Driving behavior influenced by family, friends: A new study confirms that family and friends influence whether a driver speeds. Judy Fleiter, from the Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) Accident Research and Road Safety Centre, looked at the driving habits of more than 300 people in south-east Queensland aged 16-79. She says there is a distinct "social influence" on how people drive. The study results are showing us are that people can also be influenced to not speed. So it goes both ways in relation to that driving behavior and that seems particularly relevant. While friends were more important in the results of the study, family members were also a significant influence.

U Of M Study: Girls Shouldn't Obsessively Weigh In Teen girls who frequently weighed themselves were more likely than others to resort to unhealthy dieting measures, and some ended up gaining close to twice as much weight, a study of Minnesota students found. The most scale-obsessed girls in the University of Minnesota research were more likely to skip meals, use diet pills or laxatives, smoke, and binge and vomit to lose weight. The act of getting on the scale, weighing yourself every day, can lead to an unhealthy weight preoccupation, And teenage girls who are concerned about their weight are at great risk for unhealthy weight control behaviors.

Kids keep online threats secret from parents Schoolchildren are being "victimized, teased and mocked" on an internet "spider web" of instant messaging and blogging kept secret from parents, including instances of students exchanging insults, threats and explicit pictures via a network of home computers. Police say they have investigated and, in some cases, charged children for such cyber-bullying crimes as stalking, harassment and menacing other students, as well as child pornography. The reputations of children who make a mistake can be trashed. Kids can be victimized, teased and mocked for their boy or girl friends. Criminal offences relating to the behavior of school children online have definitely been reported to police and they have been investigated," he said.

Teen Use of Eating Disorders Web Sites on the Rise
"People have always picked up and shared dangerous information," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Rebecka Peebles, an instructor of adolescent medicine at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University School of Medicine. "The Internet gives instant access to new and potentially dangerous information kids may not have encountered on their own." And parents often unaware children are visiting dangerous sites, study finds. Teens with eating disorders often turn to the Web -- sometimes for help with their problem but also for new suggestions on ways to lose weight. Parents, however, seem largely unaware that their children are using the Internet to visit eating disorder Web sites. Those are two conclusions from a new study in the December issue of Pediatrics that also found that teens who look for eating disorder information on the Internet are more likely to be hospitalized for their condition than teens who don't turn to the Web.

Anxiety grows around teen net use  A strange dichotomy relates to teen use of the Internet. According to the National Attitudinal Poll conducted in June 2006, 77 percent of parents recognize the importance of the internet as an educational tool. But that same poll reports that 85 percent of parents say that it poses "the greatest risk to their children among all forms of media." "With supervision, young kids can be impacted by the Internet in a positive way which should allow them to be more prepared for the world that awaits them," said Joanna Guest, an elementary school teacher who was somewhat awed by her pupils' prospects. According to a 2005 Pew study, Web utilization has grown by 24 percent from the same period four years prior. Staying connected, be it to friends, teachers, or to current events, is now a priority and something of a birthright.
"The digital revolution is increasing, not decreasing, the connection between American teens and news," said Eric Newton, director of Knight Foundation's Journalism Initiatives.
Weighing the benefits against the fears, real or imagined, of how the Internet affects youth is likely to be a process under continuous scrutiny for some time to come, or at least until the next boogieman rears its head. 

Violent Video Games Leave Teenagers Emotionally Aroused
Video games are big business with nearly $10 billion in sales in the United States last year. But along with growing sales come growing concerns about what effects these games may be having on the young people who play them.  A new study has found that adolescents who play violent video games may exhibit lingering effects on brain function, including increased activity in the region of the brain that governs emotional arousal and decreased activity in the brain's executive function, which is associated with control, focus and concentration. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)

New study shows teenage girls' use of diet pills doubles over five-year span A study released today by the University of Minnesota's "Project EAT" (Eating Among Teens)  ...found that high school-aged females' use of diet pills nearly doubled from 7.5 to 14.2 percent. By the ages of 19 and 20, 20 percent of females surveyed used diet pills. more

Medics 'under-report child abuse' report Many doctors are fearful of reporting suspected abuse. Many doctors and nurses who see a child they suspect has been physically abused do not report it to the appropriate authorities, a survey has indicated.

Tackling the threat of child abuse online

Peter Robbins is the Chief executive, of the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK watchdog set up to combat potentially illegal content online, involving a partnership between the government, police and the internet service provider industry that was needed to tackle the distribution of child abuse images online.

In their first year they handled 615 reports but they have processed more than 27,000 reports already this year. Over the 10 years they have traced more than 31,000 websites that appear to contain potentially illegal child abuse images.

In the vast majority of those instances they have forwarded reports to international hotline partners and law enforcement agencies so they can take action to have the images removed as soon as possible.

With it increased broadband speed and greater online storage facilities, the sharing of higher quality video may in turn lead to different types of potentially illegal content being swapped.

Despite having nearly eradicated the hosting of online child abuse images in the UK, this material is still available elsewhere and can be accessed from the UK. The IWF is seeking the co-operation of international partners to substantially cut the availability of child abuse material wherever it is hosted.

Get involved!
http://www.iwf.org.uk/