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Why are videogames so important to so many kids? And why does it often feel like the gaming console is unwanted competition to parental authority?

Parents of gamers know what a struggle it can be to moderate game time and get their kids to do other things, like finishing homework, taking a shower, even eating dinner.

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What to Know About Teen Boys and Videogames-According to Teen Boys

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Why are videogames so important to so many kids? And why does it often feel like the gaming console is unwanted competition to parental authority? Parents of gamers know what a struggle it can be to moderate game time and get their kids to do other things, like finishing homework, taking a shower, even eating dinner.

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"Our entire lives have led up to this," my friends joked with me in mid-March.

I was sitting in my tiny New York City apartment, panicky and coming to terms with the reality that I'd be trapped inside for weeks, potentially months. But my friends reassured me that as lifelong video game enthusiasts, the prospect of sitting on a sofa in front of a TV for an interminable stretch would be a cakewalk. After all, gamers like me do already spend plenty of time in front of our screens all on our own.

But even sitting alone for hours, gamers aren't necessarily isolated. In many cases, far from it. With the rise of social media, gamers - particularly in Gen Z - have perfected the art of building communities in and around video games. Gamers don't just compete with strangers on the internet, but forge genuine, enduring friendships.

In this age of long-haul social distancing and mental-health strains, gamers have long had a tool that's now bringing some relief to those who've never picked up a controller before. The explosive growth of gaming during the pandemic has shown that many have found a new outlet for much-needed connection in isolation.

Gaming has skyrocketed during the pandemic, especially ones that connect you online with friends; games over video chat have replaced in-person happy hour for many (Credit: Alamy)

When shelter-in-place orders came down, millions of people around the world turned to tech-fuelled diversions to stay in touch with family and friends, like Netflix Party film viewings, Zoom chats and video games.

There's the outer-space saboteur mobile game Among Us ( which 100 million people have downloaded); and the Jackbox games that mix video chatting and elements of classics like Pictionary, and that have acted as stand-ins for in-person happy hours. Perhaps the most well known is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Released in March, Nintendo's record-breaking Switch game that tripled the company's profits drops players in a tiny tropical town filled with talking anthropomorphic animal neighbours who help them redecorate their home, catch butterflies and grow fruit trees.

Gaming has skyrocketed during the pandemic, reaching people who'd play every now and then, or even those who had previously snubbed it entirely. In the US alone, four out of five consumers in one survey played video games in the last six months, according to a new study by NPD, an American business-research firm. And at a time in which many industries are in dire straits, sales in gaming are booming. Global revenue is expected to jump 20% this year to $175bn (£130bn).

But although the concept of socialisation in a game is new to many, video game enthusiasts have been using tech like this to build friendships online and stay connected for years.

Mark Griffiths is a professor at Nottingham Trent University who's written about gaming friendships in the pandemic, and studied socialisation in video games for decades. In 2003, he published a study that showed a quarter of 11,000 players of the online role-playing game Everquest said their favourite part of the game was connecting with other players. He says the study was a direct and early contradiction of the stereotype that video games are isolating, and gamers antisocial (even though those early pandemic memes jokingly played off those stereotypes). In another study from 2007, he looked at 912 players of massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing games from 45 countries who played on average around 22 hours a week, concluding that the online game environment was "highly socially interactive".

He says, "Ten percent of those in the survey actually ended up forming romantic relationships outside of the game... The idea of socialising in a game is not new at all." Fast forward to 2020, and Griffiths says that when lockdowns began and people had nothing much to do, "maybe they're gaming for the first time, and they realised this was an outlet you can naturally socialise in".

The game Animal Crossing has become a phenomenon, standing in for social interaction during lockdown - and being the virtual site of parties and weddings (Credit: Alamy)

For example, in Animal Crossing, players can visit the towns of both real-life friends or strangers who share their village code online. Flying on a virtual seaplane into my brother's village, filled with friendly koalas, has become our 2020 ritual as he continues to isolate from Washington, DC, and we miss family holidays. I also visit friends scattered all over the world, including one from secondary school whom I haven't seen since 2000.

Some people have held their birthday parties via Animal Crossing this year, others go on dates and some couples who cancelled their weddings because of Covid-19 have even gotten married in the game. There's also an online fan-made marketplace where players connect to trade fruits and rare furniture, called Nookazon. The site hosts trivia nights and chat meetups for Animal Crossing players.

The pandemic "really opened a lot of people's eyes - even non-gamers - to what games can do to bring people together," says Daniel Luu, the founder of Nookazon, who's a software developer and an active gamer based in Washington, DC. He says one of his site's most popular top sellers is a 50-year-old woman who's "never played video games in her entire life". "I think the reason Animal Crossing has become so successful is because anyone can play it. There are tons of cute items, tons of fun characters, tons of customisations," he says. "It really helped show that video games aren't just all, like, Call of Duty."

Lin Zhu is a graduate student in psychology at the University of Albany in New York. In September, she wrote a paper on Animal Crossing and the pandemic, published in the journal Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies. Zhu says Animal Crossing in particular provides laid-back escapism and soothing feelings of safety in these turbulent times - which has helped bring new gamers into the hobby. "The pandemic has not only reduced face-to-face communication opportunities, but also allowed more people to learn about games as a novel platform to get social interaction."

Amazon-owned Twitch, where people watch other people play video games in live webcasts, chatting in real time with the streamer and other viewers, clocked five billion hours of viewed content in the second quarter of 2020 alone. The engagement is an 83% increase from last year. It's a new record.

"This is what we have been doing for years," says Erin Wayne, the company's director of community and creator marketing. She started out as a streamer on the site herself playing the best-selling game of all time, Minecraft. It's he same game in which an elementary school in Japan held a virtual graduation in lieu of an in-person ceremony because of Covid-19. She says the basic model of connecting gamers with streamers "hasn't changed because of Covid".

Wayne adds as Twitch has become more popular, it's expanded its platform beyond gamers, especially during social-distancing restrictions in 2020. Book authors are hosting book launches, musicians are holding concerts and even drag queens are putting on shows, all following the gamer-streamer model. There are also new communities of gamers that have formed on the site, including LGBTQ gamers and gamers who've served in the armed forces.

Jay-Ann Lopez says that games have helped old and new players alike "keep connected, social and sane" during the pandemic (Credit: Krystal Neuvill)

Like many communities, gaming has its share of toxicity and hostility. But when Jay-Ann Lopez, a London-based gamer, launched a closed Facebook group in 2015 called Black Girl Gamers as a safe and inclusive space in the face of racism and sexism in the gaming community, she was able to build a vibrant community that's since grown across platforms like Twitch. This summer, it even hosted a summit of entirely black female professionals in the industry, which has long been dominated by white men.

Lopez says that games have helped old and new players alike "keep connected, social and sane" during the pandemic. "For a long time, people have either looked down on that or called gamers 'weird', but now people and companies want to know how to maintain relationships and communities digitally. It's more accessible for people."

So, although more people staring at a screen may seem like an unhealthy habit, even the World Health Organization believes it could be key in nurturing our bonds with others. Earlier this year, it launched #PlayApartTogether. And as mental health professionals stress the importance of relationships, connections and community in these times, they're even beginning to find direct psychological and social benefits from gaming across the generations.

As the pandemic rolls on and millions around the world face months of social isolation, gaming continues to be a surprising lifeline. Those new players may keep on gaming even after they're allowed to socialise in person, too. A Google survey showed that 40% of new gamers say they're likely to continue playing video games after the pandemic.

"Now it's just been brought into the mainstream. A lot more people have realised what it can do - gaming bringing communities together has always been there," says Nookazon's Luu. "It's been there for years."

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How online gaming has become a social lifeline

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Gamers have known for a long time something that everyone else is starting to figure out: there's community connection on the other side of a screen.

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Worried your kids are addicted to video games? It might not be all bad

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Wendy James wishes her two boys spent more time being physically active instead of gaming, but getting outside is harder during a pandemic.

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Before the pandemic, video games were a weekend-only activity in our house, allowed for one hour a day, Saturday and Sunday.

It was a compromise that worked for our family. My 7-year-old had a chance to dig in to his favorite games, and we parents felt like we were putting reasonable limits on an activity about which we were somewhat ambivalent.

But now he's playing them daily - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

In this lonely pandemic world, we still want our kids to get together to play, and they do, too. Unlike us boring grown-ups, they don't get much out of chatting in group texts or through FaceTime (or even those work Zoom meetings).

They want to enter collective imagined spaces and discover the elastic possibilities that await. Only there, somewhere deep in the unreal, are they likely to start exploring, creating and, importantly, connecting.

Like most kids around the world, it's been a long time since my son has been able to battle bad guys, travel to faraway lands or rescue animals with his friends in person. But, thanks to video games, all is not lost.

Nearly every day for an hour, he joins his friends online to explore, create and connect in video games like Minecraft and the nonviolent, more adorable Animal Crossing.

These aren't the prescriptive, goal-oriented games from my youth, in which there were levels and a single objective (think 1980s-era Super Mario Brothers). Instead, they're "sandbox" games, in which players have freedom to roam around extensive worlds, figuring out their own goals and finding their own way.

Yes, it's virtual - not "real." Still, these video games remain one of the only ways our kids can learn the kind of social and emotional lessons that they're otherwise missing out on right now.

The pandemic is giving us a chance to see the benefits of video gaming. They're significant and something - fear not, son - I won't be forgetting when the world reopens.

The benefits of collaborative video gaming

"In spite of the stereotype of the socially awkward pale gamer, games are a good way to socially connect," said Rachel Kowert, research psychologist and author of " A Parent's Guide to Video Games: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Video Games Impact Your Child's Physical, Social and Psychological Well-Being."

"In this time of high anxiety and reduced social access ... video games allow us to maintain friendship bonds in a multifaceted way," she explained. "There's collaboration and competition around a shared activity."

Research has suggested that friendships - deep human connection - can be created and sustained through online play, Kowert said. Also, it's fun, and fun matters for our overall well-being.

"As humans we have been playing since the beginning of time. This is an extension of that, through technology," she said.

My son recently told me that the most fun thing he gets to do these days is play video games with his friends. I could feel bad that he isn't saying that about some unplugged activity, like, say, building a fort out of twigs he collected in the forest. Or, I could feel good that the relatively small sliver of socialization he still gets brings him great joy. I choose B.

Eduardo A. Caballero is the executive director of Camp EDMO which, among its other offerings, uses gaming to teach social and emotional learning. For the curriculum, the camp teamed up with the University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center to figure out how to best incorporate character building into gaming, and other STEM activities.

My son was recently enrolled in one of Camp EDMO's Minecraft camps, where he learned to respect other people's ideas, and stand up for himself when others weren't respecting his ideas.

"If you didn't build it, you can't break it," I overheard his instructor explaining to the group one afternoon, articulating an ethic that easily transfers to the world outside his laptop.

"We work with platforms that allow kids to be creative, to have a personality, to have feelings and they're great tools for social and emotional learning" Caballero said. "We always ask ourselves: What are we going to try to teach besides technology? What are the lessons that are going to apply to everyday life?"

Caballero said he sees kids develop empathy for others, become more considerate of others and find ways to problem solve together.

There are a number of studies that conclude that video gaming can bring about more prosocial behaviors among children, especially for those who play collaborative games. One found that gaming can lead to kids having more friends and being more willing to talk to others, and another found that gaming can make kids more inclined to help others. Also, researchers have found that children who were socially engaged while playing video games were more likely to be civically engaged as adults.

Jordan Shapiro, author of " The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World," poured through much of this research on whether kids can learn social and emotional skills through video gaming for his book.

While he's not satisfied with the quality of most of the studies on the subject, he said he "couldn't find a single good reason why" the socializing that takes place in video games wouldn't either compliment or influence the socializing that takes place outside them.

While sheltering in place, Shapiro said video games are serving as his tween children's very important "transitional space," which gives them an opportunity to explore their identities without their parents around.

Identity formation is a big part of growing up, and, as research has suggested, can take place in the virtual realm. Games give children a chance to try on different avatars, personalities and even genders, with less severe consequences than the real world.

"Right now the only space to do that is digital," he said. "Kids need that. They need that kind of socialization, even if you think it can be bad [online] or even if you think it can be better."

Shapiro said another benefit to kids finding ways to engage online right now is that they will improve their ability to communicate through a computer. These are skills that will benefit them post-pandemic and far into the future.

Comparing a kid with little exposure to technology and his kids right now, Shapiro said his "kids have the capacity to socialize and read social cues online," explaining that there are unique social skills for digital engagement that are best learned through spending time online.

"Without any practice with social coding online, you're at a disadvantage."

All video games aren't created equal

Will every kid benefit from every video game? Of course not. Games like Little Big Planet 3 emphasize collaboration, Mario Kart encourages competition and Minecraft, which has a lot of cooperative possibilities, also allows players to slay zombies with a sword. (Never heard of any of these? Common Sense Media has extensive reviews of video games and breaks them down by age.)

Some games aren't age-appropriate and some will be more interesting to some children than others. Researchers haven't been able to find a clear relationship between playful aggression in video games and aggression in real life. But, like with everything else, children respond differently to different activities, and only a parent can decide whether or not that activity or particular game is beneficial for his or her child.

Still, there are ways to try to make online gaming a more socially rich experience for your children.

Caballero said to think of it like a playdate.

"You have to check in on them and ask them questions: Did somebody do something nice? Did you learn something new? Who cooperated well today?" he said, adding that parents might create structure for the get-together. Maybe today they're supposed to go fishing on Animal Crossing. Or perhaps ice skating on Bloxburg?

To emphasize communication, run a video chatting software while the kids are playing together, either through a split screen or two devices. Even if their eyes are locked on the game, they can hear each other's directions and reactions and offer emotional support when something goes right or wrong.

I hear a lot of "That was so awesome, dude!" and similar elementary age-approved affirmations coming from my son when he plays video games with friends or cousins.

If your child has never played a particular game before, it might be best to get them familiar with the game first, before they jump in with their friends. Kowert suggests watching videos online of people playing the games before starting them.

Also, Shapiro suggested matching your child up with someone who is also exploring the game for the first time, so they don't feel left out or unskilled.

For all the parents out there who remain scared of video games and aren't terribly fond of their kids spending more time online, one fix might be to get better acquainted with them.

If your child has no experience, figure them out together. Or, if you've allowed them but out of guilt, shame or lack of interest have previously stayed away, let your child take you on a tour. You'll probably be impressed by their skills and will also get a better sense of how video gaming can meet their particular relationship needs.

Including, just maybe, their relationship with you.

Kaitlee Venable, an instructor and curriculum writer at Camp EDMO, predicted that any request by a parent to a child to learn a video game will be met with an enthusiastic yes.

"I can't imagine any kiddo who would not get excited about showing their parents how to play. They are going to be so excited," she said.

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computer science and information technology

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Why now is the time to embrace video games for kids | CNN

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Before the pandemic, video games were a weekend-only activity in our house, allowed for one hour a day, Saturday and Sunday. It was a compromise that worked for our family. My 7-year-old had a chance to dig in to his favorite games, and we parents felt like we were putting reasonable limits on an activity about which we were somewhat ambivalent.

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Talking to the experts is usually the best way to learn more about any subject - and sometimes the experts happen to be kids.

While adults often focus on the dangers of the internet, a new resource called A Gamer's Guide, By Gamers shows that the young people who actually spend time in online gaming communities have a very different experience.

The gaming guide shares the teen gamers' important safety advice for other kids, but it also offers parents an inside look at a world they don't understand. Children's charity the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, which created the free online guide, said that every one of the teen gamers who contributed suggested that parents sit down to watch and even play video games with their child, to get a better understanding of the importance and value gaming has for those who play.

For teen gamer Peri, 16, contributing to the guide was about making new and younger gamers more aware of what they say and do online.

"Don't reveal too much of your information to these people, because you don't know who they are," she said.

Peri said she even learned some new strategies* for gaming safety herself from the guide and year 12 student Sam, 18, said it was helpful for the parents of gamers as well.

"There's always going to be people trying to ruin your fun," Sam said. "It's just learning how to deal with (trolls)* and how to prevent that as much as possible as well, but also educating parents and adults about the positive aspects, the social aspects (and) how enjoyable it can be."

All games are rated, just like movies, and Sam said that parents should watch the game trailer if they have no idea what a game is about.

"If you're not going to let your kid watch an MA15 movie, then probably the same goes for games," he said.

Games also allow players - and their parents - to mute* voice and text chat from other players - although the social element is a big part of many kids' enjoyment. Nonetheless both Sam and Peri said they would not hesitate to immediately mute and report trolls.

"The developers don't want people like that in there, being toxic and ruining the fun for others," Sam said. "They want them out as well. So help out the rest of the community by reporting them and they'll get banned."

If kids do have a situation that is uncomfortable, scary or worrying, Peri said they should always report the offending account and let their parents know as well.

"If it was impacting me and my mental health, I would definitely tell my parents about it," she said.

The teen gamers also agreed on the need for kids to protect their personal information by not sharing their address, phone number, school name and so on, but they also said most people in the gaming community are who they say they are - something that will be a relief for non-gaming parents constantly worried about stranger danger.

"I one hundred per cent think that most people are who they say they are, they don't pretend to be someone else," Sam said. "But at the same time, you just have to be cautious. Strangers are friends you haven't met yet."

He gave the example of a tactical* game in which players queue and are given four random teammates.

"You're all working (together), you all want to win," he said. "So you're communicating, (but) you're not necessarily talking about your life or anything, you're just talking about the game. (It's) more fun with people as well because you help each other out."

