A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Presented by Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) with Supporting Partner the Ted Noffs Foundation. When: 2 - 4 May 2011 Where: Melbourne Convention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria. Who should go: Anyone concerned with the health and welfare of young people and the impact of alcohol and drug use on them. The United Nations is adding their support [...]
A Facebook site created in Canada is calling for the banning of sex offenders on social networking sites and it has now reached 5 million members worldwide. On the site's discussion posts, several people talk of the horror of logging in and seeing a "friend suggestion" - generated by Facebook - of their abuser. The [...]
A recent study considered the longitudinal effects of exposing children to violence and aggressive behaviour. It found that the more violence children are exposed to at a young age, the more they consider it to be normal behaviour and what’s more they are more likely to engage in aggressive behaviour towards others. The study said [...]
84% of Pro-ana sites feature thinspiration: images or video montages of slim women, often celebrities, who may be anything from naturally slim to emaciated with visibly-protruding bones.* People, especially young people, who suffer from any sort of eating disorder, are extremely vulnerable. They are not only physically weakened by malnutrition but they are also mentally [...]
Many people, including regular cannabis users, argue that there is no link between using cannabis and the onset of mental health issues later in life. However a longitudinal study spanning 10 years has now shown that new users of cannabis, especially young people, are more likely to develop psychotic symptoms than those who never used [...]
A recent study carried out by the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, looked at the link between screen-based entertainment time and cardiovascular events later in life. It seems that sitting in front of a screen (TV, computer games, internet etc) and viewing screen based entertainment for long periods of time can [...]
Child beauty pageant company Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant is planning to hold a 'Child Beauty Pageant' in Melbourne, Australia, in July. Many psychologists and child development authorities agree that child beauty pageants are not in the best interest of healthy child development. A study conducted by Anna Wonderlich et.al (2005) in the Journal of Treatment [...]
The Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) recently sent out an open letter to all principals, urging alcohol NOT TO be included at school fund raisers. Dear Principal I am writing to you as Chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) to formally seek your assistance and co-operation in not permitting the use, [...]
Leading health organisations have criticised the alcohol industry’s DrinkWise organisation for involving young people in what appears to be largely a promotional exercise. It seems that although DrinkWise claims to be ‘independent', they are in fact heavily involved with the alcohol industry. DrinkWise is funded by the alcohol industry, and according to its website many [...]
Julie Gale, the founder of Kids Free 2B Kids, a website dedicated to letting children develop to their full potential; without exposure to sexualised imagery before they are developmentally ready to process it, recently spoke to the TODAY program on Channel 9 about the battle many parents face when trying to protect their children from [...]
