A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
45 leading academics, doctors and psychologists from around the world have signed a research paper detailing how pictures of airbrushed (digitally enhanced) models in advertisements can cause serious harm to viewers. The report titled "The Impact of Media Images on Body Image and Behaviours: A Summary of the Scientific Evidence" summarises the research of the [...]
Late last week the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth released The State of Australia's Young People Report, examining youth aged from 15-24 years of age. The report was commissioned earlier this year by the Office for Youth to complete the State of Australia’s Young People report and will later be used [...]
Generation Next is coming to Perth! Featuring speakers such as Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Julie Gale, Paul Dillon and Susan McLean, the seminar will provide solutions to the challenges facing generations Y and Z. The seminar will cover a range of topics including cybersafety (including cyberbullying and sexting), the sexualisation of our children in the media, [...]
A Melbourne business marketing 'make-up parties' to girls as young as four has been slammed for sexualising children. The business offers to 'makeover' children with blush, eye liner, eye shadow and nail-paint. Kids Free 2B Kids founder and Generation Next speaker Julie Gale described the business as harming to children. "Parents need to wake up. [...]
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 [...]
Many of the symptoms of depression involve a deviation from normal behaviour, so it is important that you become the world expert on your child to watch for changes that may indicate the onset of depression. Symptoms of depression include: • frequent tiredness, • pervasive boredom (especially in younger children), • low mood, • sudden [...]
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 [...]
New trends for girls as young as seven to make themselves fashionable and attract the attention of young boys is causing an unprecedented rise in childhood depression and anxiety levels, psychologists have warned. Dr Joe Tucci of the Australian Childhood Foundation says the exposure of children to adult concepts is damaging the children. "Kids as [...]
A recent study discussed in Time Magazine found that out of a list of factors examined, depression showed the strongest relationship with acne. The study was carried out in Oslo, Norway, where over 3,500 18-19 year olds were surveyed. The study found that 19 per cent of the teens who reported mental distress had acne, [...]
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 [...]