Voice chat is better than text chat for verifying* another player's identity and lasting friendships can be made, according to the teen contributors. Sam remains in contact with a group of American gamers he met about three years ago.

"I still talk to them all the time," he said. "We just chill out and voice chat now even if we're not playing games. We just talk about what's going on in life, how we're doing, how's your mum - we've played games together for years (and) we've kind of grown to become friends as well.

"I play games very socially. I don't play any games without people, whether that's just friends from school, online friends or random people in a lobby or whatever. You're kind of playing the game to be with people, not just playing the game for the game."

The free download of A Gamer's Guide, By Gamers is available from the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, amf.org.au
GLOSSARY

strategies: plans that can be put into action

trolls: people on the internet who upset, bully and insult others

mute: to silence another player so you can't hear what they are saying

tactical: carefully planned actions to reach a specific end goal

verifying: making sure something is true and accurate

EXTRA READING Two hours of screen time hurts health Super Mario game goes for $1.56 million US Video games may help boys bond QUICK QUIZ

1. Name at least three pieces of private information you should not share online?

2. Is voice chat or text chat better for verifying another player's identity?

3. What should kids do as soon as another player makes them uncomfortable?

4. What can parents do if they have no idea what a game is about?

5. Do the teen gamers think that lasting friendships can be made online?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Expert Kids
This is a great example of how kids can teach adults instead of the other way around. By kids being the experts and showing the parents how video games work, it teaches them how to be responsible as well as getting parents involved in something many would say could be a waste of time.

Think of three to five other circumstances where kids could take the lead and teach adults some things.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
By looking at this gaming guide and reading this Kids News article, list the top five tips about being safe while playing games online.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Personal and Social; Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Nouns are places, names (of people and objects), and time (months or days of the week).

How many nouns can you find in the article? Can you sort them into places, names and time?

Pick three nouns and add an adjective (describing word) to the nouns.

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Teen gamers share golden rules in new guide

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Talking to the experts is usually the best way to learn more about any subject - and sometimes the experts happen to be kids. While adults often focus on the dangers of the internet, a new resource called A Gamer's Guide, By Gamers shows that the young people who actually spend time in online gaming communities have a very different experience.

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In an increasingly digitalized world, where most people ― even children ― own electronic devices with screens, many parents worry about the effects of screen use on themselves and their children.

To complicate matters, some screen time can be educational for children and support their social development. With the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders, many children and teens spent even more time playing video games to socialize with friends, since they couldn't get together in person.

With screens virtually everywhere, controlling a child's screen time can be challenging. How can you manage your children's screen time? How will you know if you or your children are addicted to screens or video games?

Is screen time damaging?

It's difficult to avoid screens completely. However, excessive screen time can affect people's mental, social and physical health.

Too much screen time has been linked to:

Obesity

Poor sleep or insomnia

Behavioral problems, including impulsive actions

Loss of social skills

Violence

Less time for play

Eye strain

Neck and back problems

Anxiety

Depression

Difficulties with work or school

Many people have cried, laughed or been startled while watching a movie. This is because their brains process and react to the sensory input as if it were happening to them. This same type of engagement is possible when a person plays a video game.

While gaming, a gamer's brain is processing the scenario as if it were real. If the game depicts a dangerous or violent situation, the gamers' bodies react accordingly. Their fight-or-flight response to that perceived danger is triggered by exposure to intense stimulation and violence in the game. Excessive video game use can lead to the brain being revved up in a constant state of hyperarousal.

Hyperarousal looks different for each person, and it can include difficulties with paying attention, managing emotions, controlling impulses, following directions and tolerating frustration. Some adults or children struggle with expressing compassion and creativity, and have a decreased interest in learning. This can lead to a lack of empathy for others, which can lead to violence. Also, kids who rely on screens and social media to interact with others typically feel lonelier than kids who interact in person.

Chronic hyperarousal can have physical symptoms, as well, such as decreased immune function, irritability, jittery feelings, depression and unstable blood sugar levels. In children, some can develop cravings for sweets while playing video games. Combined with the sedentary nature of gaming, children's diet and weight can be negatively affected, as well. Sometimes children will even avoid stopping the game to go to the restroom, which can lead to hygiene issues.

How can gaming become an addiction?

An addiction is defined as a person's inability to control use of a substance or behavior, despite negative consequences. Some people who are engrossed in screen time or video games while ignoring other normal activities could be close to meeting this definition.

So why does this happen? The reward center in the brain releases dopamine in response to a pleasurable experience or hyperarousal. If a person experiences hyperarousal while playing video games, the brain associates the activity with dopamine. The person develops a strong drive to seek out that same pleasure again and again.

Dopamine is a powerful neurotransmitter in the brain. It helps sustain people's interest and attention, which is why it can hard for people to tear themselves away from a situation or behavior. It's also self-reinforcing. The more times people experience the behavior, the more dopamine is released, and the more driven they are to return to the behavior.

Symptoms of screen time or video game addiction

Similar to tobacco, alcohol or drugs, screen time or video games can become an addiction if it damages your health and relationships, and you are unable to control it.

Some symptoms could include:

Having intense urges for screen time or to play video games, and these urges block out other thoughts

Spending money on video games or screens, even though you can't afford it

Cutting back on social or recreational activities because of preference for screen time or video games

Continuing to play video games or participate in screen time, even though you know it's causing problems in your life, such as poor performance at school or work, or letting household responsibilities go

Displaying signs of irritability, anxiety or anger when forced to stop playing, even for brief periods of time

Lying to others about the extent of your use

Needing more screen time over time to get the same level of enjoyment

Neglecting your appearance, including lack of interest in grooming or clothing

Continued excessive use of screens can result in long-term or permanent changes in the brain that require extensive behavioral and medical treatment to reverse.

What can you do?

As your child grows, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work as well. Not all kids are the same when it comes to screens and technology. Some children can self-regulate and might even put the screens down to go outside without you prompting them. Other kids become noticeably more anxious and quicker to lose their tempers when they spend a lot of time on screens. You'll need to decide how much media to let your child use each day and what's appropriate.

Consider applying the same rules to your child's real and virtual environments. In both, play with your child, teach kindness, be involved, and know your child's friends and what your child does with them. Also, keep in mind that the quality of the media your child is exposed to is more important than the type of technology or amount of time spent. Encourage active screen time over passive screen time.

Active screen time is when you are interacting with other people that you know or when you are cognitively or physically engaged. For example, play educational games, or games that require players to build something together ― or fitness-type games that require movement while playing. Passive screen time includes watching screens with minimal cognitive engagement, such as scrolling through social media, watching online videos or playing simple games.

Set reasonable limits for your child's screen time and video game types, especially if your child's use of screens hinders involvement in other activities.

Consider these tips:

Follow guidelines for screen time, such as those suggested by the American Academy of Pediatrics

Model healthy use of screens and video games. Consider unplugging when you first get home from work, at dinner and when driving. Model other methods of relaxation and entertainment, such as taking a walk, playing a game, having a dance party or reading a book.

Encourage a balance between screen time and activities that require in-person social interactions, such as family activities or extracurricular activities.

Create structured, screen-free times, such as during mealtimes, in the mornings and before bedtime.

Consider using apps that control the length of time your child can use a device.

Keep screens out of bedrooms.

Require that all devices be charged outside of bedrooms at night.

Learn about the game rating categories and only allow your children to play video games suitable for their ages.

If you're concerned about a child or loved one's use of screen time, consulting a behavioral or addictions specialist can help determine treatment options.
Fiona Swanson is a clinical social worker in Psychiatry & Psychology in Mankato, Minnesota.

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In an increasingly digitalized world, where most people ― even children ― own electronic devices with screens, many parents worry about the effects of screen use on themselves and their children. To complicate matters, some screen time can be educational for children and support their social development.

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5 Ways To Break Into The Video Game Industry

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Tips from a Texas A&M game design professor.

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Co-founder and CEO of , the world's largest online marketplace for gamers.
When nuclear physicist William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two - widely regarded as the first video game - for a Brookhaven National Laboratory open house in 1958, he was just focused on getting attention. What he didn't realize, however, was that he had started a butterfly effect that would provide a lifeline for millions during a global pandemic 63 years later.

The history of gaming is much richer than just the last 12 months (those who marveled at Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog can testify to that), but the pandemic has ignited a period of exceptional growth for the sector. Both Microsoft and Sony recently published record growth figures for their gaming revenue streams, and the console sector alone made over $45 billion in 2020.
The New Role Of Gaming
With many of us stuck at home, the world refound its love for video games.

To understand where this sector goes next, it's important to consider why it has become such a valuable lifeline for people over the last year. With much of the world forced to stay inside due to the pandemic, people were looking for ways to both entertain themselves and maintain their social connections. Gaming has so often been painted with the wrong brush - stereotyped as being isolating and unsociable. However, the pandemic has shown this could not be further from the truth.

Our search data in the early months of lockdown last year highlighted the range of those turning to gaming. We saw a 200% increase in the number of people aged over 60 searching for games on our platform, joining the 93% of under-18s who admitted to gaming regularly. While some lockdown trends such as TikTok dancing or Zoom workout classes might exclude certain corners of society, gaming welcomed just about everyone.
From Bedroom To Classroom
Even those without access to gaming consoles or PCs were able to immerse themselves in the world of gaming and feel like part of the community. According to a study by Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet, Twitch - the world's leading livestreaming platform for gamers - saw an 83% year-on-year uprise in viewership when the pandemic hit, with over 5 billion hours of content viewed in the second quarter of 2020 alone. With esports already booming as a spectator sport, the enjoyment from gaming was no longer exclusive to those with a controller in hand.

It's not just in entertainment where the role of gaming has evolved during the pandemic. Often considered bound to the confines of people's bedrooms, gaming is now starting to show its true worth in other walks of life - including the classroom.

A survey we conducted earlier this year found that almost half of the teachers in the U.K. and the U.S. have turned to gaming to try to engage their students during periods of virtual learning, with 91% claiming it's helped. Such has been the rise in classroom gaming, we partnered with academics to create our own teacher-training course (G2A Academy), which has attracted over 7,800 users since February.
Enable Progress With Fair Pricing
While traditional stigmas would suggest gaming represents a hurdle to education, the reality is that several popular titles are already designed to facilitate learning. Popular video games have already started to weave in educational modes to help players learn about the worlds in which they are set. For example, Assassin's Creed Origins includes a Discovery Mode for gamers to explore Egypt under the reign of Cleopatra. As Mr. Higinbotham discovered in 1958, video games can be a brilliant way to exhibit knowledge.

As we look forward, we must remember that the growth of this industry is driven by those who play video games. Recent years have seen a continued rise in the price of gaming, to the point where we now sit on the verge of the $70 game becoming commonplace. At a time when many are experiencing financial challenges, this is unacceptable and detrimental to the progress of the sector.

Data shows that this rising cost is gradually ushering gamers out of the door. In a survey we conducted last year, almost six out of 10 gamers believed that gaming had become too expensive - with half admitting to dipping into their savings or using credit cards to fund their hobby. Even once a game is bought, the in-game purchase model means the temptation to spend is never far away. The record quarterly revenue that Activision reported - a 27% year-on-year increase to $2.28 billion, driven by free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone - for Q1 2021 only proves the strength and potential of a microtransaction model.

With the potential to unlock bonds of community, educate and inspire, the power of gaming is too important to be exclusive to the rich, developed world. However, our research results suggest that current and projected future pricing is ostracising a significant proportion of people that keep the gaming sector ticking. This is one possible reason why we see the gaming marketplace model and its lower prices attracting new users. On G2A, in 2020, we saw a 19.8% year-on-year rise in buyers who were either brand new or returning after a year away.

The beauty of the marketplace model is that it puts the power in the hands of the gaming community. By providing gamers with the ability to set the price they think is fair for a game, marketplaces allow those looking to try a new title to do so without spending beyond their means. For this to work, marketplace platforms must also remember to protect their communities and clamp down on fraudulent activity with a zero-tolerance approach. When both buyers and sellers choose your platform to manage their transactions, they entrust you to do so in a safe, secure manner. This is a responsibility we can't lose sight of.

While the pandemic papered over some of these cracks as people's craving for entertainment overrode their financial conscience, we can't allow this upward trajectory of pricing to continue. We must instead empower those who matter most - the gamers - and level up an industry that's only just getting started.

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

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Council Post: How The Gaming Industry Has Leveled Up During The Pandemic

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Co-founder and CEO of , the world's largest online marketplace for gamers. When nuclear physicist William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two - widely regarded as the first video game - for a Brookhaven National Laboratory open house in 1958, he was just focused on getting attention.

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7 myths about the video game industry and game developer jobs

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Is a career in the video game industry all fun and games? Learn about what’s really required for a career in the video game industry. Gaming chair not included.

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cnn heroes: gaming and healing - cnn video

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CNN Heroes: Gaming and healing - CNN Video

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CNN Hero Zach Wigal set out to prove that gamers could be do-gooders and brought video games to kids in the hospital. Now their doctors are prescribing game time.

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The transformative power of video games | Herman Narula

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Video Games Are Like Powerlifting for Your Brain

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cancer: Any of more than 100 different diseases, each characterized by the rapid, uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. The development and growth of cancers, also known as malignancies, can lead to tumors, pain and death.

chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H ₂ O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

cholesterol: A fatty material in animals that forms a part of cell walls. In vertebrate animals, it travels through the blood in little vessels known as lipoproteins. Excessive levels in the blood can signal risks to blood vessels and heart.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

component: Something that is part of something else (such as pieces that go on an electronic circuit board or ingredients that go into a cookie recipe).

compound: (often used as a synonym for chemical) A compound is a substance formed when two or more chemical elements unite (bond) in fixed proportions. For example, water is a compound made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical symbol is H ₂ O.

concentration: (in chemistry) A measurement of how much of one substance has been dissolved into another.

environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

environmental science: The study of ecosystems to help identify environmental problems and possible solutions. Environmental science can bring together many fields including physics, chemistry, biology and oceanography to understand how ecosystems function and how humans can coexist with them in harmony. People who work in this field are known as environmental scientists.

fluorine: An element first discovered in 1886 by Henri Moissan. It takes its name from the Latin word meaning "to flow." Very reactive, chemically, this element had little commercial use until World War II, when it was used to help make a nuclear-reactor fuel. Later, it was used as ingredients (fluorocarbons) in refrigerants and aerosol propellants. Most recently, it has found widespread use to make nonstick coatings for frying pans, plumbers' tape, and waterproof clothing.

landfill: A site where trash is dumped and then covered with dirt to reduce smells. If they are not lined with impermeable materials, rains washing through these waste sites can leach out toxic materials and carry them downstream or into groundwater. Because trash in these facilities is covered by dirt, the wastes do not get ready access to sunlight and microbes to aid in their breakdown. As a result, even newspaper sent to a landfill may resist breakdown for many decades.

perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA): One of a host of synthetic, fluorine-rich molecules designed to keep water, oils and other materials from sticking to something. It is one of the most heavily studied members of a large family of very persistent, fluorine-rich compounds used as a nonstick coating and fabric treatment (to repel water and stains). Data in animals suggest that ingestion or inhalation of this compound could cause harm. Sometimes known as C8, this abbreviation denotes the number of carbon atoms making up the molecule's backbone (and to which fluorine atoms are bound).

physicist: A scientist who studies the nature and properties of matter and energy.

polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): Also known as perfluorocarbons and perfluorinated chemicals. These synthetic (human-made) chemicals contain a long chain of linked carbon atoms that act like a backbone from which fluorine atoms dangle (like little legs). They are long lived chemicals and have the ability to build up in organisms (including people). They have gained widespread industrial use for being stain- and water-repellent and having general non-stick properties. Among the best-known examples is Teflon.

risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard - or peril - itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

screening: A health test that is done early, before any symptoms are present. That can help find disease when it is easiest to treat. Screenings can include blood tests (such as for HIV, diabetes or high cholesterol), X-rays or scans (such as mammograms for breast cancer).

technology: The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry - or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.

thyroid: A gland in the neck that releases hormones, which play a pivotal role in directing development and metabolism (the use of food as fuel). The gland is relatively small, with two lobes separated by a bridge-like structure. Some therefore refer to its shape as resembling a butterfly.

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Lots of makeup may contain potentially harmful 'forever chemicals'

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cancer: Any of more than 100 different diseases, each characterized by the rapid, uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. The development and growth of cancers, also known as malignancies, can lead to tumors, pain and death. chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure.

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https://skinkraft.com/blogs/articles/side-effects-of-wearing-makeup-everyday

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Can't imagine a day without makeup? We understand. While we appreciate your love for makeup, using it every day can trouble your skin in many ways. Makeup contains a lot of chemicals and components which may or may not suit your particular skin type.

Some of these skin-unfriendly components used in everyday makeup products can even cause irritation, itchiness and sometimes even untimely ageing.

Scroll down to know what happens to your skin when you regularly apply makeup.
Highlights:
Is Wearing Makeup Everyday Bad For Your Skin?

Many of your daily makeup products contain harsh chemicals that can disrupt functions of the protective barrier of your skin, making it easier for pathogens to enter your skin. Using makeup regularly can cause various side effects, impacting the health and natural glow of your skin.

However, this doesn't mean that you cannot use makeup at all. If you follow a few healthy makeup habits and choose skin-friendly products, you can continue to wear makeup everyday.

