PARENTING – Page 3

Child Labor – Some Chocolate Has A Dark Side To It

8Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

Child Labor – Some Chocolate Has A Dark Side To It

Chocolate makes for a perfect gift, a comforting snack and even a health food, thanks to its plentiful antioxidants. Rumor has it that it might even work as an aphrodisiac. It is no surprise, then, that the chocolate industry garners billions of dollars each year. However, there is also a dark side to chocolate. As a cultural anthropologist who has done years of research on food and drink in Europe and North America, I have come to understand the close relationship between culinary traditions and social inequality. In a course I teach on the anthropology of food, chocolate is among the numerous food commodities that I cover in the course as an index for understanding social class relations locally and globally, including human trafficking. Exploitative labor, especially child labor, is...

Research Shows Cyberbullying Among Teens And School Bullying Are Often Linked

9Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

Research Shows Cyberbullying Among Teens And School Bullying Are Often Linked

Over recent years, England has faced a concerning rise in cyberbullying compared to other countries. This issue has been compounded by an increase in digital activity among teenagers during COVID-19 lockdowns. Cyberbullying, sometimes called online harassment or abuse, refers to behaviours where a person repeatedly causes harm to others using electronic devices and technologies. The modern abundance of devices with internet access makes it easier for cyberbullies to remain anonymous and create multiple accounts with different identities, giving them the freedom to attack multiple social media users simultaneously, often without obstruction. There are numerous means of victimisation. These include making posts on social media intended to threaten or humiliate someone, publishing videos or...

It’s Not Your Fault Your Kid Won’t Put Down The Smartphone

10Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

It’s Not Your Fault Your Kid Won’t Put Down The Smartphone

Nearly three-quarters of parents are concerned that their kids’ use of mobile devices may be harmful to them or to family relationships – and that was from research done before the pandemic. But it’s not parents’ – or the kids’ – fault. Every time a parent and child try to turn off a game or put a device down, they’re not fighting each other – they’re fighting the invisible army of behavioral design specialists who make technology experiences so hard to tear yourself away from. The people who create apps and games use insights from, and experts in, an area of psychology research called “persuasive design,” whose scholars seek to understand how to create something that is next to impossible to put down. But it’s important to be careful when seeking to hook kids on something, as psycholog...

What Teens See In Closed Online Communities

9Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

What Teens See In Closed Online Communities

Ever since the earliest days of the internet in the 1980s, getting online has meant getting involved in a community. Initially, there were dial-up chat servers, email lists and text-based discussion groups focused on specific interests. Since the early 2000s, mass-appeal social media platforms have collected these small spaces into bigger ones, letting people find their own little corners of the internet, but only with interconnections to others. This allows social media sites to suggest new spaces users might join, whether it’s a local neighborhood discussion or a group with the same hobby, and sell specifically targeted advertising. But the small-group niche community is making a comeback with adults, and with kids and teens. When Discord was initially released in 2015, many video game...

A New Study Finds Youth Largely Underestimate The Risks Of Contracting STIs Through Oral Sex

11Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

A New Study Finds Youth Largely Underestimate The Risks Of Contracting STIs Through Oral Sex

Young people are largely unaware of the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, through oral sex. That’s the finding of our recent study, published in Annals of Family Medicine. Research and education on oral sex are critical because it is a very common sexual practice. And many STIs are transmitted orally, including herpes, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV). Why it matters The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 85% of sexually active people ages 18 to 44 have engaged in oral sex at least once. A separate survey found that 41% of adolescents ages 15 to 19 reported having oral sex. Historically, research on reducing STI transmission among young people has focused primarily on heterosexual vaginal intercourse rathe...

Everything You Need To Know To Claim The Child Tax Credit This Tax Filing Season

11Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

FINANCIAL HEALTH, PARENTING

Everything You Need To Know To Claim The Child Tax Credit This Tax Filing Season

The monthly child tax credit payments may be over, but families now face a new hurdle: Filing for the remaining portion they’re owed. An estimated 40 million households will be applying for the benefit this tax filing season, which, thanks to a bevy of coronavirus-related claims, is already expected to come with significant challenges and delays. The child tax credit, which was expanded to more people and for a larger amount in early 2021, was designed to arrive in two chunks in 2021 to nearly all families with children. The first payments were in six monthly increments. The second would come with families’ tax returns in 2022 — if they know how to get it. “There’s a huge, huge knowledge gap here,” said Jen Burdick, a lawyer at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia who has been helpi...

Should You Worry? Your Teenager Is Vaping E-Cigarettes

11Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

Should You Worry? Your Teenager Is Vaping E-Cigarettes

Lynn T. Kozlowski, University at Buffalo E-cigarettes and other vaping products are on track to out-sell cigarettes by the end of 2023. And more and more young people are trying e-cigarettes. So what do you need to know about them? Are they less harmful than using cigarettes or other burned tobacco products? Mike Mozart, CC BY What are e-cigarettes? First, they are not burned tobacco products. Most often, they contain nicotine solutions that are heated to make a vapor (hence the terms vape or vaping), and they’re usually powered by batteries. Some look like cigarettes and others can resemble flashlights. The first e-cigarettes were not produced by cigarette companies, but the cigarette companies have gotten into the business. E-cigarette and vaping products are available in specialty st...

Here’s The Evolutionary Explanation Of Why Cat And Dog ‘Moms’ And ‘Dads’ Really Are Parenting Their Pets

12Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

Here’s The Evolutionary Explanation Of Why Cat And Dog ‘Moms’ And ‘Dads’ Really Are Parenting Their Pets

Shelly Volsche, Boise State University A pup out for a stroll, without paws touching the ground. Shelly Volsche, CC BY-ND Have you noticed more cats riding in strollers lately? Or bumper stickers that read, “I love my granddogs”? You’re not imagining it. More people are investing serious time, money and attention in their pets. It looks an awful lot like parenting, but of pets, not people. Can this kind of caregiving toward animals really be considered parenting? Or is something else going on here? I’m an anthropologist who studies human-animal interactions, a field known as anthrozoology. I want to better understand the behavior of pet parenting by people from the perspective of evolutionary science. After all, cultural norms and evolutionary biology both suggest people should focus on...

9Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

Should Juveniles Be Sentenced To Life?

America as I understand it is the only country in the world that sentences juveniles; that is those under the age of eighteen to life imprisonment without parole. This was challenged in court about ten years ago with the Supreme court stating it is unconstitutional to sentence minors to life without the possibility of parole. Teenagers are basically the same worldwide. They have the same kind of social, physical, and emotional issues to deal with, but their environment can make or break them. It is this environment which can be the determining factor in where they end up. If they are given the right encouragement and the right tools they can do amazing stuff which sets their life on the right track, however, stuff happens which see their hopes and dreams derailed. Teenagers all around th...

Sex, Drugs And TikTok: Keeping Young People Safe Needs A Mature Response

10Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

Sex, Drugs And TikTok: Keeping Young People Safe Needs A Mature Response

Isabelle Volpe, UNSW and Clare Southerton, UNSW You may have read recently that TikTok allegedly “serves up” sex and drug videos to minors. Media reports have described the video-sharing platform, which is designed predominantly for young people, as an “addiction machine” that promotes harmful content. In an investigation, reporters at the Wall Street Journal created 31 bot accounts on TikTok, each programmed to interact only with particular themes of content. Many of the bots were registered as being aged 13-15, including one programmed with an interest in “drugs and drug use”, which was ultimately shown 569 videos related to drugs. The investigation sought to better understand how the app’s algorithm selects videos for users. The workings of these kinds of algorithms are an industry s...