A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
I often get asked questions like ‘what can I do?’ about the sexualisation of children. I think the key to change is collective grass-roots action so here are just a few ideas that may help you start your own local campaign: Ask your local video store manager to move the ‘adult only' section away from [...]
An American study linked computer games to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when it found people who play computer games for around 40 hours a week are more likely to have difficulty paying attention than people who only play computer games for a couple of hours a week. The researchers who conducted the study conceded that [...]
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. [...]
A British study of 17,000 parents and their children found that mothers who return to work before their child's first birthday do not harm their child's mental development. The study examined children born in the 1990s with a series of tests and questionnaires. Co-author of the study, Professor Heather Joshi, described why the study is [...]
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 [...]
A survey of almost 3000 students has found 60% of girls in year 12 admit to binge drinking three or more times in the last fortnight, and half say they have had sex. Most alarmingly, 38% of the girls surveyed said they had endured unwanted sex. The most common reason for unwanted sex for women [...]
Here are the top ten “outs” that I have collected from teenagers over the years. Not all of them are great, but they cover a range of different ways of saying ‘no’, including excuses (often using information they have picked up in drug education lessons at school) and delaying or putting off the situation. ‘I’m [...]
A new program will educate Trainee teachers on how to monitor and manage cyber-bullying. The program from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will build on the Cybersmart Internet Safety Awareness presentations which have been presented to over 50,000 teachers, parents and students. A pilot of the program is currently being trialled at the [...]
Teenagers with parents open to talking about their drug and alcohol experiences are less likely to use drugs themselves, an American study has found. The survey found 63% of the teens aged 15-18 believed they would be more responsible with drugs and alcohol after hearing their parent’s stories. Over half of the teens said they [...]