8 Side Effects of Wearing Makeup Regularly

It's important to understand how the makeup you use right now is affecting your skin. If you are experiencing one or more of the side effects listed below, it's time to do something about it.

1. Clogged Pores

If you are applying makeup on a regular basis and leaving it on your skin for a long time, there are chances that your skin pores get clogged. This does not let your skin breathe, making it prone to acne, bumps and other facial skin problems. You may notice bumps around your eyes as well.

2. Untimely Aging

One of the important things that you do maintain your skin's health is protecting it from sun damage. When you forget to apply sunscreen before applying makeup, you expose your skin to sun damage. Leaving makeup on for a longer period along with sun damage can result in premature ageing signs like wrinkles, fine lines and age spots. Also, when you don't remove your makeup before you sleep, it can get into your pores, break the elastin and cause wrinkles.

3. Dry or Oily Skin

Makeup products that do not suit your skin type, can make your skin drier or oilier. People with dry skin may experience extreme dryness if they use makeup that's not meant for their skin type. Similarly, those with oily skin may experience too much of oil production than usual after using the wrong products.

4. Breakouts

Breakouts may occur due to hormonal imbalance, certain medications, improper diet etc. But regular usage of makeup can add to your woes and trigger more frequent breakouts. Skin experts agree that those with acne-prone skin should limit their makeup usage. Applying less makeup can improve your skin's health and reduce blackheads too.

5. Allergic Reaction

While some makeup products look similar, ingredients vary from one brand to another. Products formulated with mild ingredients do not harm your skin. However products with harmful chemicals like paraben and SLES can cause allergic reactions. If you are allergic to certain ingredients, such products can make it worse. They can make your skin itchy and uncomfortable.

6. Colour Changes

Wearing makeup everyday has side effects but sleeping with makeup through the night can damage your skin to a great extent. Created due to the pollution and sun, free radicals can [ 1] affect the collagen weakening your skin and lead to changes in your skin colour. For example, when long lasting lipsticks are worn for more than 10 hours, it darkens the colour of your lips as it contains ingredients that block oxygen supply to your lips.

7. Eye Infections

The area around your eyes and your eyelid is thin and delicate. This is also where you use makeup like foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, eyeliner and mascara. Any kind of irritant in your eye makeup can cause severe harm to your eyes. It can even lead to an eye infection.

The Food and Drug Administration [ 2] advises checking ingredients before using any eye makeup. Avoid using harmful chemical-based products. Eye make up products can also trigger dark circles, if they are not removed before bed or if worn for a long period of time.

8. Cancer

Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. As per the Skin Cancer Foundation [ 3], one among 5 Americans goes through the disease. However, the American Cancer Society [ 4] has also established that there is very little evidence to conclude the relationship of makeup products with skin cancer. While there isn't enough evidence to claim the correlation, ingredients like formaldehyde, coal tar, arsenic, silica and chromium are known to be carcinogenic.

When Should You Not Wear Makeup?

1. During Workouts

For those who are both makeup lovers and fitness enthusiasts, wearing makeup during your workout session is not recommended. During workout, your oil and gland pores open up. A heavy coating of makeup clogs pores and stops your skin from breathing. It can cause skin damages like wrinkles, fine lines, acne, blackheads, irritation etc.

2. When Your Makeup Expires

Keep an eye on the makeup labels. Products that have crossed their expiry date will not benefit your skin in any way. In fact, it will cause more damage, and lead to irritation. Also, expired makeup can harbour bacteria, which can cause skin infections.

How To Prevent The Side-Effects of Makeup?

Tips Before You Start Makeup

1. Buy The Right Product:

Every skin type is unique. So, you cannot use a product just because someone else is using it. Know your skin type and buy products that suit your skin and do not cause any allergic reaction. Check the label of the product to know if you are allergic to any of the ingredients. If you are unsure, do a patch test using a tester product.

2. Moisturize:

Regardless of your skin type, never ignore the importance of a moisturizer. Those with oily skin may think moisturizing will make their skin oilier but such is not the case. Moisturizing will help you maintain the protective barrier on your skin. This can save you from skin issues like dryness, redness and even flaky skin.

3. Apply Sunscreen:

Sun damage causes early ageing of your skin. Thus it is important to apply sunscreen before you apply any makeup product. If you are not comfortable with sunscreen, use a moisturizer and foundation that provides sun protection.

Tips After Makeup

1. Clean The Brushes:

Once you are done with your makeup, do not forget to clean up the brushes and sponge. Wash these at least once a week. This is important, as harmful bacteria from your dead skin cells and sweat thrive on your makeup brushes. Deep cleaning your brushes will kill the bacteria.

2. Remove Makeup Before Bed:

It is mandatory to wash off your makeup before you go to bed. First, remove your makeup with a makeup remover, using soft cotton balls. Then, wash your face with a gentle face wash.

3. Never Share Your Makeup:

Sharing your personal makeup with others can spread bacteria. Avoid sharing makeup products.
Wrapping Up
While applying makeup regularly has some side effects, you can still use them by adopting a few healthy makeup habits. Also, when you apply makeup products daily, it calls for special care of your skin. Using good skincare products that keep your skin internally hydrated and healthy will ensure that using cosmetics will not harm your skin.
Begin By Knowing Your Skin

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8 Side Effects of Everyday Makeup And What You Can Do About It

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Your love for everyday makeup can turn into your biggest nightmare if you are not aware of the side effects. Regular makeup can cause a wide range of side effects starting from normal itching to premature ageing. But you can protect yourself from the side effects if you follow a few healthy habits.

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/15/health/makeup-toxic-chemicals-wellness/index.html

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The "No PFAS in Cosmetics Act" was introduced in the US House and Senate on Tuesday, following the release of a new study that found high levels of a marker for toxic PFAS substances in 52% of 231 makeup products purchased in the United States and Canada.

Some of the highest levels were found in foundations (63%), waterproof mascara (82%) and long-lasting lipstick (62%), according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

In addition, the study found some 88% of the tested products failed to disclose on their labels any ingredients that would explain those chemical markers, even though that is a requirement of the US Food and Drug Administration.

"It's a little shocking and hopefully a wake-up call for the cosmetics industry in terms of how widespread the PFAS contamination is across types of makeup products," said David Andrews, a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a consumer organization that maintains a database on personal care products which contain toxins.

"The most common PFAS is polytetrafluoroethylene, the ingredient most commonly known as Teflon, or the coating on pans. But alll in all, we have identified 13 different PFAS chemicals in more than 600 products from 80 brands," said Andrews, who was not involved in the study.

The bill was introduced in the US Senate on Tuesday by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and in the House by Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan.

"Americans should be able to trust that the products they are applying to their hair or skin are safe. To help protect people from further exposure to PFAS, our bill would require the FDA to ban the addition of PFAS to cosmetics products," said Collins in a statement.

"Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of man-made chemicals, which includes PFOA, PFOS, and GenX. These chemicals can bioaccumulate in bodies over time and have been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, liver damage, decreased fertility, and hormone disruption," the statement said.

In an email to CNN Health, Dingell said, "These chemicals are in products that we use every single day and most people don't even know the danger they face daily."

The proposed act would direct the FDA to issue a proposed rule banning the intentional addition of PFAS in cosmetics within 270 days of enactment, with a final rule to be issued 90 days thereafter.

Lack of disclosure

The new study used a marker for PFAS - the chemical fluorine, which is different than the inorganic fluorine added to drinking water - to identify the presence of PFAS chemicals in the 231 products they purchased from retail stores in the United States and Canada.

"We found fluorine as a surrogate for PFAS was in all sorts of cosmetics. We didn't expect almost every cosmetic to light up like it did," said study author Graham Peaslee, a professor of physics, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame.

The study found that more than three-quarters of waterproof mascara, nearly two-thirds of foundations and liquid lipsticks and more than half of eye and lip products had high fluorine concentrations.

In addition, samples from 29 of the products with the highest levels of fluorine were sent to an outside lab for an in-depth analysis that could identify 53 specific PFAS chemicals. The analysis found each of those 29 products contained at least four PFAS chemicals of concern.

However, the most disturbing finding, Peaslee said, is that 28 of the 29 products in which specific PFAS chemicals were found did not disclose those chemicals on the label.

"Some of it could be unintentional, due to manufacturing issues, but there are several products where the levels are so large, they had to be intentionally added for something like durability or water resistance, because that's what PFAS do very well," Peaslee said.

"Although I've often counseled my patients to avoid products with "perfluor" or "polyfluor" on the ingredient list, this new study concerns me because many of the products contaminated with these compounds did not even list these compounds on the ingredient list," said Dr. Whitney Bowe, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, who was not involved with the study.

"Moreover, the types of products that tested positive for high levels of fluorine - and thus likely to contain PFAS - are often used close to and around the eyes and lips," Bowe said.

That's a danger because PFAS chemicals may be more readily absorbed by the "thin, delicate mucous membranes" that are close to the eyes tear ducts, she said. In addition, women often "lick their lips and unknowingly ingest the ingredients in their lipstick, which is yet another route of exposure," Bowe said.

In response, the Personal Care Products Council, a trade association whose 600 members " represent more than 90% of the U.S. beauty industry," said "we are waiting for internal scientific review" before commenting.

CNN also reached out to the Cosmetics Alliance Canada but did not hear back before publication.

What are PFAS?

PFAS chemicals are made up of a chain of linked carbon and fluorine atoms, which do not degrade in the environment.

"In fact, scientists are unable to estimate an environmental half-life for PFAS, which is the amount of time it takes 50% of the chemical to disappear," according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

PFAS chemicals are used in all sorts of products: Nonstick cookware, infection-resistant surgical gowns and drapes, cell phones, semi-conductors, commercial aircraft and low-emissions vehicles.

The chemicals are also used to make carpeting, clothing, furniture and food packaging resistant to stains, water and grease damage. Foods that contain a lot of grease - such as burgers, fries and cookies - are prime candidates for wrappers made with PFAS.

While two of the most ubiquitous PFAS - the 8-carbon chain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) - were removed from consumer products in the United States in the early 2000s, the industry has created many new versions. More than 4,700 types of PFAS existed in 2018, a number that rises as industry invents new forms.

Newer PFAS chemicals are made with 4- or 6-carbon chains but appear to have many of the dangerous health effects as the older versions, leaving consumers and the environment still at risk, experts say.

"They went to the shorter chain carbons, and you study them, and they do just about the same thing," microbiologist Linda Birnbaum, the former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, i n a prior CNN interview.

"Some people call it the 'Whack-a-Mole' problem; others call it the chemical conveyor belt," Birnbaum said. "We don't really require adequate safety testing before things are put on the market."

Called "forever" chemicals because they do not degrade in the environment, PFAS are so widespread that levels have been detected in the blood of 97% of Americans, according to a 2015 report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PFAS in cosmetics

The fact that PFAS chemicals are added to cosmetics is not new.

The FDA says they are "intentionally added" to products such as "lotions, cleansers, nail polish, shaving cream, foundation, lipstick, eyeliner, eyeshadow, and mascara" to condition, smooth or make skin appear shiny or to "affect product consistency and texture."

Common names for PFAS include "PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), perfluorooctyl triethoxysilane, perfluorononyl dimethicone, perfluorodecalin, and perfluorohexane," the FDA said.By law, all ingredients are supposed to listed on the product label, in descending order of magnitude. However, the FDA said, some of these chemicals "may also be present in cosmetics unintentionally as the result of raw material impurities or due to the breakdown of PFAS ingredients that form other types of PFAS."

How much PFAS can be absorbed via the skin? That's a question that needs to be resolved with future studies, the FDA says.

What to do?

If you are concerned about PFAS chemicals in the makeup you wear, you could start by avoiding using any waterproof or long-lasting products. Much of the makeup with the highest levels of PFAS markers were labeled as "wear-resistant" or "long-lasting," the study said.

"Although it's desirable to have mascara or lipstick or foundation that lasts a little longer, I believe most consumers would rather opt for safe products that might not have the same staying power," Bowe said. "They do present a legitimate public safety concern."

Shopping for organic or "natural" makeup product doesn't always help either, experts say.

"Although many consumers assume that a product labeled 'natural' is inherently safer for the skin, that's not actually the case," Bowe said. "I've seen many brands use the word "natural" on their labels and in their marketing, yet they contain ingredients that are considered controversial in terms of safety for humans and the environment.

"I encourage my patients to shop brands that are transparent about their supply chain and take efforts to ensure that ingredients and packaging are being sourced from safe, reliable sources in a sustainable and ethical way," Bowe said.

Although it won't capture products in which PFAS chemicals are not disclosed on labels, consumers can use the Skin Deep database on EWG's site to look up specific products, Andrews said. EWG has also created a page for each of the 13 chemicals they have seen listed on labels:

Some retailers are taking action

Some retailers, including Walmart, Target, Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens and Amazon, have said they are now looking for toxic chemicals in beauty products, including those marketed to women of color, including skin lightening creams, hair straighteners and relaxers, according to the 2021 Who's Minding the Store? A Report Card on Retailer Actions to Eliminate Toxic Chemicals.

The report is a collaboration of nonprofit partner organizations, including the environmental advocacy groups Toxic-Free Future, WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Defend Our Health.

"Restrictions on cosmetics sold by Target, Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens and Amazon primarily apply to their private brand beauty products," said report coauthor and Mind the Store campaign director Mike Schade.

The World Health Organization has called out the dangers of mercury in skin lightening creams, while studies have found endocrine-disrupting chemicals in hair relaxers and other products marketed to women of color. Women of color typically use more beauty products than other races, including skin lightening creams, hair straighteners and relaxers.

Formaldehyde is released into the air as a gas when some hair solutions are applied and then processed with heat, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.

" Research shows that women of color have higher levels of toxic chemicals related to beauty products in their bodies, and this is linked to higher incidences of cancer, poor infant and maternal health outcomes, learning disabilities, obesity, asthma, and other serious health concerns," said Taylor Morton, director of environmental health and education at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, when the report was released.

"Availability of safe and affordable consumer products marketed to Black women is an environmental justice issue," said Mount Sinai pediatrician Dr. Maida Galvez, the founding director of the New York State Children's Environmental Health Center, in a statement at the time.

Some of the greatest gains by companies evaluated by the report card were in the beauty and personal care sector. The report named Ulta Beauty as the most improved retailer - rising from an F result in 2019 to a C grade today. Sephora showed the greatest improvement over time, the report card found, moving from a D in 2017 to an A today.

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Makeup may contain potentially toxic chemicals called PFAS, study finds | CNN

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The "No PFAS in Cosmetics Act" was introduced in the US House and Senate on Tuesday, following the release of a new study that found high levels of a marker for toxic PFAS substances in 52% of 231 makeup products purchased in the United States and Canada.

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The 2010s were a watershed moment for diversity in fashion.

Marked by a series of breakthroughs that challenged the status quo and opened doors for minority groups to be represented within all facets of the business, this decade will be remembered as a time of rapid change when fashion was forced to examine its practices. Good design has always served to mirror societal concerns, but never before has the industry been asked to rigorously question itself about these issues. Realities once considered distractions from the stylish fantasy sold by luxury brands became the critical subjects of conversation for consumers and a new generation of leaders who demanded that the truths of race, gender, body size, disability, and inequality be acknowledged.

No segment of the business was left untouched; modeling’s narrow definition of beauty expanded thanks to rise of Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, and a host of new stars who represented realities rather than lofty ideals. Milestone appointments at the luxury houses Balmain and Louis Vuitton allowed black designers Olivier Rousteing and Virgil Abloh to inhabit spaces once closed to people of color. Trans women and men like Andreja Pejić, Teddy Quinlivan, and Nathan Westling shared their stories of self-discovery, rising to prominence for their artistic endeavors while demonstrating that old concepts of style defined by gender were no longer relevant.

These moments have led to the expansion of the fashion community and a renewed understanding of its ability to encourage transformation beyond the sartorial. Still many of them would not have happened if the industry were left to its own devices. Fashion’s move towards inclusion has been mostly reactionary; broader social movements—fourth-wave feminism, #MeToo, and Generation Z’s ingrained activism—have impacted its understanding of what is stylish and whose voices ought to be heard. The establishment’s ability to dictate trends and protect its insular worldview was challenged by the rise of social media and an audience no longer willing to accept a passive role in consumption.

In an age where a refusal to represent or acknowledge certain groups can result in viral outrage, brands have adapted in order to maintain relevance. Cynics will cite the bottom line as the sole impetus behind this push, but regardless of how we got here, the shift has resulted in innovation and a growing sense of communal responsibility. The recent launch of corporate initiatives to increase inclusion—Chanel’s hiring of a diversity officer earlier this month, Gucci’s internal diversity initiative to increase hiring of multicultural candidates and create scholarships for minority students, etc.—acknowledges the structural problems that need to be resolved in order to make the last 10 years of breakthroughs more than a stopgap.

As the decade comes to a close, it’s easy to accept the changes it has brought about as the new normal, but a series of firsts only matters if it leads to continued evolution. The true impact of these turning points will come when they cease to be radical. When a black creative director at a major French house, a trans woman on a magazine cover, or a disabled person on a runway isn’t a rare occurrence or something played for shock value, only then will true equality be in reach. Still a look back at the milestones that led to the current climate illustrates exactly how far things have come.

Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, December 2016

The Michelle Obama Effect, 2010

Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2009, but Michelle Obama’s impact on the fashion industry helped to define the decade that followed. The former first lady championed American design talent throughout her time in the White House, introducing a new audience to names like Maria Cornejo, Narciso Rodriguez, and Jason Wu while also supporting accessible brands like J.Crew. An arbiter of style in Washington and beyond (as a wardrobe of Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, and Givenchy on her recent book tour has proved), Michelle Obama’s presence in the fashion world became a part of her image and American history.

