Acceptance & Inclusion
The influence of social media on adolescents and teenagers is of particular importance, not only because this particular group of children is developmentally vulnerable but also because they are among the heaviest users of social networking.
The increased presence of youth online has raised serious concerns about the safety of Internet and social media use.
When parents allow themselves to get distracted by surface misbehavior, they push their children away at just the time that the young person needs to be held most closely. In the heat of the moment, don't take anything your child says personally but do remember how desperately she needs your love and support at this time in her life.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
A generation ago, young people who were bullied in school could count on hours spent at home as a respite from ridicule. Today, kids are ever-connected through texting, instant messaging and social media sites; sadly, there is little rest for the bully-weary.
A girl has been hospitalized after photos of her giving oral sex at an outdoor concert exploded on the Internet.
It is important to distinguish between rude, mean and bullying so that teachers, school administrators, police, youth workers, parents and kids all know what to pay attention to and when to intervene.
For girls, "slut" and its derivatives are among the most common and most feared of possible pejoratives hurled in the high-school social arena, equivalent in regulatory power to the "fag" label for boys. Both "slut" and "fag" tell young people that they are doing their gender "wrong."