More Research on 'Sexting' From the NSPCC

The NSPCC has published a follow up study on 'sexting' following on from their May 2012 study:  A qualitative study of children, young people and 'sexting'

The researchers conducted 12 focus groups with 120 young people, aged 13 to 14 years, across three counties in England. An additional 30 children aged 10-11, from two different counties in England, were also questioned.

The research findings were:

* there was widespread knowledge of sexting amongst 13-14 year olds. Although not everyone was engaged in sexting, many had peers that were


* 13-14 year old girls tended to self-generate as a result of a request from a boy, whilst boys tended to self-generate unprompted

* many 13-14 year olds reported that the fear of being judged would prevent them from talking to an adult if something went wrong

* most 10-11 year olds had to deal with some form of online abuse, but there was little evidence that they were exposed to sexualised content, or asked to self-generate.   The full report is available to download for free here:

Sexting: an exploration of practices, attitudes and influences (PDF, 172KB)

Girl's Attitudes & Role Models Explored

A new report by Girlguiding UK highlights a role model deficit among girls and young women, shedding light on how the narrow range of positive examples available to girls and young women aged 7 to 21 is linked to a limited range of aspirations for their futures.

The report, prepared from focus group research, says that girls who think it right to refrain from sex while still far below the legal age of consent are no more than “a significant minority”. Several of those surveyed admitted taking risks and pushing themselves beyond their comfort zone in order to feel accepted – drinking alcohol, partying and having underage sex. They justify their actions by referring to the abundance of TV shows that are seen to normalise such behaviour.

The full report is available here:
http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/pdf/GirlsAttitudesExploredRoleModels_FINAL.pdf [PDF 5.55MB]

Protecting Children From Commercialisation & Sexualisation

The Government has set out new measures protect children from commercialisation and sexualisation in society.
Ministers welcomed progress to date in implementing the recommendations of the independent Let Children Be Children report by Reg Bailey, Chief Executive of Mothers’ Union – but said that industry still has plenty of work to do.

The Bailey review found that increasingly we live in a society full of sexualised imagery, where families don’t feel in control and children can’t be children. It said that parents are worried about their children being exposed to inappropriate material and that although families want to take responsibility, all too often they don’t know how.

The new measures include:

• Consulting on whether the current age rating system should be extended to cover more music DVDs and Blu-ray discs - to protect children from inappropriate material. Most are currently exempt from the Video Recordings Acts 1984 and 2010 as are sports, religious and educational products;
• Working with the music industry, online retailers and video services, to have clear warnings on explicit videos where they are shown online. Many online video services already do this, and by the end of the year, YouTube will provide the music industry with the ability to label their videos "explicit," giving parents a straightforward way of checking whether they are going to be suitable for their children.
  
• Taking forward the final stage of legislation needed so that the planned new system of age classification and labelling for videogames giving clearer age ratings and advice for parents can start in July.  The new system will extend the statutory backing to cover games rated PEGI 12 as well as to those rated 16 and 18; and
• Asking the Advertising Standards Authority to consider whether more should be done to spell out the commercial intent of ‘advergames’ to young people and their parents.

You can read the Department for Education's full press release, plus links to other resources on this issue here: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00208703/protecting-children-from-commercialisation-and-sexualisation-next-steps-on-bailey

Social Determinants Of Health & Well-being Among Young People

The World Health Organisation has published a new report which looks at how health and well-being inschool-aged children in determined by their social circumstances.

The report gives the results of the 2009/2010 HBSC survey, covering 39 countries and regions across the European Region and North America. It collected data from 11, 13 and 15-year-olds on 60 topics related to their health and well-being, social environments and behaviour. Responding to the survey, the young people described their social context (relations with family, peers and school), physical health and satisfaction with life, health behaviours (patterns of eating, tooth brushing and physical activity) and risk behaviours (use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, sexual behaviour, fighting and bullying). Statistical analyses were carried out to identify meaningful differences in the prevalence of health and social indicators by gender, age group and levels of family affluence.

The report is available to view here: http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/Life-stages/child-and-adolescent-health/publications/2012/social-determinants-of-health-and-well-being-among-young-people.-health-behaviour-in-school-aged-children-hbsc-study

British Teenagers Among The Worst For Sex & Drinking

Research published in the Lancet Series on Adolescent Health suggests that British teenagers are among the world’s worst for binge drinking and underage sex. In a league table of 40 mostly high-income countries, England had the fourth highest percentage of young people who have been drunk by the age of 13, with Wales fifth and Scotland eighth. Britain also had the third highest rate of sexual activity among 13 to 15-year-old girls in the study of 17 Western European nations, with 32 per cent saying they were sexually active. The two studies used figures for 2006, the most recent year of international comparable data. The research suggest that the wellbeing of teenagers has improved far less over the past 50 years than that of children under 10.

You can read the research here: http://www.thelancet.com/series/adolescent-health-2012