Photographed by Cass Bird, Vogue, July 2017

Liu Wen Signs With Estée Lauder, 2010

Beauty contracts are the mark of a model’s global success, but until recently minority stars were rarely given the opportunity to front cosmetics campaigns. Chinese runway queen Liu Wen’s appointment as the first Asian face of Estée Lauder opened doors to a more inclusive beauty space.

Photo: Getty Images

Olivier Rousteing’s Appointment at Balmain, 2011

On the heels of Christophe Decarnin’s exit from Balmain, 25-year-old Olivier Rousteing became the French house’s creative director, a move that caused a stir at the time. Unique due to his race and relative youth, Rousteing’s appointment broke boundaries. Outspoken about fashion’s fraught relationship with race and the need for greater inclusion, Rousteing has filled Balmain imagery with his unapologetically sexy clothes and a global army of beauties. Arguably Rousteing paved the way for breakthroughs like Virgil Abloh’s appointment as artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear seven years later.

Photographed by Mikael Jansson, Vogue, September 2018

Andreja Pejić, Lea T, and Modeling’s Gender Revolution, 2013

Trans people have always been an integral part of the fashion community, but rarely have they been allowed to live their truth. Vintage stars like April Ashley, Caroline Cossey, and Tracey Norman rose to prominence for their talent but experienced career difficulties the moment their gender became public knowledge. Unlike their predecessors, the current generation has been able to express themselves while retaining their presence in the public eye. Groundbreaking models like Andreja Pejić and Riccardo Tisci muse Lea T. came on the scene at the start of the decade and sparked a conversation about gender and beauty that moved from fashion circles to newspapers and even The Oprah Winfrey Show. Both have shared their story via documentaries or op-eds, becoming vocal activists for the LGBTQ+ community and ushering in a period where their fashion peers could be as outspoken.

Photo: Getty Images

Bethann Hardison Forms the Diversity Coalition, 2013

When Bethann Hardison—activist, former model, and agency founder—noticed the homogenous nature of fashion’s runways, she called on her peers to do better. In an open letter to the fashion councils of New York, London, Milan, and Paris, Hardison held brands that didn’t use models of color accountable—a move that eventually led to casting changes across the board.

Photographed by Greg Harris, Vogue, November 2017

Chromat’s First Runway Show, 2014

The casts at Becca McCharen-Tran’s Chromat shows are about more than which model is popular at the moment. McCharen-Tran fills her runway with people of all sizes, shapes, genders, and abilities, dressing them in her brand’s vibrant designs for a celebration of the body. It’s an idea that shouldn’t seem radical, yet season after season it does.

China: Through the Looking Glass, 2015

Each theme selected by the Costume Institute for its annual exhibition serves to reflect the current state of fashion, but few have been as timely as 2015’s China: Through the Looking Glass. Centered on Western fashion’s complicated relationship with Eastern culture, it arrived at a time when the prominence of Chinese market had reached new heights. A respectful examination of the connections, parallels, and moments of blatant cultural appropriation that have occurred as fashion attempts to draw inspiration from China’s rich heritage, it was a welcome historical hot take.

Photo: Getty Images

Ashley Graham’s Sports Illustrated cover, 2016

Ashley Graham began her modeling career in 2001, but her true breakthrough moment began with 2016’s cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The first plus-size model to ever pose for the publication’s front page, Graham kick-started a conversation about bodies in fashion that carried over into the mainstream and helped propel her toward household-name status.

K-Beauty Crosses Into the American Mainstream, 2016

The soft power of Korea’s cultural influence extends into everything from pop music to clothing, but it’s the beauty market that’s been truly rocked by the global dominance of Korean cosmetics and skin care. Innovative ingredients including snail mucin, bee venom, and 24-karat gold have grown cult followings for brands like Innisfree, Banila Co., and Dr. Jart+.

Photo: Getty Images

Dapper Dan’s Resurgence, 2017

After a look in Gucci’s Cruise 2017 collection drew the ire of the internet for its similarity to a classic design from Harlem fashion icon Daniel “Dapper Dan” Day, the luxury house turned an embarrassing misstep into an opportunity for collaboration. Best known for his reinterpretations of logo’d luxurywear in the 1980s, Day went on to create a capsule collection for the brand and a special studio devoted to customized pieces.

Photo: Getty Images

Edward Enninful Becomes Editor in Chief at British Vogue, 2017

A career as a groundbreaking stylist whose striking editorials for i-D and Italian Vogue set the standard during the early ’00s led to Edward Enninful being named the first black male editor in chief of British Vogue in April 2017. Immediately dedicating himself to creating a more diverse vision for the magazine’s content and staff, Enninful brought in longtime collaborators like Naomi Campbell and director Steve McQueen as contributing editors.

Photo: Getty Images

Halima Aden’s Modeling Debut, 2017

As the first hijab-wearing model to walk international runways, Halima Aden serves as a role model for millions of girls and a powerful representative for Muslim women in fashion. Since appearing at shows like Yeezy, Alberta Ferretti, and Max Mara during her debut season, Aden has continued to break boundaries, becoming the first model to wear a hijab within the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, serving as an ambassador for UNICEF, and designing her own collection of modest accessories.

Photo: Courtesy of Deveaux

The Over-40 Set Hits the Runway, 2017

Several of the most impactful runway moments in recent memory involved talent over 40. The catwalk has long been considered the domain of new faces, but designers and casting directors have realized the impact—and virality—they could achieve by utilizing older models. At Versace’s Spring 2018 collection, Donatella brought back Gianni’s supermodel muses—Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, and Carla Bruni—to great fanfare. Seventy-two-year-old Jan de Villeneuve brought grace to Simone Rocha’s Fall 2017 collection, while Maye Musk garnered a beauty contract at 69 the same year. The movement has even expanded into menswear, with Junya Watanabe’s Fall 2019 show composed entirely of older men.

Photo: Getty Images

11 Honoré Offers High Fashion in Extended Sizes, 2017

When luxury e-tailer 11 Honoré launched in 2017, its mission was simple: Bring the best of runway fashion to plus sizes. The site began with a handful of labels and now features more than 80 high-end designers, ranging from Altuzarra to Zac Posen. In February the brand kick-started New York Fashion Week with an event that illustrated the importance of its undertaking, underlining how rare it is to see a show with more than one or two models beyond a sample size. Laverne Cox’s twirling cameo was fire.

Sinéad Burke’s TED Talk on Disability in Fashion, 2017

Most TED Talks are thought-provoking, but few have the impact of activist Sinéad Burke’s. An advocate for the needs of the disabled, Burke illustrated the importance of design and how it can be used to improve the lives of communities beyond the able-bodied. Burke, who has shared her message everywhere from the World Economic Forum in Davos to the pages of British Vogue, now consults with brands like Burberry on how to make their clothing and flagship stores more accessible.

Photo: Getty Images

Pyer Moss’s Weeksville Collection, 2018

When Kerby Jean-Raymond took his Spring 2019 collection to Weeksville, Brooklyn, he gave New York Fashion Week a history lesson, while providing a glimpse at its stylish future. One of the first communities founded by freemen after the abolition of slavery in New York, Weeksville served as the backdrop for a show concerned with the modern African American experience and a political climate where even routine aspects of black life have become dangerous. It was almost unanimously touted as the most uplifting show of the season.

Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, 2018

Tyler Mitchell Becomes the First African American Photographer to shoot an American Vogue Cover, 2018

Nowhere is a diverse viewpoint more important than behind the camera. While we’ve seen marked improvements with casting and the subjects covered within the pages of glossy magazines, photographers of color still face an uphill battle. When 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell became the first African American photographer to shoot a cover of American Vogue, capturing arguably the world’s biggest star at her most candid, it was a breakthrough moment for creatives of color behind the scenes.

Photo: Getty Images

Rihanna Launches Fenty With LVMH, 2019

After the successful launch of her game-changing cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, Rihanna began work on her most ambitious project to date, a fashion label with LVMH. When it was launched in May, Fenty became the only new brand created by the conglomerate since Christian Lacroix back in 1987 and its first with a woman of color at the helm. A luxury interpretation of Rihanna’s streetwise personal style, the first collection debuted to raves.

Photo: Getty Images

Billy Porter and Other Actors Challenge Red-Carpet Gender Norms, 2019

Hollywood’s red carpets are a showcase for the world’s best fashion, but too often they’ve relied on outdated ideas about gender. When Pose star Billy Porter arrived at the Oscars in a tuxedo gown from Christian Siriano, it was the night’s boldest style statement, one that left him feeling empowered. “It really is astonishing how much of an effect clothes have on your spirit,” Porter told Vogue beforehand. “From this [Oscars] moment, I want people to understand that you don’t have to understand or even agree with other people’s authenticity or truths, but we must all respect each other.”

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The 2010s Were a Turning Point for Diversity in Fashion

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The decade was defined by its push toward greater inclusion and representation in every facet of the industry.

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Consumer consciousness has grown exponentially in recent years, with Generation Z voices and the sociopolitical movements of this century taking center stage across all forms of social media.

The fashion industry specifically has faced a broad array of criticisms involving diversity, inclusivity, ethicality and sustainability, and while fashion brands have made progressive efforts previously unheard of, there is still a long way to go.

Diversity and inclusivity have become essential components of online retail for fashion consumers. Brands that acknowledge the need for racial diversity, body inclusivity, sexual representation and representation of the disabled community are not only necessary but are the future of fashion.

One of the first culprits of fashion inclusivity was and still is size inclusion. The narrative of skinny, long-legged models with light skin and sharp features is slowly disappearing in favor of the body positivity movement, whereby women and men of all body types and sizes are represented.

The unrealistic beauty standards of sizes U.S. 0-4 are no longer tolerated by the public, and the body positivity movement is the "largest push-back against a lack of diversity and positive self-images in the fashion industry," according to Luxiders Magazine.

Body positivity was one of the first aspects of fashion inclusivity to be highlighted in the public eye, largely because traditional modeling agencies wanted " white, skinny, young and female."

The narrative of slim, Euro-centric beauty being the standard contributed greatly to the lack of self-esteem so vividly present in both men and women. According to Park Nicollet Melrose Center, nearly 70% of perfectly healthy women desire to be thinner and 80% simply " don't like how they look. "

Size inclusivity is only one part of the problem. What faces a growing demand now is the need for diversity in the fashion industry, specifically racial and ethnic diversity.

According to The Business of Fashion, the practice of " occasionally putting a non-white face on a magazine cover " is no longer enough, nor has it ever been. Fashion is meant to reflect the audience for which it serves, and that means finally representing people of color community rather than exclusively targeting white people.

Racial and ethnic diversity isn't just confined to models; true diversity means hiring non-white stylists, designers, directors and producers. It means building fashion agencies with both diverse staff and diverse models, because doing so brings in " diversity in perspective. "

Allowing men and women of color to not only model but construct, design and produce fashion campaigns connects communities across the human-made obstacle of race.

Most importantly, diversity in fashion opens the door for people of color to enter mainstream media where they sorely wish to see faces and struggles that resemble their own. It helps make a fragmented community whole.

Inclusivity, however, doesn't end there. Representation of the LGBTQ+ community is also integral to the future of fashion, and given that this community's cumulative spending power would represent the fourth-largest economy in the world, the fashion industry better start
listening to this neglected demographic.

The lack of personalization in fashion is an ever-present issue for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly for the younger population. Consumers are forced to decide between two genders regardless of whether they identify with either one and, for young individuals who are still figuring out both their sexual and personal identity, this is extremely limiting. Modeling has failed similarly, with many transgender and non-binary models feeling " forced to conceal their identities " in order to obtain success in the fashion industry, according to Women's Wear Daily. Members of the LGBTQ+ community should not have to hide their sexuality or gender to succeed.

When individuals who struggle similarly can succeed in a world as cut-throat as high fashion, it opens the door to a whole new market of consumers who wish to support the fashion they see themselves represented in.

This is also true for people with disabilities, who are " often ignored in the world of fashion" despite having an estimated population of 1 billion, according to Glamour. There exists an enormous lack of representation for the disabled.

Seeing models in wheelchairs, with canes or wearing colostomy bags, among other types of physical disabilities, are images that disabled individuals are only now just barely seeing in the fashion industry. ASOS, for example, only recently featured a model with a cochlear implant, which is laudable enough, but truly is the bare minimum.

Another enormous issue is the genuine lack of clothing options that disabled individuals have.

Take blogger Nicola Lavin, for instance. Her struggle with Lyme disease means that she requires functional clothing that can account for her temperature irregularities as well as her fluctuating weight gain. Requesting clothes that account for this, however, means that they will be " difficult to find " and "will often cost more in specialist shops," Lavin said as reported by Glamour.

Therein lies the flaws of the fashion industry, and it is high time for these flaws to be fixed. Inclusivity and diversity are dedications that must be committed to in every aspect of the fashion industry, from employees to models to vendors and producers. It can no longer be a "side project."

The good news is that committing to increased inclusivity and diversity, while most certainly not easy, will permit long-lasting social change and heaping benefits for both companies and consumers.

Consumers will be provided with positive representation and necessary options, and companies will " win the hearts of consumers and employees alike," Forbes reported.

Broader markets and better products mean higher profits and, best of all, the fashion industry will finally be making amends and doing right by its consumers.

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Inclusive fashion is more than just size

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Consumer consciousness has grown exponentially in recent years, with Generation Z voices and the sociopolitical movements of this century taking center stage across all forms of social media. The fashion industry specifically has faced a broad array of criticisms involving diversity, inclusivity, ethicality and sustainability, and while fashion brands have made progressive efforts previously unheard...

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This Is What’s Missing in Fashion’s Inclusivity Movement

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Despite the industry’s push for greater diversity and inclusivity, Fashion Week is still leaving out the disabled community. Will spring 2022 be the season we start seeing adaptive fashion and disabled models on the runway?

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It is remarkable how little we know about the items we buy and use in our everyday lives. Providing product transparency as part of the sacred covenant between brands and shoppers is a relatively new convention. And while clarity into the facts surrounding a purchase has improved, it has been slow going with much to accomplish still.

For example, it wasn´t until the 1990s that food companies in the US were required to provide standardized nutritional information on the external packaging of their products - and this only came after years of consumer clamoring for a basic level of insight about the things we put into our bodies.

So when it comes to knowing the details of the clothing we put on our bodies, we are unsurprisingly still very much in the dark. US law requires brands to provide rudimentary product information, such as fiber content and country of origin. Of course, this labeling tells us nothing about how our clothing was made or the impact these items have on the world around us.

However, with the advent of the global sustainability movement, consumer consciousness about the environmental toll of the fashion industry has taken on new meaning and momentum. As such, in recent years, shoppers have started demanding more insight into the garments that make up this $2.5 trillion annual global business.

Progress has been made. Nearly a decade ago, Everlane launched with the promise of providing radical transparency into its process and product. Although issues surrounding the company's culture have been questioned in recent months, its promise helped move the industry towards more transparency. Other fashion businesses followed suit, offering increased clarity regarding the conditions of their factories and the environmental impact of their fabrics. Fast forward to today where a variety of brands - including titans like Ralph Lauren - offer QR codes or similar tracking numbers to allow customers to learn the history behind individual garments. Blockchain-based software - such as Provenance, Monochain and Truepic - facilitate supply chain transparency and verification, while the app "Good On You" ranks fashion companies based upon their eco-friendliness, labor practices and treatment of animals. Various industry certifications are now available to verify ethical business practices and the environmental impact of fabrics. While the road ahead is long, fashion has taken its first big steps towards embracing transparency and sustainability.

However, one aspect of this evolution of consciousness has remained woefully neglected: fashion's relationship with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). After all, a truly sustainable industry is one made up of different people of varied backgrounds where there is transparency into that representation all along the value chain and up and down the org chart.

Since this past spring - with the growing momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement - many industries have faced increased pressure from consumers to step up their practices and provide clear insight into their policies regarding DEI. Fashion has been one of the businesses with a big target on its back. In the wake of the protests following the death of George Floyd, fashion lovers have called out the industry for failing to fight racism and embrace representation.

As a result, in recent months, the fashion industry has ramped up its efforts to rethink its approach to DEI. Perhaps Anna Wintour - editor-in-chief of Vogue, artistic director of Condé Nast and a cornerstone of the industry for decades - best personified this industry reckoning in her statement on the topic recently reported by the New York Times, "Undoubtedly, I have made mistakes along the way, and if any mistakes were made under my watch, they are mine to own and remedy and I am committed to doing the work."

And progress has been made here as well. This year's September issues published by fashion magazines featured diverse talent more prominently than ever before. Industry organizations to increase DEI have been formed and major fashion houses and retailers have pledged their support. Large fashion companies have committed to promoting diversity and inclusion like never before, including hiring consultants to help get them there.

So the question is now: what comes next? Will the fashion industry maintain this momentum towards DEI? Have recent events produced lasting change within the industry? If yes, how will this paradigm shift be maintained? And who will monitor it and hold the industry accountable?
The Case For Diversity
Intuitively many of us know that diversity matters. Fostering a diverse and inclusive environment is part of our responsibility as good people, citizens and leaders.

