Watching violence – on television, in movies, in videos and video games – desensitizes teens to violence. A study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience had 22 boys ages 14-17 watch violent scenes from 60 videos while having their emotions measured by brain scans and finger electrodes. Boys with the most exposure to violent media were the most desensitized. If boys experienced violence in their own environment, they became desensitized to that too. That wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was that for teens who watch violent media 3-4 hours daily, violence becomes their environment – requiring “parental environmentalists”.
Bullying is a form of violence and 17% of students are bullied regularly. That’s the 2010 finding of a Clemson University nationwide survey of 524,054 students at 1,593 schools over a 2-year period. Of those bullied, 40% of girls and 45% of boys said it had been going on – verbally, physically or online – for more than a year. Thirty percent of boys in grades 3-5 said teachers weren’t much help. In grades 9-12 60% of boys said the same thing. Although bullying decreases as children get older, older children are less likely to talk about it – making it necessary for parents and teachers to “take bullying by the horns”.
The number of fatal All Terrain Vehicle crashes involving children hasn’t decreased. It’s gone up. Public health experts estimate at least 150 children are killed yearly by ATV accidents and 4,000 are hospitalized. A 2010 study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows the number of children hospitalized for ATV injuries has more than doubled since 1966. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Surgeons recommend children under 16 not ride ATV’s. It’s a danger they don’t want to “let ride”.
However, the number of fatal car crashes involving 16 and 17-year-old drivers decreased 36% from 2004 to 2008. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the decrease is primarily due to graduated driving license (GDL) programs that exist in 49 states. These programs have an extended learning period, which is followed by an intermediate stage that restricts nighttime driving and teenage passengers until teens get full driving privileges. However, the fact that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of teenage deaths – 33% of all fatalities – hasn’t “driven” North Dakota to having a GDL program.
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