A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Narendar Manohar, Black Dog Institute; Hiroko Fujimoto, Black Dog Institute, and Peter Baldwin, Swinburne University of Technology; UNSW Sydney Many Australian children struggle with their mental health. Recent data shows around one in seven children (13.9%) aged 4–17 experiences a diagnosable mental illness. So what can actually help? Our research shows the most [...]
Fotini Vasilopoulos, University of Sydney Pretend play is a significant and often magical part of childhood. Children have huge imaginations and use these to turn rocks into spaceships, tables into forts or pens into fairies. They might pretend to be “mum” or to “cook dinner”. Or they may invent their own characters, worlds [...]
Shane Rogers, Edith Cowan University Students’ mental health is one of the biggest challenges facing schools. In Australia, half of all adult mental health challenges emerge before the age of 14. It is also estimated that more than 50% of children experiencing mental health challenges are not receiving professional help. Schools are increasingly being [...]
Annabel Blake, University of Sydney; Eduardo Velloso, University of Sydney, and Marcus Carter, University of Sydney In 2022, the founders of chatbot startup Character.AI launched a platform where anyone could create interactive characters powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The app exploded, quickly growing to more than 20 million users who created more than 10 [...]
Catherine Page Jeffery, University of Sydney From December 10, those under 16 will only be able to see publicly available content on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube. They will not be able to have their own accounts. For example, they could look up Taylor Swift’s latest music video on YouTube, [...]
Bronwyn Milkins, The Kids Research Institute Australia and Helen Milroy, The University of Western Australia You call your teen’s name, but they don’t respond. They’re staring past you. You call again, louder this time. Nothing – how rude. But what if they’re zoning out? For some teens, this can be a sign of dissociation, a [...]
Christiane Kehoe, The University of Melbourne and Elizabeth Westrupp, Deakin University Watching your teenager grieve the loss of their social media account can be confronting. Many are genuinely distressed or struggling with the change, and many parents are unsure how to respond. Australia’s social media ban, which started this week, means teens under the age [...]
Join Andrew Fuller as he speaks with Professor Sarah Egan about supporting children and teens experiencing grief and loss. Many children experience the loss of someone significant, yet this is often overlooked Grief in children may show up as anger, behavioural issues, or physical symptoms rather than verbally Ways to promote language that [...]
Amy Dawel, Australian National University Young people today are growing up in an increasingly complex world — and arguably suffering as a result. Social media and smartphones provide constant distractions, while the rise of AI and misinformation mean nothing online is straightforward. The pandemic has shown young people the world can be an unpredictable place, [...]
Join Andrew Fuller as he speaks with Professor Mark Boyes about socioemotional wellbeing and transition to high school for children with language and literacy difficulties. Children with language and literacy difficulties may be more likely to experience mental health challenges Many mental health programs rely on language and literacy to access content, which [...]