But many of us do not realize that diversity is also good business. According to McKinsey & Company's 2018 study Delivering through Diversity, there exists a clear correlation between DEI and performance: companies with the most ethically and culturally varied executive teams are 33% more likely to outperform homogeneous competitors with regard to profitability. McKinsey attributed this relationship between diversity and performance to factors such as improved access to talent, enhanced decision making, depth of consumer insight and strengthened employee engagement.

Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect and a consultant to multinationals such as Nike, Under Armour, Disney, ESPN and Google on DEI, agrees: "The increased performance enhancement diversity lends to a company is the most sustainable long-term factor likely to encourage companies to increase representation."

But for those companies where morality or profitability alone might not be reasons compelling enough to embrace DEI, there is an additional incentive for them to consider it important: consumer demand.

"In my 15 year career of advising companies on diversity, my only two clients in the fashion space were Nike and Under Armour. That changed this past summer when multiple major fashion companies knocked on my door, scrambling to make the changes being demanded by their consumers," recalls Johansson, who believes this time around, things are different: "Consumer pressure isn't going away. People are looking at ninety day and six month markers [of progress]. Condé Nast was hit in June. And the company will be held accountable again soon if it doesn't address the underlying issues."
What Needs To Change?
Whether driven by ramped-up consumer pressure, enhanced business performance or simply doing the right thing, what are the key issues related to DEI that companies need to address? And how can these problems be solved?

According to Johansson, one common pitfall for companies is how well diversity is imbued within its leadership: "A company's senior management enacts policies to create awareness and change within its corporate culture," states Johansson. "So diversity has to be embraced at the top for it to be embraced throughout the rank and file."

· Internal Action: Leadership, Decision Making & Education

Complicating this issue is the fact that power within the fashion industry still largely rests in the hands of white male executives and board members - a reality some have set out to change.

Guy Primus, CEO of Valence, a community of approximately 12,000 black professionals, is a co-founder of the The Board Challenge, an organization that has sought commitments from US corporate boards of directors to add at least one black director within the next year.

Primus emphasizes that true decision-making authority at companies is often relegated to a few "C level" executives, including the salient "creative genius" role of Head Designer or Creative Director. Explains Primus: "There are certain positions that always hold power, such as the CEO and CFO, and maybe the COO, CMO and Creative Director. However, beyond those roles, it is easy to give an executive a title that sounds senior and empowered but - in reality - doesn't hold any real authority."

Hence Primus' focus on increasing DEI within companies' boards of directors: "[The board] is the one place power doesn't hide or pretend. It tells an observer almost everything that is needed to be known about the company." The Board Challenge's goal of increasing representation on boards, Primus notes, is driven by the how bad the situation is today. "187 of Fortune 500 companies do not have a black board member," states Primus, "and if you look at the Russell 3000 - which represents 98% of US incorporated equity securities - only 4% of these companies' board members are black."

Johansson agrees with the importance of having diverse board members and senior executives but urges his clients to take it a step further: to improve DEI at the employee "team level." "Work within most companies gets done at a team level," offers Johansson. "The more diverse the team, the better the results. We believe companies achieve more innovation and better performance with inclusive teams that tap into the perspectives of all of its members to determine priorities. Diverse employee teams ensure that diversity and inclusion are sewn into the very fabric of the company."

In addition to adding DEI into leadership positions and employee teams, companies can improve DEI through additional actions, including requiring unconscious bias training among employees, fostering communication and feedback among employees (without the fear of retaliation) and mandating diversity among the key people representing the company externally.

· External Footprint: Contractors, Suppliers and Vendors

In addition to improving DEI internally, it is important for fashion companies to focus on how they embrace it outside of the office walls, including with regard to the companies they choose as their contractors, suppliers, vendors and partners - and how these entities size up with (or against) diversity.

For example, the processes fashion manufacturers apply in making their goods often have disproportionate impact on the communities around them. People of color are more likely to be impacted by poor labor practices and any negative environmental effects related to fabric mills and clothing manufacturers. This is a critical issue for the industry to address from both a sustainability and diversity standpoint.

Moreover, major fashion magazines and brands assert significant cultural influence when choosing the models they feature in their publications and campaigns. It is incumbent upon these companies to support diversity through their selection of models as well as the talent they showcase.

Finally, fashion retailers - through their merchandising selection and marketing support - can significantly influence which fashion brands are likely to be successful. It is important that these companies support brands owned by people of color so that diversity within ownership and product is helped to flourish.

A propos of supporting black owned businesses, Aurora James, founder and creative director of the accessories label Brother Vellies, created the "15 Percent Pledge" to improve the diversity practices of major fashion and beauty retailers vis-à-vis their merchandise selection. "Black people represent approximately 15% of the population of America so major retailers should be hitting 15% products from black-owned businesses on their shelves," notes James. "When I started The Pledge, I knew the problem was big. I expected that around 7 to 8% of products were represented by black-owned businesses. The reality is that less than 1% of products stocked by most major retailers are from black-owned businesses." Since Aurora launched the non-profit in June, a number of high profile companies have taken The Pledge, including Vogue US, Sephora, Rent The Runway, West Elm, and Yelp.
Maintaining Change: Measurement, Transparency, Accountability
· Corporate Action

Equally as important for a company to ask, "what needs to change and how?" is "how do we measure change and make it stick?"

The answer lies with data: companies that want to improve DEI need to apply quantitative tools to track the baseline they are starting from and the target they are moving towards.

Key DEI metrics to monitor include the proportion of minorities in key leadership positions, minority representation on the board of directors and the proportion of partners - i.e. contractors, suppliers and vendors - owned by minorities.

A company's performance against these metrics needs to be owned by leadership and measured on a regular basis where real implications exist for any failure to achieve DEI goals, i.e. bonuses are at least partially tied to DEI goal compliance.

Moreover, transparency is critical: companies should consider providing to its workforce and the public visibility into their key DEI objectives and progress towards meeting them, since this kind of insight is becoming increasingly important to employees and consumers alike.

Finally, while tabulating and measuring diversity goals is critical, it is important for companies to realize that quantitative metrics alone do not tell the full story. DEI needs to embraced by companies it in myriad qualitative ways - from the breadth of music that is playing in the lobby to the selection of food being served in the cafeteria. Numbers are important but they are only guard rails against inaction; DEI needs to be built into the foundation of the organization, from the top down and the bottom up.

· Independent Organizations

Fashion industry "watch dog" organizations are likely to play an increasingly important role in supporting diversity goals and providing accountability.

One such organization is the Black in Fashion Coalition (BIFC), formed in June by Lindsay Peoples Wagner and Sandrine Charles, two industry veterans, to advance black fashion.

BIFC works with approximately 100 fashion brands to advise them on improving their DEI performance. By June 2021, BIFC will provide an annual index gauging black employee representation and other DEI metrics among fashion companies Although the 2021 results will be published on a cumulative basis across brands, companies participating in the index will be required to publish their individual numbers by 2022.

Similarly, the 15 Percent Pledge provides DEI resources and support to participating retailers. However, James notes that The Pledge will only work with companies that demonstrate a genuine commitment to achieve the 15% benchmark. "We will do quarterly check-ins with companies and provide them with resources," explains James. "It is important to match the retailers with brands where there will be a good fit for both parties to ensure mutual success." Companies that take The Pledge receive a seal for their participation. Accountability is monitored; companies that continually underperform will have their seal revoked.

Like the others, The Board Challenge's co-founders believe in the power of follow-up and follow through: Primus and team check in with their Founding Pledge Partners during the first six months and again at twelve months to evaluate their progress with adding a black director to the board.

The efforts of these organizations are primarily focused on larger companies where the impact of change can be the most pronounced and far-reaching. However, it is important for smaller and earlier stage companies to get ahead of DEI and build cultures based upon diversity and inclusiveness as they plan for growth.

· Consumers: Guardians of Diversity

In the end, it will be up to consumers - and their collective purchasing power - to approve or disapprove of a fashion company's policy towards DEI. The events of the past few months indicate a growing enthusiasm among consumers for diversity within the fashion space. To what extent this consumer appetite for change sustains remains to be seen.

But one thing is clear: to date, consumers have largely lacked access to the transparency required to judge fashion companies fairly of their policies towards DEI.

As such, herein lies an opportunity for fashion companies to stand out by increasing visibility about the policies and actions they are taking to support diversity. Similarly, there exists the opportunity for new businesses to be formed that specifically assess and track fashion brands on DEI and provide verification tools supporting diversity initiatives.
A Defining Moment For The Industry
This is a watershed moment for fashion. With the momentum of change over recent months, the industry has the opportunity - and need - to embrace diversity like never before.

Peoples Wagner summarizes the importance of seizing upon this moment to enact systematic change: "One of the biggest things we've said to companies is, 'this is not a moment for a "check the box" effort.' Diversity is a movement. It's something you have to commit to in every single way for years to come. Consumers are taking notice of brands that simply posted the black square or a quote but then haven't done anything else. The changes we are working on with companies are systematic - not just surface level [quick fixes]."

For fashion companies, diversity can no longer be a side project or a "nice to have" line on the masthead or balance sheet. It needs to be core and central to every business decision.

To be clear, improving DEI in fashion will not be easy; it will take time, money and the support of many. However, those companies that hunker down and commit to effecting long lasting change will reap significant rewards. They will win the hearts of consumers and employees alike. They will produce better products and higher profits. And, perhaps most important, they will be doing the right thing for their business and the world.

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The Time Is Now For Diversity In Fashion

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One aspect of the evolution of consumer consciousness has remained woefully neglected: fashion's relationship with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). After all, a truly sustainable industry is one made up of people of varied backgrounds and where there is transparency into that representation.

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In 2010s currency, nothing is more valuable than clout. Getting it, using it, and keeping it has become a high-stakes game that has reshaped the way we conceptualize fashion. Success is no longer judged only by design merit, innovation, or sales figures but also on social media impressions, fan engagement, and the Lyst Index, which tracks the labels that appeal to millennials and Gen-Z consumers. The most popular brand of 2018, according to Google's trending data, was Fashion Nova, which has never held a fashion show.

The combination of followers, buzz, revenue, and that elusive cool factor comes together to something we know as influence. Influence means you're not only #winning by every metric but you also have the power to change the way those following you think and behave.

If influence seems intangible or speculative, like a bubble that could burst at any moment, consider this: More than one billion people use YouTube, WeChat, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit on a monthly basis. Hundreds of millions log onto Snapchat, Twitter, and Weibo each month. And 13 million monthly users visit Depop; as a group they transmit 85 million monthly messages and follows. For reference: To become president of the United States, accounting for a 50 to 60% voter turnout, around 60 to 65 million people need to vote for you.

We're living in the era of the first influencer president, who can mobilize a country with a single tweet. The dangerous takeaway is that to be influential you need only speak the loudest. But if the decade of influence has taught us netizens anything, it's that just as quickly as you can go viral can you be #canceled. Just don't cancel all the influencers, because after influencers come A.R. characters and A.I. bots, which have mastered groupthink in a way humans never could. That's something to think about as we move into the second decade of the influence olympics.
Who Has the Influence?

When the decade began, the new guard of influential people in fashion were bloggers. The best of the best, including The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman and Jak & Jil's Tommy Ton, sat in the front row of Dolce & Gabbana's Spring 2010 show, signaling that a new generation of internet impresarios was here to stay. That same season Style Rookie's teenage founder Tavi Gevinson made the rounds at the New York shows. Most famous bloggers had aliases to distinguish themselves from their brands; Style Rookie was the blog, but Gevinson was the writer. When Instagram launched in 2010, that all changed. The promise of a blue check mark of verification meant that you had to be you, not an alias or a character or a bot.

If your life is the material with which you express yourself online, few things remain as important as your outfits. In the early days of the decade, #OOTD became one of Instagram's most popular hashtags, replacing the allure of a high-fashion editorial with a casually snapped "fit pic." To be a social media sensation necessitated little more than an internet connection and a compelling image. Not even a caption. Not a hashtag. Just you. And so the influencer was born.

This democratization of fashion goes both ways: If people can become brands, brands can become people-or at least behave like them online. A new crop of direct-to-consumer brands emerged in the 2010s that used the friendly tones of influencers as a means to success. Outdoor Voices is the flagship example, founded in 2014 by Tyler Haney. A former high school athlete with sun-blonde hair and the relatability of your best friend, Haney built her activewear brand on cheery colors, unfussy silhouettes, and the promise that a chill morning run could make you feel a little more joy. She used her image to promote O.V. and created a catchy hashtag, #DoingThings, that is so wonderfully vague and unassumingly peppy that you can find yourself using it without even making the O.V. connection. We're all #doingthings all the time, and nothing is more fun than sharing!

High-fashion brands are in on influence as well. Some creative directors have effectively become influencers themselves. Balmain's Olivier Rousteing (5.4 million followers), Burberry's Riccardo Tisci (2.2 million), and Marc Jacobs (1.3 million) use their accounts to boost the popularity of their brands while simultaneously sharing tidbits of their private lives. (Few have mastered the fit pic as iconically as Jacobs-and he often does it wearing garments by other designers. A true fashion fan. Bravo!) Of course influencers can become creative directors too. Virgil Abloh is the ultimate multi-hyphenate, an engineer-architect-DJ-designer-social-media-impresario whose ability to speak directly to his 4.2 million followers-and mobilize them to buy-made him a draw for the artistic directorship of Louis Vuitton's menswear. Abloh is not only a friend of all the other most influential people IRL but he's also communing with them and his fans online.

Where the influence lives is ever shifting. TikTok has birthed an e-girl community of video influencers that reject Insta-aesthetics with seafoam-colored hair and unconventional makeup. None is a more interesting case study of Gen-Z power than Emma Chamberlain. The 18-year-old is YouTube's superstar blogger, who is estimated to have made $2 million from her YouTube ad revenue alone in 2018. Three years ago, in one of the videos she made while in high school, she gave a tutorial on how to bootleg a Gucci T-shirt. In February Chamberlain attended the Louis Vuitton Fall 2019 show in Paris and produced a series of funny videos in which she joked with Karlie Kloss and decoded Nicolas Ghesquière's designs for her followers.
The Economy of Influence
Having the ability to influence is only as good as what you're selling. Sponsored content-#spon for short-has become a marketing phenomenon on social media. Some influencers can make upwards of six figures on a single post. Others use the #ad hashtag even when they haven't partnered with a brand as a means to lend themselves legitimacy. Still more have been sued for "failure to influence," as Luka Sabbat was in 2018 when Snapchat alleged he didn't deliver on two sponsored posts. (Sabbat turned the lawsuit into yet more social fodder, posting a selfie in front of a "failure to influence" billboard designed by his company, Hot Mess.)

What we're selling on social media has likewise come a long way. The highest echelons of fashion are now accessible through Instagram's Checkout feature. Dior's highly successful #DiorSaddle campaign, launched in 2018 with dozens of influencers posting about the bag, is reported to have generated a 1,000% increase in searches for the label on Lyst. At the other end of the spectrum, Depop allows users to curate their own shops and build followings primarily based on the act-or art?-of shopping.

The ability to connect directly to the source has changed the way we think about brands themselves. They are not far-off corporations helmed by Wizard of Oz-like creatives. Direct-to-consumer, a phrase once equated with dusty catalog shopping, has become the buzzword of the decade at businesses like Everlane and Warby Parker, which invite consumers to talk back, say what we like (and what we don't), and share our lives with them, along with their hashtags. Brands are our "friends."
Going Viral
What impact has internet culture had on design? When style.com launched 20 years ago, designers griped that the backs of garments weren't pictured, making a beautiful open back or draped detail almost irrelevant. The rise of livestreaming and video content has more or less erased that issue, but social media presents a whole new set of rules by which to judge clothing. Not only must something be wearable; now it must be shareable.

The most popular items of the decade, then, are not exactly subtle. Logomania made a triumphant return in the 2010s, as did fashion with a tongue-in-cheek irreverence and irony. Balenciaga's Demna Gvasalia understands this better than anyone, offering fashion that participates in the internet's obsessions without edging into parody. Some of his most buzzed-about pieces include Balenciaga's Fall 2018 "layered" coats, neon pink "shants"-shoe-pants-from Spring 2017, and the Triple S sneaker, a truly ugly shoe than nonetheless proved irresistible. Items and ideas that can be memed, like Jacquemus's tiny bags and Gucci's doppelgänger heads, create viral moments for brands that can surpass any celebrity endorsement or editorial approval. Y/Project's denim "janties" made ABC's nightly news.

It's not just the items that are changing, but it's how we see them that is changing too. In 2010 Chanel brought an iceberg to the Grand Palais for its Fall 2010 runway show, which set off a domino effect of set design one-upmanship. Destination shows, once the purview of only the most mega of brands, have become a new normal, taking us to Cuba, Kyoto, Malibu, Rio de Janeiro, and more far-flung locales. To be a destination you don't really even need to have a show. The pink wall outside Paul Smith's Melrose Avenue store has become one of the most popular places on Instagram.

People can go viral too, as Kendall Jenner did when she walked her first runway show in 2014, opening the door to a new type of model Vogue dubbed "Insta-girls." They replaced the anonymous waifs of the late aughts-and guaranteed that a spot on the runway could turn any fashion show into a fashion moment.
#Canceled

If the internet seems vast and endless, it's actually quite small. A fledgling designer from Norway can call out Moschino for perceived copying. Shoppers can boycott brands that make cultural faux pas. And China can ban Gigi Hadid and cancel Dolce & Gabbana because of social-media-based transgressions.

