say they've experienced online harassment, which includes abusive behavior, unwanted sexual messages and intimidation, a new study from The Australia Institute has found. The survey, which asked 1557 Australian workers about online harassment and cyber hate, found more than one in three were targeted - the equivalent of 8.8 [...]
In 2004, the social network site was set up to connect people. But now, with lives increasingly played out online, have we forgotten how to be alone? "Thefacebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges. We have opened up Thefacebook for popular consumption at Harvard University. You can use Thefacebook [...]
Social media platforms are being urged to be far more transparent about how their services operate and to make “anonymised high-level data” available to researchers so the technology’s effects on users — and especially on children and teens — can be better understood. The calls have been made in a report by the UK parliament’s [...]
People used to call Anika the Snap Queen. Between the ages of 19 and 21, she was “obsessed with Snapchat, to the point where I had 4,000 followers”. At the peak of her “tragic” behaviour, she reckons now – a year after quitting the image-sharing app – she was taking 25 selfies a day. She [...]
A trove of internal documents have revealed how Facebook was concerned children were spending large amounts on in-app payments without parents’ permission - but seemingly chose not to act. Discussions showed the firm decided not to implement certain safeguards as it might affect overall revenues from people paying for games. The documents formed part of [...]
A new study from the U.K. examined the link between social media use and depression-type symptoms in almost 11,000 14-year-olds. Researchers found that girls were two times more likely to be depressed than boys, primarily because of cyberbullying and harassment issues. Why are the results of this study so surprising? Almost 40 percent of the [...]
At the beginning of this year, I was using my iPhone to browse new titles on Amazon when I saw the cover of “How to Break Up With Your Phone” by Catherine Price. I downloaded it on Kindle because I genuinely wanted to reduce my smartphone use, but also because I thought it would be [...]
Forensic interviews are intended to gather evidence from minors who may have information about a crime under investigation. But many children who have been traumatized—often by those in a position of (supposed) care and authority—are unable to express, or explain, what has happened to them. Even highly trained professionals are at times ill-equipped to decode [...]
