Open Spirituality: young people

Can children be negatively affected by family environment, TV, Internet and too much individualism?

Yes - according to a recent report by "The Children's society". Report released on Feb 2nd 09.

"The Children's society" has released a report demonstrating how children are being affected by family environment, TV, Internet and individualism - to name but a few.It examines the darker side of these elements and the impact on well being.

The research was spearheaded under the banner of - making childhood better. The bbc has some video testimonials reflecting children & young people's perspectives.

It's funny how this report seemed to look at the dark side of Internet time, I wonder how much credibility they gave to the MacArthur report, which I blogged about recently - stating the positives (Internet)?

lovely links...

Children's society press release
http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/whats_happening/media_office/latest_news/14758_pr.html

bbc children's related videos - childhood, well being, society, etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7861512.stm

Pupils' well-being to be measured -bbc
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7661236.stm

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)Social and emotional well being in primary education
http://www.nice.org.uk/PH12

MacArthur Foundation dishes out the reality of truckloads of skills kids picking up online
This results of this fab and extensive research conducted by MacArthur foundation into how time spend online was important for youth development. The paper titled: Living and Learning with New Media raised the following:

Major Findings:

youth use online media to extend friendships and interests
youth engage in peer-based, self-directed learning online
virtual presence enable youth to become experts based on interests
youth become more independent in seeking and deepening knowledge based on interests
develop status & identity
kids and young adults set their time - and when it is convenient
informal, more relaxed way of learning, empowering and motivating

Implications:

adults should facilitate young people’s engagement with digital media
given the diversity of digital media, it is problematic to develop a standardized set of benchmarks against which to measure young people’s technical and newmedia literacy
in interest-driven participation, adults have an important role to play
to stay relevant in the 21st century, education institutions need to keep pace with the rapid changes introduced by digital media.

800 youths and young adults were involved in the study for a period of over 5000 hours of online observation. This research came out in Nov. 2008, but I was so snowed under, didn't get a chance to post about it ;(

Check out the video...

if you can't see the video below then check it out here.