Many of these #cancellations have come at the hands of @diet_prada, whose founders Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler act as Robin Hoods, holding fashion accountable. @estee_laundry keeps watch over the beauty industry with the same rigor. Other smaller accounts like @insidethemood and @supreme_copies draw comparisons between archival fashions and new designs, citing inspirations that have been stated or otherwise. Callout culture, as it's often referred to, does have a plus side. Fashion once thrived on its exclusivity, barring entire populations from participation. Comments stating that brands should cast more models of color, extend their size ranges, and/or diversify their offerings have proven impact.

But the act of canceling someone, or trying to, can turn into an endless back-and-forth of drama. When does justifiable calling out become trolling? As fashion is democratized who gets to make the rules? We might not have an answer soon: Juvenal asked "who watches the watchmen?" in 100 A.D.
Will We Ever Be IRL Again?

Technology will only move forward. As we become more plugged-in, the future of fashion is bound to change. Perhaps shareability and wearability will become synonymous. There are whole businesses built on this concept, creating virtual fashion. Business of Fashion recently detailed the trend for clothing that is more URL than IRL. Dapper Labs made a $9,500 virtual dress for Mary Ma, the wife of a blockchain entrepreneur. Carlings is a virtual streetwear brand that sells its "garments" for less than 30 euros each. These virtual items bring up ideas of sustainability, purpose, and design, challenging the very notion of a garment as something to protect you from the elements. Now a garment is the thing between you and your followers.

Here's a crazy idea: What if you aren't real, in the traditional sense, either? CGI influencers like Lil Miquela and Noonoouri are the products of coders, but that doesn't stop them from engaging with both fashion and their fans with the ease of a flesh-and-blood human influencer. Miquela, who has a CGI influencer brother, has even starred in a campaign for Calvin Klein. Fake people, though, are not exempt from real criticism. Some called out the Calvin Klein brand for queerbaiting by showing Miquela making out with Bella Hadid. The virtual influencer Shudu, whose appearance is reportedly inspired by the South Sudanese-Australian model Duckie Thot, came under criticism because she's designed by a white male.

Virtual- and augmented-reality technology have the potential to change everything again. Will they? That's a question for the 2020s to answer, but the notion of influence might change drastically by then. Just last week the firm InfluencerDB shared findings that engagement rates for Instagram influencers are on the decline. According to the study shared with Mobile Marketer, "Travel influencers, who typically have the highest engagement rates, have seen an average drop to 4.5% this year from 8% in 2018." Sponsored-post engagement in the first quarter of 2019 plummeted to 2.4% from 4% in 2016. Non-sponsored posts dropped to 1.9%. The question isn't will the robots replace us, but if we're all influencers, who can be influenced at all?

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Go Viral, Post #Spon, Get #Canceled: How Social Media Transformed Fashion in the 2010s

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In 2010s currency, nothing is more valuable than clout. Getting it, using it, and keeping it has become a high-stakes game that has reshaped the way we conceptualize fashion. Success is no longer judged only by design merit, innovation, or sales figures but also on social media impressions, fan engagement, and the Lyst Index, which tracks the labels that appeal to millennials and Gen-Z consumers.

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Equally simple is finding out what the world thinks of the product you're considering buying. And people do pay attention to others' opinions; PwC's 2018 Global Consumer Insights Survey found that social networks were the No. 1 choice of online media that survey respondents used to find inspiration for their purchases.

The second big change is in the speed of opinion sharing. Information and ideas that once disseminated over months, years, or decades now seem to travel with the speed of light. Fifteen to 20 years ago, in the dawn of the social media age, the phrase "going viral" began to be used. Like viruses, expressions pass rapidly from one person to the next and suddenly appear everywhere.

Apparel and other consumer products companies were early to seize on social media's potential for marketing and customer care. For example, brands routinely use their Facebook pages to generate excitement about new products, promotions or store openings, or to resolve customer problems that weren't addressed through standard channels.

But the impact of social media on the supply chain is more complex, and it has taken longer to recognize and deal with. Messages that "go viral" can make or break a style or even a brand, and a company can quickly find itself with too much or too little product on hand.

Learning to respond to - and stay on top of - the social media cycle is now a necessity for supply chain managers, but solutions are available. Experts in the field say that companies need to consider changes in technology, processes and even corporate culture.
CHALLENGES Negative social media
There are endless opportunities for customers or others to criticize a company's products on the internet. Unfavorable reviews - genuine or orchestrated - can appear on multiple websites and dampen demand for a particular product. A customer may complain to her friends on Facebook about an ill-fitting garment or post photos on Instagram of a product that arrived damaged.

Some social media commentary involves a brand or company as a whole. Commenters may object to a company's business practices (or perceived practices) or even the personal activities or political opinions of a CEO or a celebrity endorser. In a time of polarized views, it may be impossible to avoid negative reactions altogether.

The challenge for companies is to capture this information and respond to it quickly. If social media commentary is based on incorrect information, this requires correcting customers' misperceptions. If the negative commentary is valid, it offers an opportunity to fix the problem - for example, by redesigning a style for better fit or by publicly committing to change business practices that customers object to.

When there is no way to counter negative perceptions, a company may have to engage in costly demand shaping - extra marketing activities, price reductions, or special promotions - to clear the excess supply. In all cases, the information about reduced demand should be quickly applied to planning and forecasting to avoid building up excess inventory.

Positive social media

More often, customers enjoy sharing happy experiences. They post positive reviews, tell their contacts how much they like the products they buy, and even take the trouble to create videos on YouTube explaining how they use the products.

Influencers - paid and unpaid - are trend-setters whose recommendations carry extra weight. Mountain climbers are trusted recommenders of technical clothing and gear. Athlete Serena Williams, embroiled in a controversy about "appropriate" tennis wear, recently appeared on court in a tutu and garnered attention for the designer. The outfits of princesses, first ladies, and Academy Awards attendees are scrutinized, discussed, and emulated by millions.

The challenge for apparel companies is to anticipate as much of this buzz as possible, then capture, analyze and amplify it, ensuring that even more people see it and talk about it. In addition, they need to feed this information into demand forecasting models to keep up with the increased demand and not leave their customers unsatisfied.
Unexpected events
Perhaps the toughest challenge is the unexpected fashion event - good or bad. In one of the more talked-about fashion statements of 2018, first lady Melania Trump was photographed wearing a jacket with a controversial message when she went to visit detained immigrant children. The White House offered at least three different interpretations of what the message meant, and outside observers proposed still other explanations. Another clothing company took advantage of the uproar to create jackets and t-shirts printed with the opposite message, made them available for order online within a day or two (though they would not ship for several weeks), and sold out almost instantly. Proceeds were donated to charity.

As this example demonstrates, an extremely flexible supply chain is required to capitalize on the short-lived social media buzz about an unexpected event.

The social media tsunami

The world of social media may seem chaotic and ungovernable, but the tools exist to make sense of the chaos, react quickly to the trends it reveals, and even (in many instances) stay a step ahead of it.

The challenge for apparel companies is to be proactive in dealing with social media, rather than being swept away by the wave. This means knowing your customers well enough to be attuned to what inspires them; helping to shape and guide the online conversation about your company and products; and having the agility to take advantage of new opportunities that arise on a moment's notice.

In another well-publicized 2018 incident, Nike demonstrated a proactive approach by diving headfirst into the controversy over NFL players' protests of police brutality and launching an ad campaign that featured quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a leader of the protesters. Customers who disapproved of Kaepernick responded by burning Nike products and threatening boycotts. However, more customers approved than disapproved. Nike's risky move paid off; it immediately added an enormous number of followers on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Christopher Svezia, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a research note that Nike management "knows its American consumer well and the campaign featuring Mr. Kaepernick is a positive for the brand and likely its sales." The company's stock price hit a record high shortly afterward.
SOLUTIONS AI for demand forecasting
Traditionally, companies forecast demand on the basis of historical sales records. With social media driving rapid changes in tastes and opinions, historical sales data are no longer sufficient. Companies need to use more current data, and they need to look at data from outside the company. Social media represent a rich source of external information, and big-data analysis techniques, including artificial intelligence (AI), offer new ways to incorporate unstructured as well as structured data into forecasting.

Forecasters and planners can use social media data in several ways. One is to track online conversations about general fashion subjects, such as styles, colors, fabrics, and features, to gain a deeper understanding of current trends. For example, if the social media world is buzzing about the color yellow, planners might adjust their assortments accordingly.

Annibal Sodero, a professor of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas, notes, "Particularly for fashion products, the selling season is too short, and the replenishment cycle is too long, so we need to get it right before the season." Sodero says social media conversations - not just what is said, but the intensity of user engagement, as measured by metrics such as likes and retweets or shares, as well as the number of connections each commenter has - can be used to calibrate forecasting models with information that is more up-to-date than last year's sales.

A second approach is to track online conversations about specific products. According to Arijit Choudhuri, senior manager of the North America Digital Supply Chain Practice for Capgemini, ratings on retail websites should be monitored for each product. To eliminate the "noise" in the data, analysts ignore the outliers, or most extreme ratings, and track the averages over time. The ratings history for any product or category can be correlated with demand and added to the forecasting model. Sudden, sharp upward or downward trends may call for demand-shaping measures, including price adjustments.

Joe Vernon, senior manager of Capgemini's Supply Chain Transformation and Analytics practice, says that, in addition to tracking ratings, companies "troll" social media conversations looking for mentions of the company name and images of products. Search dictionaries may include lists of positive and negative terms ("fabulous," "doesn't fit," and so forth). Findings don't have to be given equal weight; they can be evaluated based on the intensity of engagement and the connectedness of the commenters.

Findings can also be corroborated through focus groups or surveys. Vernon says, "If social media indicates that teens are not taking to a product as we thought - well, let's go talk to some teens." The results of these analytical findings and follow-up surveys should also be incorporated into demand forecasts.

Rather than replacing existing systems, analyses of social media conversations will form a "smart layer" on top of them, Vernon explains. Artificial intelligence can be embedded into supply-chain systems, adding functionality without changing systems that already work well. "That's one of the biggest things the cloud has conquered," Vernon says. "Integration used to be so complicated, but new cloud architectures have opened things up. It's been a huge accelerator."

Flexible supply chain

Once a company captures and analyzes social media data, it must be agile enough to respond quickly to the trends it discovers. Sometimes, this requires making design changes on the fly - for example, if color trends prove different from what was expected, it can change the dyes and try again. Or, if many customers complain online that product sizing is not what they expected, the company may want to re-size the product and put the new iteration out on the shelves as fast as possible. "That can be frustrating, but it's helpful to be able to take a better run at it," Vernon says. More often, the appropriate response to real-time social media data is to manufacture more or less of a product than planned, redistribute it to different stores or channels than planned, or try to shorten cycle time altogether. Any of these responses requires a flexible supply chain.

To position themselves to take advantage of real-time social media information, companies should consider making changes to their supply chain technology, processes and culture. Though agility is usually aligned with efficiency, in some instances (such as redundancy), the two goals may conflict. Each company must consider this trade-off in light of its particular situation; brands that emphasize current trends will find agility relatively more valuable than brands that specialize in timeless classics.

Here's what to aim for in increasing supply chain flexibility:

Visibility. To shorten cycle times, retailers, manufacturers, and their suppliers must all work from the same information in a cloud-based or other open system. Similarly, supply-chain managers can't wait for marketing managers to tell them how products are being received; they need accurate information in real time. In the same way that social media information "goes viral," information about product development, order status, inventory status, and sales must also go viral, and should be disseminated instantly to everyone who needs to see it. Batch systems that delay dissemination and siloed applications that can hold inconsistent data are no longer viable in today's world. "If everyone sees everything, that's a real enabler for agility," Sodero says.

Collaboration. Simply seeing the same information isn't enough. Working collaboratively, both inside the organization and with external partners, is critical. Every partner in the supply chain should understand its role and be able to trust the other partners. For many companies, developing such relationships would represent a cultural change; Sodero says U.S. companies are further behind than European companies in achieving collaborative, long-term relationships.

Reliability. Reducing variability in lead times can be even more important than reducing lead times themselves, according to Sodero. Consistency can be improved by using a system with visibility into the entire supply chain, rather than depending on offline messages and spreadsheets to fill in gaps.

In addition, companies should find and reward suppliers that meet their production commitments reliably, and they should seek out third-party logistics partners that can be counted on to deliver shipments on time. Contracts should include strict standards and penalties for not meeting the standards. When agility is extremely important, companies may consider bringing production closer to their consumers to avoid weather-related shipping delays or unpredictable waits at border crossings.

Redundancy. Companies should avoid being hemmed in by inflexible contracts with suppliers, especially when it concerns rapidly Ihe ncreasing production volumes. Some companies find that keeping backup suppliers on standby is a worthwhile investment. Others prefer having fewer contracts, but ensuring that the contracts allow for ramping production up or down as needed or altered as needed.

Omnichannel fulfillment. The ability to redirect inventory easily to different retail customers or stores, or between online and brick-and-mortar channels, is important when social media buzz affects different channels in different ways or in different time frames.

CONCLUSION

Apparel companies need to understand how social media drives fashion trends and disseminates opinions about their products and brands. To take advantage of the opportunities that social media presents - and avoid being caught short by media-driven changes - they should analyze online conversations in real time and respond as close to real time as possible. This requires a flexible supply chain, with technology, processes and culture that enable them to rapidly adapt to changing demands.

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social media influencers fashion apparel supply chain going viral

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Social Media and Influencers: Impact on the Fashion and Apparel Supply Chain

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Equally simple is finding out what the world thinks of the product you're considering buying. And people do pay attention to others' opinions; PwC's 2018 Global Consumer Insights Survey found that social networks were the No. 1 choice of online media that survey respondents used to find inspiration for their purchases.

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Becca McCharen-Tran: Fashion that celebrates all body types -- boldly and unapologetically

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Fashion designers have the power to change culture -- and Becca McCharen-Tran is using her platform to expand the industry's narrow definition of beauty. Sharing highlights of her work, McCharen-Tran discusses the inspiration behind her norm-shattering designs and shows how she's celebrating beauty in all forms. "I want the consumer to know that it's not your body that needs to change -- it's the clothes," she says.

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More major retailers are carrying Black-owned beauty brands

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Sephora, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue now carry beauty products tailored to Black and Hispanic skin tones.

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Emily-Anne Rigal was recently ranked as one of Newsweek 's 150 Most Fearless Women in the World. She's received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award from President Obama. And Lady Gaga has called the 19-year old her hero.

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So, what is the college student doing that's making such a splash?

Rigal is the founder of We Stop Hate, nonprofit dedicated to ending bullying by raising teens' self-esteem. Through posts on YouTube and other social media channels, the site gives bullying victims from all corners of the world a chance to open up about their experiences in a judgment-free zone.

In honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, we spoke with Rigal about her efforts fighting back against bullying and starting an organization at age 16.

What was your motivation to found We Stop Hate?

When I was in elementary school, I was bullied so badly that I had to switch schools. At my new school, I developed a new group of friends who became an amazing source of encouragement. The happier and more supported I felt, the more I wanted to help others feel that same way. So I started posting videos on YouTube to stand up for other kids who were bullied to give all of us a voice and provide a source of support.

You started the organization when you were just in high school-which couldn't have been easy! What were the greatest obstacles you faced?

The biggest challenge that I faced was not having a road map of what to do next and having to figure it all out along the way. The two things I knew when I started We Stop Hate was that I loved YouTube as a medium and that I had a real passion for spreading this message, since it was so personal to me.

I remember thinking, "Can I start this organization? I'm only 16!" Now, seeing what has happened and what the organization has grown into has been amazing.

We all know bullying doesn't necessarily stop after finishing school. What advice do you have for professionals who may be dealing with bullying in the workplace?

First, you have to realize that bullies have their own issues, insecurities, and agendas. What they say is not what matters, it's how you interpret and react to the situation. Having a small group of co-workers who are supportive and can help you keep focused on the work is important.

What is your top tip for people who are having a tough time at work to boost their confidence back up?

Do esteemable acts! Whether it's complimenting someone or making a small gesture that can boost another person's confidence, it will in return change how you are feeling about yourself for the better!

How can others help you on your mission with We Stop Hate?

I am really excited for the next phase of We Stop Hate, in which we are taking We Stop Hate into schools and starting Anti-Bullying Clubs so that kids can have that in-person support.

We also just kicked off a partnership with The Body Shop Foundation whereby proceeds from the sale of the company's Dragon Fruit Lip Butter will go to three nonprofit organizations-one of which being We Stop Hate. The organization with the most votes gets the largest amount of proceeds, so we have our fingers crossed! To vote, visit The Body Shop on Facebook.

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Emily-Anne Rigal: The 19-Year-Old Who's Banishing Bullying

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Ranked as one of Newsweek's "150 Most Fearless Women in the World," Emily-Anne Rigal is taking a stand against bullying.

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With the raising rate of child suicide and depression among young teens, it has become increasingly important to raise awareness that harassment and bullying, online and off, have on the current generation. For seven-year-old youth activist Cavanaugh Bell, the topic inspired him to take matters into his own hands.

Having dealt with bullying in the past, Bell became passionate about helping other kids like him overcome issues with bullying. Now he's using his platform to spread his mission. The gifted activist founded the nonprofit Cool & Dope, which revolves around his life mission to eradicate bullying and youth suicide through political and social action by his 18th birthday on November 20, 2030.

