They say they don’t want Facebook. They insist they don’t need Facebook. They say they’re living life just fine without the long-forgotten acquaintances that the world’s largest social network sometimes resurrects.

They are the resisters.

via Facebook resisters: why millions refuse to like social media giant.

Rose Ashton-Weir, 18, alleges Geelong Grammar gave her inadequate academic support, particularly in maths.

Seeking compensation in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, she said her final secondary school score was too low to study law at the University of Sydney.

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via School 'failed to get me into law'.

Dr Gomathi Sitharthan of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor Raj Sitharthan from the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Sydney conducted an online study of 800 people who watch porn to gain an unprecedented insight into who suffers from porn addiction and how their addiction affects them.

Preliminary results from the study have revealed that 43 percent of those surveyed started to view porn between the ages of 11 and 13, 47 percent spend between 30 minutes and three hours a day watching porn. More than half of porn users surveyed were married or in de-facto relationships and 85 percent were male.

The researchers found excessive users had severe social and relationship problems and had often lost their jobs or been in trouble with the law as a result of their addiction. Some users escalated their viewing to more extreme and often illegal material.

via Study exposes secret world of porn addiction – News and Events – University of Sydney.

Most of the children were harmed by immediate family members or by other relatives, and the rest by the drinking of family friends, neighbours, coaches, religious leaders or others, according to the study, which is published in the latest edition of the international journal Addiction.

The lead author of the study, Anne-Marie Laslett, said children were commonly exposed to the heavy drinking of their parents and others at social occasions and that younger parents in families with young children tended to drink more heavily more often than those who became parents later in life.

via Alcohol a big factor in child harm, says study.

Interview with Assoc Prof Mike Nagel, University of Sunshine Coast, (6 min’s) followed by evidence based guided meditation (5 min’s) with Mrs Priya Rapyal, Mental Stillness Programme. The guided meditation is suitable for children and adults.

Of the 4938 juveniles who came before NSW courts in 1999, over 2600 of them reoffended, on average four times before 2010. For Indigenous kids the rate of recidivism was 84 percent. What is going wrong with our juvenile justice system? Why are kids released only to return a few months down the track? Predictably, many are calling for a tougher approach to juvenile crime but when society’s only solution its to grab a bigger stick, it fails to recognize that many of these kids have been tossed around in a perfect storm of poverty, dysfunction, poor education, and unemployment.

Education is often seen as the silver bullet – a passport out of poverty so to speak. But the fact is, as it stands our education system is clearly failing to engage kids from poorer backgrounds, as the Gonski Report (which seems to have come and gone very quickly) stated, “[There is] an unacceptable link between low levels of achievement and educational disadvantage, particularly among students from low socioeconomic and indigenous backgrounds,”

In 2009, only 56 per cent of children from low socio-economic backgrounds completed Year 12. Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) in the UK has shown that by the age of seven or eight, many boys from low socioeconomic backgrounds have disengaged from their educational experience. Many more follow in the early years of high school. The JRF’s research also shows that in comparison to their middle class peers, children as young as nine know their education is inferior; they know their access to extra-curricular activities is diminished; and they know they will get lower paying jobs – if they get a job at all.

The unemployment rate for 15-19 year olds in NSW is over 20 per cent – the highest in any age group. In some areas like the Illawarra, the rates of 15-19 year olds not in work or full time education is closer to thirty-five per cent. Drugs and alcohol, family dysfunction and the adolescent brain, capable of making incredibly poor choices, only serve to compound these issues. For many, they learn early on that crime does pay.

The fact is: If we want to stop these kids re-offending, we have to stop them offending in the first place. We must address poverty in earnest. We need to be creative in how we run our schools. We need to provide genuine learning and employment opportunities. Provide better funding for youth workers, outreach programs and schools. We need to support families. The government must realize that society as a whole is responsible for our youth, and funding in this area should not be seen as a cost but an investment. The fact that both sides of politics have shied away from endorsing the recommendations contained in the Gonski Review is just one example of the short sightedness that plagues our “leaders” in this regard.

