PLUS: Teens make roads safer, Internet Craze Endangers Youth, Comedy Central Gets Science-y
"Joy" stick? Not So
Much --
New
analysis of 130 studies shows that violent video games can increase aggression
and decrease empathy among those who play them. But researchers say that's not
necessarily a reason to toss out Halo just yet.
Craig
Anderson, who leads the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State
University in Ames, says that video gaming is just one of many factors that can
lead children and youth to become more aggressive. Teens raised in rough
neighborhoods, are exposed to abuse or have trouble in school also are more
likely to be violent.
"If
you have a child with no other risk factors for aggression and violence and if
you allow them to suddenly start playing video games five hours to 10 hours a
week, they're not going to become a school shooter," Anderson says. "One risk
factor doesn't do it by itself." But it is, Anderson adds, one of the only
variables that parents can actually control. (
USA Today)
Volunteer Teens Make
Roadways Safer
-- More than
6,000 youth die on the nation's roadways every year. Some teens, alarmed by
these sobering stats and often touched by personal tragedy themselves, are
trying to encourage their friends to drive more safely through a new,
peer-to-peer program.
The
program, titled Teens in the Driver's Seat, reaches more than 300,000 students
across the country so far, and it's rapidly growing. While previous
safe-driving efforts often focused on just one cause of roadway injuries—not
wearing a seatbelt, for instance, or driving under the influence—Teens in the
Driver's Seat also deals with some often overlooked factors on the roadway,
including night driving and distracted driving.
"We
are all just so surprised when the accidents happened," says 17-year-old
Ali Read, who lost a friend recently to an automobile accident. "As teens,
we tend to think that we are invincible and do not realize that we are driving
a two-ton bullet." (
ABC News)
Internet Craze Poses
Danger For Youth
-- Some folks
have called Chatroullette, the latest Web site to take the virtual world by
storm, the anti-Facebook. Instead of creating a forum that allows you to talk
with folks you already know, Chatroullette introduces users to strangers
completely at random.
What could
go wrong, you ask? Plenty, as it turns out. While Chatroullette insists that
its users be at least 16 and tells them to not engage in any obscene or
pornographic activities while online, these sorts of restrictions are easy for
users to work around. Furthermore, they might be whisked to "chat" with someone
sitting, in front of his or her computer, completely naked—and that outcome is
more likely than you'd think. Some experts claim that the site is a "predator's
paradise."
"This is a huge red flag; this
is extreme social networking," Ernie Allen, president of the National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told The Early Show on CBS.
"This is a place kids are going to gravitate to." (
Fox News)
Comedy Central Gets
All Science-y
-- If you want
to learn a little something about science on television, where do you go? A
thoughtful talk show? They don't book scientists anymore. The Science Channel?
Get real. Unless the "science" in question involves things blowing up, it
doesn't have time for it.
No,
scientists say the best—indeed, perhaps the only—network friendly to science
these days is Comedy Central. Really.
"Comedy Central is it, as far
as science goes," says Caltech physicist Sean Carroll. "I give
tremendous credit to
The Daily Show
and
The Colbert Report for
understanding that science is fascinating and fun, not off-putting and
work." (
USA Today)
More Youth Culture Updates:
YCU: Drug Use Link to Lack of Sleep
YCU: Young Adults Not In Church
YCU: Teen Boys Lie About Sex
YCU: Teens picky about Internet
YCU: Bullying linked to suicide