While that may seem far off, it hasn't slowed Bell from his purpose or his organization's work. Last year he worked to get February 21 recognized as Bullying Awareness Day in Gaithersburg, MD, in honor of Gabriel Taye, a eight-year-old from Cincinnati, OH, who committed suicide due to bullying. Bell also got the month of October designated as Bullying Prevention Month in Montgomery County, MD.

Suicide rates have risen drastically across the U.S, particularly among children and young teenagers. There has been an 73% increase of suicide attempts from black youth.

Through his nonprofit, Bell has delivered over 200 "We're Cool" bags to school counselors at five different schools in the Gaithersburg area for bullying victims and has spoken to city council members about community efforts to increase awareness. His efforts have gathered national attention, leading him to receive the Congressional Certificate of Recognition from the House of Representatives.

Bell has also become a TEDx speaker, delivering a speech at the TedX Youth Talk in North Bergen, NJ about how kids and teens can stop bullying in their communities to create change in the world.

On October 4, 2020, Cavanaugh will lead the first kid-driven Anti-Bullying Rally in D.C. at the Capitol Mall.

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Meet The Seven-Year-Old Youth Activist Who Created An Anti-Bullying Campaign

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With the raising rate of child suicide and depression among young teens, it has become increasingly important to raise awareness that harassment and bullying, online and off, have on the current generation. For seven-year-old youth activist Cavanaugh Bell, the topic inspired him to take matters into his own hands.

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Our Foot Soldier this week is 11-year-old Marcel Neergaard, whose experience being bullied in elementary school led him to become an activist for gay students and anti-bullying legislation. When Marcel heard about Tennessee Representative John Ragan introducing the Classroom Protection Act, also known as the "don't say gay bill," he was able to connect the Act's potential consequences with his own experiences. The act might prevent students from coming forward about anti-gay bullying in schools. When he found out Rep. Ragan was receiving a "Reformer of the Year" award from the organization StudentsFirst, he decided to get involved. His petition on MoveOn.org asking StudentsFirst to withdraw the award received over 50,000 signatures, and on Wednesday, StudentsFirst announced they "Stand with Marcel" and rescinded the award. We had a chance to talk to Marcel about the success of his campaign.

Marcel Neergaard: I was taken out of school because I was bullied in fifth grade. I was bullied because at that time I had already come out to myself, and to my family, and coming out to myself made it more obvious.

In sixth grade I was home schooled, and I was able to strengthen myself and make myself more capable of going back. That's why this year, in seventh grade, I'm going to go back to regular school.

LR: What made you want to get involved in the fight against Rep. John Ragan's award from Students First?

MN: Well, I was bullied in fifth grade and I really didn't want that to happen to anyone else. Doing all of this will prove to myself and to the bullies that they didn't win. It will prove to them and to myself that I can still make a change, and change the world.

LR: Were you nervous about making this video and sharing your story with the whole world?

MN: No, I was more excited, actually.

LR: How do you feel about the success you've had, and the award having been taken away from State Rep. John Ragan?

MN: Well, I'm really happy that StudentsFirst said that they stand with me. But, as I said, I don't want what happened to me to happen to anyone else. There's a lot of work to be done. What we've done so far is we're getting people on our side to try to stop bullying, but the bullying itself hasn't gone down that much. So there's still a lot of work to be done. We have to pass anti-bullying legislation.

LR: How do you feel about going back to school?

MN: I think that I'm ready to go back to school. I think it's going to be pretty exciting.

LR: Is there anything you want to say to young people out there who might be going through the same situation?

MN: This is an important thing to get laws passed on, to stop bullying. Everyone can do changes. I'm only eleven years old, and I made a change. And I think everyone can do that. Just because you're one small person doesn't mean you're nothing.

What happened to me in fifth grade was devastating. And my big goal is for that not to happen to anyone else. I'm really happy that StudentsFirst said they support me, but that's not where we can stop. We have to continue and keep going and keep fighting.

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Meet Marcel Neergaard, anti-bullying activist (and 11-year-old)

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Our Foot Soldier this week is 11-year-old Marcel Neergaard, whose experience being bullied in elementary school led him to become an activist for gay students and anti-bullying legislation. When Marcel heard about Tennessee Representative John Ragan introducing the Classroom Protection Act, also known as the "don't say gay bill," he was able to connect the Act's potential consequences with his own experiences.

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A tech-minded teenager from Bangladesh has won an international peace prize for inventing an application that supports young victims of cybercrime.

Sadat Rahman's thoughtful Cyber Teens app helps young people report incidences of online crime, including cyber-bullying, in the western district of Narail.

Judges at the KidsRights Foundation were so impressed with the 17-year-old's creation that they awarded him the 2020 International Children's Peace Prize.

Rahman's award was presented by Pakistani female education activist and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, who described the teen as "a true change maker." The award ceremony was held virtually and hosted by Netherlands-based KidsRights Foundation.

So far, Rahman's Cyber Teens app has been downloaded over 1,800 times and has supported 300 young victims of cyber-bullying.

The app puts children in contact with a team of young volunteers that includes Rahman and lets them report crimes confidentially. The team then contacts local law enforcement officers and social workers to secure help for the victims.

Helpful hints and tips about online safety, including a guide to spotting and avoiding sexual predators, can also be accessed via the app.

Rahman's team of volunteers has successfully resolved nearly 60 cybercrimes and resulted in eight arrests by local police. Some complaints involved children being sent inappropriate messages and pornographic content by adults.

"Serious action needs to be taken right now," said Rahman. "Teenagers continue to remain vulnerable to online crime and cyberbullying, particularly in the times we live in."

Rahman was inspired to invent the app after learning about the tragic consequences of one particular case of cyber-bullying.

"The idea started after a 15-year-old girl committed suicide because of online bullying," said Rahman.

"I decided that teenagers needed help and that we should take action to try to avoid other children facing the same tragedy."

In addition to the app, Rahman has created Cyber Clubs in every school in his local area to educate young people in digital literacy and safety.

Rahman's win came with $118,000 in prize money that he intends to use to roll out the app across Bangladesh and to other countries.

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Teen Wins Peace Prize for Fighting Cyber-Bullying

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A tech-minded teenager from Bangladesh has won an international peace prize for inventing an application that supports young victims of cybercrime. Sadat Rahman's thoughtful Cyber Teens app helps young people report incidences of online crime, including cyber-bullying, in the western district of Narail.

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Bullying often makes people feel helpless, but teens have the power to help change the culture at their school.

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Bullying Statistics - Anti-Bullying Help, Facts, and More.

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BullyingStatistics.org is part of the Teen Help family. Get info & facts on bullying. Prevent cyberbullying, workplace, school and child or teen bullying today.

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Bullying- It's not what it used to be | Blake Fields | TEDxYouth@MBJH

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All It Takes Is One | Natalie Hampton | TEDxTeen

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Behind Closed Doors - Colorism in the Caribbean.pdf

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In the early 1900s, Mexican Americans, or Chicanos, in California and the Southwest were excluded from "Whites Only" theaters, parks, swimming pools, restaurants and even schools. Immigrants from Mexico waged many battles against such discriminatory treatment, often risking their jobs in fields and factories and enduring threats of deportation. In 1945, one couple in California won a significant victory in their struggle to secure the best education for thousands of Chicano children.

In the fall of 1944, Soledad Vidaurri took her children and those of her brother, Gonzalo Méndez, to enroll at the 17th Street School in Westminster, California. Although they were cousins and shared a Mexican heritage, the Méndez and Vidaurri children looked quite different: Sylvia, Gonzalo Jr. and Geronimo Méndez had dark skin, hair and eyes, while Alice and Virginia Vidaurri had fair complexions and features.

An administrator looked the five children over. Alice and Virginia could stay, he said. But their dark-skinned cousins would have to register at the Hoover School, the town's "Mexican school" located a few blocks away. Furious at such blatant discrimination, Vidaurri returned home without registering any of the children in either school.

In the 1940s, Westminster was a small farming community in the southern part of the state. Lush citrus groves, lima bean fields and sugar beet farms stretched in every direction from a modest downtown business district. Most of the men and women working in those fields were first- and second-generation immigrants from Mexico who were employed by white ranchers.

Like many California towns at the time, Westminster really comprised two separate worlds: one Anglo, one Mexican. While Anglo growers welcomed Chicano workers in their fields during times of economic prosperity, they shut them out of mainstream society. Most people of Mexican ancestry lived in colonias- segregated residential communities-on the fringes of Anglo neighborhoods. The housing was often substandard, with inadequate plumbing and often no heating. Roads were normally unpaved and dusty.

Westminster's Hoover School was in the heart of one such colonia and was attended by the children of Mexican field laborers. A small frame building at the edge of a muddy cow pasture, the Hoover School stood in stark contrast to the sleek 17th Street School, with its handsome green lawns and playing fields.

The Westminster School District was not alone in discriminating against Chicano students. At the time, more than 80 percent of school districts in California with large Mexican populations practiced segregation. The segregation of Chicano children was also widespread in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

The Mexican schools were typically housed in run-down buildings. They employed less-experienced teachers than the Anglo schools. Chicano children were given shabbier books and equipment than their white peers and were taught in more crowded classrooms. Perhaps the greatest difference between the schools, however, was in their curricula. While geometry and biology were taught at the Anglo schools, classes at the Mexican schools focused on teaching boys industrial skills and girls domestic tasks.

Many Anglo educators did not expect, or encourage, Chicano students to advance beyond the eighth grade. Instead, the curriculum at the Mexican schools was designed, as one district superintendent put it, "to help these children take their place in society."

That "place" was the lowest rung of the economic ladder, providing cheap, flexible labor for the prospering agricultural communities of California and the Southwest. At the time, more than 80 percent of the agricultural labor force in southern California was Mexican. An advanced education would only make Mexican Americans dissatisfied with farm labor, some white educators reasoned. As one school superintendent in Texas told his fellow educators, "You have doubtless heard that ignorance is bliss; it seems that it is so when one has to transplant onions. ... If a man has very much sense or education either, he is not going to stick to this kind of work. So you see it is up to the white population to keep the Mexican on his knees in an onion patch."

But Chicano men and women had different ideas about their children's futures. Like other immigrant groups, Chicano field laborers believed education was the ticket to a better life in America, a way out of the heat and dust of the fields.

Gonzalo and Felícitas Méndez knew well the difficult life of field laborers. Both had emigrated to the United States as young children. Like thousands of Mexicans in the early 20th century, Gonzalo's family fled political turmoil in their native country. They left behind a successful ranch in Chihuahua and found jobs as day laborers in the citrus groves of southern California.

Felícitas Gómez emigrated to America from Juncos, Puerto Rico, when she was 10. The Gomez family led a migrant life, following the harvest from Texas to Arizona to California. Eventually, they settled in the southern California colonia where the Méndezes lived, and in 1936, Felícitas and Gonzalo married.

By that time, Gonzalo had a reputation in the county as a champion orange picker, and he commanded a slightly higher wage than other field workers. Felícitas, thrifty and resourceful, saved what she could from Gonzalo's wages, and in a few years the couple were able to lease their own ranch-40 acres of asparagus in the town of Westminster.

The Méndezes were among the few Chicano tenant farmers in Orange County. Most Latinos at the time held low-paying jobs as field workers. Employment opportunities for Mexican Americans were severely limited. Discrimination prevented them from getting jobs in restaurants, department stores and even many factories, making it extremely difficult for them to advance economically.

Both Felícitas and Gonzalo were forced to abandon their education in grade school in order to support their families. But they had higher hopes for young Sylvia, Gonzalo Jr. and Geronimo. And when Soledad Vidaurri told her brother and sister-in-law their children were refused admission to the 17th Street School because they-unlike her own children-didn't look "white enough," Gonzalo and Felícitas were outraged.

"How could it be possible?" they wondered. They were American citizens. Gonzalo was naturalized just a few years before, and because Felícitas was born in a U.S. territory, she was a citizen by birth. Both thought of themselves as Americans and told their children they were Americans.

For people of Mexican descent living in California and the Southwest, however, discrimination was part of the social landscape. Many parks, hotels, dance halls, stores, eateries and barbershops were off-limits. Mexican Americans were forced to sit in movie theater balconies. In many communities, they were only permitted to swim one day a week at the public pool, just before it was cleaned and drained.

The fact that the Méndezes were fairly prosperous tenant farmers did not make them any more acceptable to the mainstream community. They were used to being told in restaurants, "We don't serve Mexicans here," and being informed by store clerks that they would have to wait to make their purchases until all the white customers had been served.

"That's when you learned to walk away," Felícitas later remembered.

But this time, Gonzalo and Felícitas Méndez didn't plan to walk away. They were ready to do battle with the Westminster School District for the sake of their children's education. Realizing other Chicano families in the community faced the same problem, the Méndezes organized a group of Mexican parents to protest the segregation of their children in the shabbier school. Together, they sent a letter to the board of education demanding that the schools be integrated. Their request was flatly denied.

Gonzalo continued to petition school district administrators. Worn down by his persistence, the school superintendent finally agreed to make an exception for the Méndez children and admit them to the Anglo school. But the Méndezes immediately rejected his offer. The school would have to admit all of the Chicano children in the community or none of them.The Méndezes hired a civil rights attorney, David Marcus, who had recently won a lawsuit on behalf of Mexican Americans in nearby San Bernardino seeking to integrate the public parks and pools. The Méndezes also learned parents in other school districts were fighting segregation too. Marcus suggested they join forces, and on March 2, 1945, the Méndezes and four other Mexican-American families filed a class action suit against the Westminster, Garden Grove, El Modena and Santa Ana boards of education on behalf of 5,000 Mexican-American children attending inferior segregated schools.

The Méndezes threw themselves into the trial preparations. Gonzalo took a year off work to organize Latino men and women and gather evidence for the case. Every day, he and David Marcus drove across Orange County's patchwork of vegetable farms and citrus groves, stopping in the colonias. They knocked on doors and tried to convince Mexican-American parents and their children to testify in court.

It was no easy task. Some workers feared that their Anglo bosses might fire them if they testified. Or worse, they might be deported. But slowly the plaintiffs built their case. Gonzalo offered to pay the transportation costs and lost wages of anyone willing to travel to Los Angeles and appear in court during the trial.

Meanwhile, Felícitas took over the daily operation of the farm. In the little spare time she had, she organized a group of local Latino parents to support the five plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Finally, the trial date arrived. Now it was up to the courts to decide if the Latino men and women who helped California's agricultural economy grow and thrive were entitled to the same rights as those who prospered from their labor.

During the trial, defense attorney Joel Ogle pointed out the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson gave legal sanction to racial segregation, provided the separate facilities for different races were equal. Furthermore, Ogle maintained, there were sound educational and social advantages to segregated schooling. The "Mexican schools" gave special instruction to students who didn't speak English and who were unfamiliar with American values and customs. Such "Americanization" programs benefited both Anglos and Mexicans, Ogle argued.

But this educational rationalization for segregation was undermined by the testimony of 9-year-old Sylvia, 8-year-old Gonzalo and 7-year-old Geronimo Méndez. All spoke fluent English, as did many of the other children who attended the Hoover School. In fact, further testimony revealed no language proficiency tests were ever given to Chicano students. Rather, enrollment decisions were based entirely on last names and skin color, as evidenced by the experience of the Méndez children and their cousins.

The racist underpinnings of such "Americanization" programs became apparent when James L. Kent, the superintendent of the Garden Grove School District, took the stand. Under oath, Kent said he believed people of Mexican descent were intellectually, culturally and morally inferior to European Americans. Even if a Latino child had the same academic qualifications as a white child, Kent stated, he would never allow the Latino child to enroll in an Anglo school.

The testimony made the Latino men and women gathered in the courtroom to show their support for the suit wince in pain-and anger. Felícitas said later that she never forgot Kent's hate-laced testimony.

"He said Mexicans should be segregated like pigs in pigpens," she recalled. "He said Mexicans were filthy and had lice and all kinds of diseases."

U.S. District Court Judge Paul J. McCormick was also appalled by Kent's blatant bigotry. On February 18, 1946, he ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. In his opinion, McCormick pointed out segregation "fosters antagonisms in the children and suggests inferiority among them where none exists." Because the separate schools created social inequality, he reasoned, they were in violation of the students' constitutional rights. He also pointed out there was no sound educational basis for the segregation of Anglo and Mexican students since research showed segregation worked against language acquisition and cultural assimilation.

The Orange County school boards filed an appeal.

But dramatic social change was occurring on a national level following World War II, and Orange County school officials would find their position on segregation coming under increasing attack. After fighting for democracy abroad, Mexican-American soldiers balked against the rigid lines of division when they returned home. "How could America declare itself the leader of the free world, while it trampled the rights of its own citizens?" they asked. Latino veterans formed civil rights groups and demanded change. Around the country, other minority groups were waging similar battles.

By now, the Méndez lawsuit was drawing national attention. Civil rights lawyers in other states were watching the proceedings closely. For half a century, they had been trying to strike down the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson, and they thought Méndez just might be the test case to do it.

Among those following the suit was a young African-American attorney named Thurgood Marshall. Marshall and two of his colleagues from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) submitted an amicus curiae-"friend of the court"-brief in the appellate case. Among the other groups submitting amicus briefs were the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Japanese American Citizens League and the Jewish Congress.

On April 14, 1947, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the lower court decision. The court stopped short, however, of condemning the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson. The NAACP and other groups eagerly waited for Orange County school officials to file an appeal that would bring the case before the U.S. Supreme Court. But lawyers for the school read the writing on the wall: Mainstream public opinion had shifted, and the era of segregation was coming to a close. The defense decided not to appeal the decision further. An opportunity to overturn Plessy would have to wait.