Author: Dan Haesler, he is a teacher, writer and speaker at the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People seminar at the Gold Coast. He writes for the Sydney Morning Herald and blogs at http://danhaesler.com/ and tweets at @danhaesler

Positive Body Image

Vogue is to be commended on their recent stand again using skinny models. According to a Conde Nast International announcement, the 19 editors for Vogue magazines around the world have agreed to “not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder.”

“Vogue believes that good health is beautiful. Vogue Editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers,” said Conde Nast International Chairman Jonathan Newhouse in a statement.

Many young people today, both men and women feel incredible pressure to kowtow to the stereotypes they see in the media and popular culture. Vogue has taken the first step in trying to address this issue and emphasise the importance of health over physical appearance.

5 protective factors that promote positive body image
Help protect young people with body image issues by building resilience:
1. At Home. Young people first learn about the world by what they experience at home within the family. So make sure you model positive body image messages. Don’t talk about being on an endless diet or saying certain foods make you “fat”. Also resist the urge to criticise your own body parts in front of your children. Embrace the way you look and emphasise the positives.
2. Family first. Eating healthy meals as a family is great for bonding and re-affirming positive body image. Family support is a powerful protector for teenagers, positive attitudes help children develop their own resilience to the pressures of images they see in the media.
3. Get physical. Taking part in physical activity is also a central feature of physical self-esteem. When young people exercise to improve their overall fitness or health (as opposed to working out to burn excess calories or build muscle) they are more likely to feel good about themselves.
4. Teach them to question what they see. Popular culture and the media often promote the idea that healthy and beauty means thin. Encourage young people to question what they see and not accept images they see around them as the only way people should look. Get them to critically engage and discuss how people in society are portrayed and the associated expectations that come with it. Developing media literacy will help them to interpret the images that might influence them rather than just being passive observers or receivers of information.
5. Find the balance in life. Encourage young people to define themselves by who they are and not what they look like. They can do this through their interests, sport, spirituality, creative ideas and attitudes to life.

Parents can also:
Table talk: eating meals together is good for bonding, keeps the lines of communication open and provides a great opportunity to demonstrate good eating habits. Try to ensure a variety of foods at the table that make up a varied and balanced diet.
Talk again and again: and then talk some more, reinforcing positive and healthy body images takes time and consistent reinforcement. Watch out for opportunities to talk about positive body image and keep talking in an age appropriate way.
Gaining weight is normal: It is important that teenagers understand that it is a normal part of development to gain weight as they hit their teenager years and their body undergoes major hormonal changes.
Appreciate the person inside: encourage young people to appreciate their inner strengths and resources. Emphasise the importance of a person as a whole, not just what they look like.
No teasing: even in fun, never tease a child about their physical appearance. It can be very hurtful even if they don’t show it.

If you think that someone you know is struggling with their body image, watch out for the following signs:

• Unusual moodiness
• Sudden or noticeable weight loss
• Picking at food or eating alone
• Unwillingness to eat with the family or take part in family events
• Over exercising
• Reluctance to talk

If you still have concerns then seek further help through these organisations and websites:
Contact Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800
Parentline Queensland and Northern Territory – 1300 30 1300
Parentline Victoria – 13 22 89
Parent Helpline South Australia – 1300 364 100
Parent Line New South Wales – 13 20 55
Kidshealth  
Healthyactive 

Dr Rick Kausman, Director of the Butterfly Foundation and Generation Next speaker will be talking about body image at the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People seminars which are held all around Australia. For details and registration go to Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald. Kidshealth.

Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Craig Raeside said the availability of porn to young people was a “big problem that is not being properly looked at”. Dr Raeside, who prepares psychiatric reports on many of the state’s most violent criminals, said he had seen youths spend up to four hours a night watching online porn, which often increased in its depravity as they became tolerant to the content.

via Two teenage boys spend $20,000 on internet pornography | Adelaide Now.

The area of greatest difference was in mental health, where long-term meditators, with a minimum of two years of regular practice, were more than 10 percent better off than the general population.

“We found that the health and wellbeing profile of people who had meditated for at least two years was significantly higher in the majority of health and wellbeing categories when compared to the Australian population,” said Dr Ramesh Manocha, Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Psychiatry, Sydney Medical School, who led the research.

via Meditation linked to better wellbeing and health, including mental health.

via Teen sext haunts man 7 years on.