Tag: children

In 2017, more U.S. children were gunned down than on-duty police and active duty military combined

The study, conducted by Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine, reviewed data obtained by the National Center for Health Statistics (NHCS). Between 1999 and 2017, the data revealed that 38,940 children between the ages of 5 and 18 were killed by firearms.

By contrast, the total number Americans killed in the Vietnam War, which lasted two years longer than the period studied, was 58,220.

Of the nearly 39,000 deaths, 32% were suicides. 61% of these children were killed in an assault involving a firearm. Black children made up 41% of those gun-related deaths, and of those black children, 86% were boys. Although the circumstances of each death were not specifically examined in the study, researchers believe that many of these children are caught in the line of fire of domestic violence situations that involved guns.

In 2017, more U.S. children were gunned down than on-duty police and active duty military combined

Children Who Get Less Screen Time Think Better, Study Finds

Keeping your kid’s mind sharp might involve making sure they don’t spend all day on their smartphone or other screen devices, suggests yet more research published this week.

Canadian researchers looked at the first bits of data from a 10-year-long U.S. project meant to study how children’s brains develop over time, called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (or more cleverly, the ABCD study).

As part of the project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers across the U.S. interviewed children and their parents about their lifestyle habits. That included how much time they spent exercising, sleeping, and watching screens on an average day. The children also took questionnaires, provided spit samples, and completed puzzles that measured their cognitive functions.

Children Who Get Less Screen Time Think Better, Study Finds

Pakistan’s shame: the open secret of child sex abuse in the workplace | Kiran Nazish | Global development | The Guardian

About 3.8 million children work in Pakistan. The majority are employed in the agriculture sector, but many work in leather and shoe factories, in mechanics’ workshops and restaurants.

They are vulnerable to “street sexual abuse”, says Jawwad Bukhari, chief executive of the Alpha Foundation, a local organisation focused on getting children off the street and into schools. “Sexual exploitation of children is an absolute kind of occurrence in this town, and it is immediately connected with work. You can say it is a product of how labour makes children vulnerable,” says Bukhari, who has spent years trying to help children avoid abuse.

Interviews with children, families, organisations and officials in Kasur reveal that many working children, particularly boys, are expected to indulge in sexual activity with employers, peers and acquaintances, often in return for work or accommodation. Victims are often threatened to keep silent, and the mechanism of fear almost always works.

Bukhari estimates at least 90% of all working children in Kasur under the age of 14 experience sexually harassment or other forms of exploitation, and says he has come across hundreds of cases.

Pakistan’s shame: the open secret of child sex abuse in the workplace | Kiran Nazish | Global development | The Guardian

Trump’s Legacy: Damaged Brains – The New York Times

The pesticide, which belongs to a class of chemicals developed as a nerve gas made by Nazi Germany, is now found in food, air and drinking water. Human and animal studies show that it damages the brain and reduces I.Q.s while causing tremors among children. It has also been linked to lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease in adults.

The colored parts of the image above, prepared by Columbia University scientists, indicate where a child’s brain is physically altered after exposure to this pesticide.

This chemical, chlorpyrifos, is hard to pronounce, so let’s just call it Dow Chemical Company’s Nerve Gas Pesticide. Even if you haven’t heard of it, it may be inside you: One 2012 study found that it was in the umbilical cord blood of 87 percent of newborn babies tested.

And now the Trump administration is embracing it, overturning a planned ban that had been in the works for many years.

Trump’s Legacy: Damaged Brains – The New York Times

40 million slaves in the world, finds new report – CNN

London (CNN)More than 40 million people were estimated to be victims of modern slavery in 2016 — and one in four of those were children.

Those are the findings of a new report produced by the International Labor Organization (ILO), a U.N. agency focusing on labor rights, and the Walk Free Foundation, an international NGO working to end modern slavery.

The report estimates that last year, 25 million people were in forced labor — made to work under threat or coercion — and 15 million people were in forced marriage.

It’s impossible to know exactly how many people are living in modern slavery, and different studies have produced different estimates. One reason is that modern slavery is a hidden crime that’s difficult to identify. Another is that different studies use different definitions of slavery, with some including forced marriage, for example, and others not.

40 million slaves in the world, finds new report – CNN

The Center for Parenting Education: Parenting SupportThe Center for Parenting Education | A resource to help parents do the best job they can to raise their children

The Center for Parenting Education (The Center) is committed to educating and supporting parents in their efforts to foster confidence, responsibility, and compassion in their children. Toward this end, The Center offers a multitude of resources, both on the Internet and in person. The Center presents the information on this website as a service to Internet users. By accessing this website, users agree to be bound by the terms and conditions set forth below.

The Center for Parenting Education: Parenting SupportThe Center for Parenting Education | A resource to help parents do the best job they can to raise their children

Early Puberty in Girls Is Becoming Epidemic and Getting Worse

Padded bras for kindergarteners with growing breasts to make them more comfortable? Sixteen percent of U.S. girls experiencing breast development by the age of 7? Thirty percent by the age of 8? Clearly something is affecting the hormones of U.S. girls—a phenomenon also seen in other developed countries. Girls in poorer countries seem to be spared—until they move to developed countries.

No scientists dispute that precocious or early-onset puberty is on the rise but they do not agree on the reasons. Is it bad diets and lack of exercise that cause growing obesity? Is it soft drinks themselves, even when not linked to obesity? Is it the common chemicals known as endocrine disrupters that exert estrogen-like effects (and also cause obesity)? Is it the many legal, unlabeled hormones used in the U.S. to fatten livestock? Some researchers even believe precocious puberty could be triggered by sociological factors like having no father in the home or even stress.

Alternet