A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
You may have read my column a couple of weeks ago about how schools are banning playground games because students lacked the resilience or social skills to handle losing. This week I came across research from Deakin University and VicHealth that supported the idea that younger Australian kids are “bubble wrapped” more than their UK [...]
In response to the longtime, alarming proliferation of photos and videos containing child pornography on the Internet, Web search giants Google and Microsoft plan to introduce measures to block the content from their search results. The modifications will prevent more than 100,000 search terms from generating results that link to images and videos associated with [...]
Success, in the Western world, means “gaining time,” according to French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard. The faster we do things — work, eat, sleep, read — the more time we “gain.” But this focus on time efficiency could be making the small things in life harder to enjoy. A trio of Canadian researchers have discovered that [...]
Is there really such a disorder as "Internet addiction"? In my estimation, the short, honest answer is, "We don't know enough to say for sure." Part of the problem is the ambiguity in—and disagreement over—the terms "addicted" and "addiction." An even more serious problem is sorting out the role of "the Internet" (and other electronic [...]
Scores of middle-class Australians are drinking at dangerous levels and ending up in emergency departments with alcohol-related problems, the largest survey of Australians' present drug and alcohol use has found. Addiction medicine specialists say the Global Drug Survey of 22,000 people worldwide has identified a largely invisible group of professional Australians who are drinking excessively, [...]
Surprise and disappointment accompanied the recent publication of country by country test results from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study when Australian children unexpectedly performed poorly. In the reading literacy test our children rated 27 out of the 49 countries tested and in the maths [...]
Hundreds of children have been treated for sports-related head injuries at the Royal Children's Hospital in the past six months and many are returning to the field after a concussion, contrary to guidelines. About 300 children arrived at the hospital's emergency department with sports-related head injuries between May and November. They included 90 children who [...]
Melinda Tankard Reist Girlfriend and Dolly can be commended this year for taking strong stands on alcohol and drugs. This issue of GF is no exception, with ‘The High Life’ exploring the harms of smoking marijuana. When celebs boast about it – such as Miley Cyrus posting a photo of herself smoking pot with the [...]
An article in The Age recently opened up, yet again, the discussion around education and the pros and cons of a conservative approach to teaching and learning or a more innovative, creative approach. It made for thought-provoking reading. I make no apology for being a huge fan of Sir Ken Robinson and his ideals of [...]
Why do kids like playing video games so much? Is it because they’re violent, misogynistic or just plain mind-numbing? Generation Next speaker Dr Wayne Warburton has conducted research that shows the impact of violent games on the adolescent brain has both short and long term effects. None of them good. Let’s leave violent [...]
