A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Danny Bowman, 23, was obsessed with uploading selfies on social media when he was a teenager. "I wanted to fit in and I thought the best way to do that was to be good looking," he says. He would take selfies and analyse them for flaws - which he says he always found - and [...]
Bullying transcends childish acts such as teasing, rough housing or joking around. It can be a dangerous activity with devastating physical and psychological effects. It’s a prominent risk factor for substance abuse and addiction, but the person being bullied isn’t the only one at risk. We’re born into a world that rewards winners, but some [...]
A group of ex-Facebook, Google, and Apple employees have announced the formation of The Center for Humane Technology, a coalition designed to fight the growing threat of tech addiction among teens and adolescents, the New York Times reports. The coalition will first launch a campaign called The Truth About Tech. One of the main goals is [...]
I'm sick to death of my phone and I definitely display problematic behaviours toward it. I couldn't find it the other night and spent 20 panicked minutes turning the house upside down. I think technology, and especially social media use, are the recreational drugs of the modern era. Everyone seems addicted. We can't go anywhere [...]
E-cigarettes and vaping is considered to be a harmless version of the real thing with many manufacturers selling them to the youth. There are candy and a host of other flavoured e-cigarettes that are being sold to the youth. A new study from the University of Pittsburgh has found that use of these among the [...]
Gaming on a computer or device is a wildly popular pastime for kids in Australia. In fact, 94 per cent of children between 6 and 15 play games and, while girls are fast gaining on them, gaming still remains more popular with boys. It seems that although (almost) everybody’s doing it, a lot of parents feel [...]
One of the many negative consequences when fetuses are exposed to alcohol in the womb is an increased risk for drug addiction later in life. Neuroscientists in the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions are discovering why. Through a research grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National [...]
For years the addiction field has said that addictions were caused by genetics. If your father is an addict then you have the gene for it and you will become an addict. We now know that the gene is passed on, but it can be turned off if the child has a good and supportive, [...]
Australia tops its fair share of lists, including hosting the deadliest animals on earth and, perhaps paradoxically, some of the world’s most livable cities. But the country also tops the charts on an indicator that is far more insidious: gambling losses. Last year, Australians lost $17.5 billion, or about $949 per adult. These per capita [...]
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: [...]