Even if it would not rewrite the law of the land, Méndez v. Westminster still had a significant regional impact. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, the legal victory sent ripples of change throughout the Southwest. In more than a dozen communities in California alone, Mexican Americans filed similar lawsuits. Chicano parents sought and won representation on school boards and gained a voice in their children's education. The decision also prompted California Gov. Earl Warren to sign legislation repealing a state law calling for the segregation of American Indian and Asian-American students.

Seven years later, the NAACP did find a successful test case to reverse Plessy v. Ferguson. Thurgood Marshall argued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka before the U.S. Supreme Court, presenting the same social science and human rights theories he outlined in his amicus curiae brief for the Méndez case. Former California Gov. Earl Warren, now a chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote the historic opinion finally ending the legal segregation of students on the basis of race in American schools in 1954.

In September of 1947, Sylvia, Gonzalo Jr. and Geronimo Méndez enrolled at the 17th Street School in Westminster without incident. Integrated schools also opened that fall in Garden Grove, El Modena and Santa Ana. Felícitas and Gonzalo Méndez quietly resumed their work. At the time, neither really considered the full impact of their legal victory; they were content just to have righted a wrong in their community and to have protected their children's future. In 1964, Gonzalo Méndez died of heart failure. Felícitas continued to live in Southern California until her death in 1998.

Sadly, neither Méndez v. Westminster nor Brown v. Board of Education led to the complete integration of American schools. The long legacy of segregation has left its mark on our current educational system, and integration and equity are issues schools are still grappling with today. In Santa Ana, Calif.-one of the districts named in the Méndez desegregation lawsuit more than 60 years ago-a school opened in the fall of 2000 honoring Gonzalo and Felícitas Méndez, two civil rights pioneers in the continuing struggle to provide equal educational opportunities for all of America's children.

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In the early 1900s, Mexican Americans, or Chicanos, in California and the Southwest were excluded from "Whites Only" theaters, parks, swimming pools, restaurants and even schools. Immigrants from Mexico waged many battles against such discriminatory treatment, often risking their jobs in fields and factories and enduring threats of deportation.

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Newsela | A 50-year-old classroom experiment still teaches students about discrimination today

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An experiment teaches students about racism

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Newsela | A guide to how gender-neutral language is developing around the world

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Linguists around the world are racing to create non-binary language that matches the expanding range of gender identities.

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Gender Discrimination- A Short Film by Lily Cunis

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Annie's workshop - Books Read Aloud for Kids

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My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart I Read aloud I Books about gender stereotypes

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In little more than a decade, the impact of social media has gone from being an entertaining extra to a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of daily life for many.

Recently in the realm of commerce, Facebook faced skepticism in its testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on Libra, its proposed cryptocurrency and alternative financial system. In politics, heartthrob Justin Bieber tweeted the President of the United States, imploring him to "let those kids out of cages." In law enforcement, the Philadelphia police department moved to terminate more than a dozen police officers after their racist comments on social media were revealed.

And in the ultimate meshing of the digital and physical worlds, Elon Musk raised the specter of essentially removing the space between social and media through the invention - at some future time - of a brain implant that connects human tissue to computer chips.

All this, in the span of about a week.

As quickly as social media has insinuated itself into politics, the workplace, home life, and elsewhere, it continues to evolve at lightning speed, making it tricky to predict which way it will morph next. It's hard to recall now, but SixDegrees.com, Friendster, and Makeoutclub.com were each once the next big thing, while one survivor has continued to grow in astonishing ways. In 2006, Facebook had 7.3 million registered users and reportedly turned down a $750 million buyout offer. In the first quarter of 2019, the company could claim 2.38 billion active users, with a market capitalization hovering around half a trillion dollars.

"In 2007 I argued that Facebook might not be around in 15 years. I'm clearly wrong, but it is interesting to see how things have changed," says Jonah Berger, Wharton marketing professor and author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On. The challenge going forward is not just having the best features, but staying relevant, he says. "Social media isn't a utility. It's not like power or water where all people care about is whether it works. Young people care about what using one platform or another says about them. It's not cool to use the same site as your parents and grandparents, so they're always looking for the hot new thing."

Just a dozen years ago, everyone was talking about a different set of social networking services, "and I don't think anyone quite expected Facebook to become so huge and so dominant," says Kevin Werbach, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics. "At that point, this was an interesting discussion about tech start-ups.

"Today, Facebook is one of the most valuable companies on earth and front and center in a whole range of public policy debates, so the scope of issues we're thinking about with social media are broader than then," Werbach adds.

Cambridge Analytica, the impact of social media on the last presidential election and other issues may have eroded public trust, Werbach said, but "social media has become really fundamental to the way that billions of people get information about the world and connect with each other, which raises the stakes enormously."
Just Say No
"Facebook is dangerous," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) at July's hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. "Facebook has said, 'just trust us.' And every time Americans trust you, they seem to get burned."

Social media has plenty of detractors, but by and large, do Americans agree with Brown's sentiment? In 2018, 42% of those surveyed in a Pew Research Center survey said they had taken a break from checking the platform for a period of several weeks or more, while 26% said they had deleted the Facebook app from their cellphone.

A year later, though, despite the reputational beating social media had taken, the 2019 iteration of the same Pew survey found social media use unchanged from 2018.

Facebook has its critics, says Wharton marketing professor Pinar Yildirim, and they are mainly concerned about two things: mishandling consumer data and poorly managing access to it by third-party providers; and the level of disinformation spreading on Facebook.

"Social media isn't a utility. It's not like power or water where all people care about is whether it works. Young people care about what using one platform or another says about them."-Jonah Berger

"The question is, are we at a point where the social media organizations and their activities should be regulated for the benefit of the consumer? I do not think more regulation will necessarily help, but certainly this is what is on the table," says Yildirim. "In the period leading to the [2020 U.S. presidential] elections, we will hear a range of discussions about regulation on the tech industry."

Some proposals relate to stricter regulation on collection and use of consumer data, Yildirim adds, noting that the European Union already moved to stricter regulations last year by adopting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). "A number of companies in the U.S. and around the world adopted the GDPR protocol for all of their customers, not just for the residents of EU," she says. "We will likely hear more discussions on regulation of such data, and we will likely see stricter regulation of this data."

The other discussion bound to intensify is around the separation of Big Tech into smaller, easier to regulate units. "Most of us academics do not think that dividing organizations into smaller units is sufficient to improve their compliance with regulation. It also does not necessarily mean they will be less competitive," says Yildirim. "For instance, in the discussion of Facebook, it is not even clear yet how breaking up the company would work, given that it does not have very clear boundaries between different business units."

Even if such regulations never come to pass, the discussions "may nevertheless hurt Big Tech financially, given that most companies are publicly traded and it adds to the uncertainty," Yildirim notes.

One prominent commentator about the negative impact of social media is Jaron Lanier, whose fervent opposition makes itself apparent in the plainspoken title of his 2018 book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. He cites loss of free will, social media's erosion of the truth and destruction of empathy, its tendency to make people unhappy, and the way in which it is "making politics impossible." The title of the last chapter: "Social Media Hates Your Soul."

Lanier is no tech troglodyte. A polymath who bridges the digital and analog realms, he is a musician and writer, has worked as a scientist for Microsoft, and was co-founder of pioneering virtual reality company VPL Research. The nastiness that online existence brings out in users "turned out to be like crude oil for the social media companies and other behavior manipulation empires that quickly came to dominate the internet, because it fuelled negative behavioral feedback," he writes.

"Social media has become really fundamental to the way that billions of people get information about the world and connect with each other, which raises the stakes enormously."-Kevin Werbach

Worse, there is an addictive quality to social media, and that is a big issue, says Berger. "Social media is like a drug, but what makes it particularly addictive is that it is adaptive. It adjusts based on your preferences and behaviors," he says, "which makes it both more useful and engaging and interesting, and more addictive."

The effect of that drug on mental health is only beginning to be examined, but a recent University of Pennsylvania study makes the case that limiting use of social media can be a good thing. Researchers looked at a group of 143 Penn undergraduates, using baseline monitoring and randomly assigning each to either a group limiting Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat use to 10 minutes per platform per day, or to one told to use social media as usual for three weeks. The results, published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, showed significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks in the group limiting use compared to the control group.

However, "both groups showed significant decreases in anxiety and fear of missing out over baseline, suggesting a benefit of increased self-monitoring," wrote the authors of " No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression."
Monetizing a League (and a Reality) All Their Own
No one, though, is predicting that social media is a fad that will pass like its analog antecedent of the 1970s, citizens band radio. It will, however, evolve. The idea of social media as just a way to reconnect with high school friends seems quaint now. The impact of social media today is a big tent, including not only networks like Facebook, but also forums like Reddit and video-sharing platforms.

"The question is, are we at a point where the social media organizations and their activities should be regulated for the benefit of the consumer?"-Pinar Yildirim

Virtual worlds and gaming have become a major part of the sector, too. Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader says gamers are creating their own user-generated content through virtual worlds - and the revenue to go with it. He points to one group of gamers that use Grand Theft Auto as a kind of stage or departure point "to have their own virtual show." In NoPixel, the Grand Theft Auto roleplaying server, "not much really happens and millions are tuning in to watch them. Just watching, not even participating, and it's either live-streamed or recorded. And people are making donations to support this thing. The gamers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Now imagine having a 30-person reality show all filmed live and you can take the perspective of one person and then watch it again from another person's perspective," he continues. "Along the way, they can have a tip jar or talk about things they endorse. That kind of immersive media starts to build the bridge to what we like to get out of TV, but even better. Those things are on the periphery right now, but I think they are going to take over."

Big players have noticed the potential of virtual sports and are getting into the act. In a striking example of the physical world imitating the digital one, media companies are putting up real-life stadiums where teams compete in video games. Comcast Spectator in March announced that it is building a new $50 million stadium in South Philadelphia that will be the home of the Philadelphia Fusion, the city's e-sports team in the Overwatch League.

E-sports is serious business, with revenues globally - including advertising, sponsorships, and media rights - expected to reach $1.1 billion in 2019, according to gaming industry analytics company Newzoo.

"E-sports is absolutely here to stay," says Fader, "and I think it's a safe bet to say that e-sports will dominate most traditional sports, managing far more revenue and having more impact on our consciousness than baseball."

It's no surprise, then, that Facebook has begun making deals to carry e-sports content. In fact, it is diversification like this that may keep Facebook from ending up like its failed upstart peers. One thing that Facebook has managed to do that MySpace, Friendster, and others didn't, is "a very good job of creating functional integration with the value they are delivering, as opposed to being a place to just share photos or send messages, it serves a lot of diversified functions," says Keith E. Niedermeier, director of Wharton's undergraduate marketing program and an adjunct professor of marketing. "They are creating groups and group connections, but you see them moving into lots of other services like streaming entertainment, mobile payments, and customer-to-customer buying and selling."

"[WeChat] has really instantiated itself as a day-to-day tool in China, and it's clear to me that Facebook would like to emulate that sort of thing."-Keith Niedermeier

In China, WeChat has become the biggest mobile payment platform in the world and it is the platform for many third-party apps for things like bike sharing and ordering airplane tickets. "It has really instantiated itself as a day-to-day tool in China, and it's clear to me that Facebook would like to emulate that sort of thing," says Niedermeier.

Among nascent social media platforms that are particularly promising right now, Yildirim says that "social media platforms which are directed at achieving some objectives with smaller scale and more homogenous people stand a higher chance of entering the market and being able to compete with large, general-purpose platforms such as Facebook and Twitter."
Irreplaceable - and Damaging?
Of course, many have begun to believe that the biggest challenge around the impact of social media may be the way it is changing society. The "attention-grabbing algorithms underlying social media ... propel authoritarian practices that aim to sow confusion, ignorance, prejudice, and chaos, thereby facilitating manipulation and undermining accountability," writes University of Toronto political science professor Ronald Deibert in a January essay in the Journal of Democracy.

Berger notes that any piece of information can now get attention, whether it is true or false. This means more potential for movements both welcome as well as malevolent. "Before, only media companies had reach, so it was harder for false information to spread. It could happen, but it was slow. Now anyone can share anything, and because people tend to believe what they see, false information can spread just as, if not more easily, than the truth.

"It's certainly allowed more things to bubble up rather than flow from the top down," says Berger. Absent gatekeepers, "everyone is their own media company, broadcasting to the particular set of people that follow them. It used to be that a major label signing you was the path to stardom. Now artists can build their own following online and break through that way. Social media has certainly made fame and attention more democratic, though not always in a good way."

Deibert writes that "in a short period of time, digital technologies have become pervasive and deeply embedded in all that we do. Unwinding them completely is neither possible nor desirable."

His cri de coeur argues: that citizens have the right to know what companies and governments are doing with their personal data, and that this right be extended internationally to hold autocratic regimes to account; that companies be barred from selling products and services that enable infringements on human rights and harms to civil society; for the creation of independent agencies with real power to hold social-media platforms to account; and the creation and enforcement of strong antitrust laws to end dominance of a very few social-media companies.

"Social media has certainly made fame and attention more democratic, though not always in a good way."-Jonah Berger

The rising tide of concern is now extending across sectors. The U.S. Justice Department has recently begun an anti-trust investigation into how tech companies operate in social media, search, and retail services. In July, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the award of nearly $50 million in new funding to 11 U.S. universities to research how technology is transforming democracy. The foundation is also soliciting additional grant proposals to fund policy and legal research into the "rules, norms, and governance" that should be applied to social media and technology companies.

Given all of the reasons not to engage with social media - the privacy issues, the slippery-slope addiction aspect of it, its role in spreading incivility - do we want to try to put the genie back in the bottle? Can we? Does social media definitely have a future?

"Yes, surely it does," says Yildirim. "Social connections are fabrics of society. Just as the telegraph or telephone as an innovation of communication did not reduce social connectivity, online social networks did not either. If anything, it likely increased connectivity, or reduced the cost of communicating with others."

It is thanks to online social networks that individuals likely have larger social networks, she says, and while many criticize the fact that we are in touch with large numbers of individuals in a superficial way, these light connections may nevertheless be contributing to our lives when it comes to economic and social outcomes - ranging from finding jobs to meeting new people.

"We are used to being in contact with more individuals, and it is easier to remain in contact with people we only met once. Giving up on this does not seem likely for humans," she says. "The technology with which we keep in touch may change, may evolve, but we will have social connections and platforms which enable them. Facebook may be gone in 10 years, but there will be something else."

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The Impact of Social Media: Is it Irreplaceable?

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Social media as we know it has barely reached its 20th birthday, but it's changed the fabric of everyday life. What does the future hold for the sector and the players currently at the top? ...Read More

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Social media damages teenagers’ mental health, report says

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Heavy social media use had a negative impact on wellbeing, the study found.

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States are investigating TikTok: This is how parents can monitor what their kids do on social media

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Attorneys general from eight states announced they were launching an investigation into TikTok in order to ‘protect young people’.

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(Jade Cuevas / Los Angeles Times; Getty Images)

TikTok videos with the hashtag #mentalhealth have accumulated more than 20 billion views. And that's not counting #anxiety, which has almost 11 billion views, or #adhd, with close to 9 billion.

The short-video app may be known for trendy dances and goofy humor. But TikTok has also become a place for young people to share their mental health struggles, learn from therapists and find community with others facing similar challenges.

In early December, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory calling attention to adolescent mental health challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Data from the World Health Organization shows that in 2021, one in seven adolescents ages 10 to 19 struggled with mental health challenges.

That group is a key part of TikTok's audience. Nearly half of the app's active users are 10 to 29 years old.

Evan Lieberman, a licensed social worker known as Evan the Counselor to his more than 1 million followers on TikTok, recognizes that social media is often responsible for the dissemination of incorrect information. But he said the benefits of more people learning and talking about mental health outweigh the potential negatives.

Here's how TikTok can help people with mental health challenges - but also what its limits and potential negative effects are and when it's time to seek professional help.

What can TikTok mental health videos do for you?

Education One of the main benefits of talking about mental health on TikTok is that users are exposed to people with different conditions, said Peter Wallerich-Neils, who's known as Peter Hyphen to his more than 416,000 followers on TikTok, where he initially began posting to discuss his diagnosis with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

This helps people learn terminology, and when they find other people with their own issues, they can start a dialogue about their symptoms. But also, Wallerich-Neils said, "It's kind of holding a mirror up to themselves and they can realize, 'Oh, my gosh, I didn't realize that this is something that I thought only I dealt with' - knowing that there could be a name for it. And 'I am part of this community that I didn't even know existed.'"

Validation Those who may be feeling alone in their struggles often can find the validation they need, Wallerich-Neils said.

Like many others, he took to social media at the beginning of the pandemic to fill the void created by the lockdowns. On TikTok, he began to analyze and share the ways that his ADHD diagnosis affected his everyday life and found that many connected with his journey.

Community Dr. Kojo Sarfo, a mental health nurse practitioner and psychotherapist with more than 1.9 million followers on TikTok, said the app creates spaces where those with mental health conditions can feel that they belong.

This connection is especially important for communities where mental health is rarely talked about or is even considered a taboo subject.

John Piacentini, a professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, said the weight of the pandemic is heavy for adolescents. Teens and young adults have an increased need for peer interaction and a higher sensitivity to social exclusion. Lockdowns, online learning and social distancing mandates have disrupted their lives.

Social media, Piacentini said, has helped to fill those gaps, and TikTok has become a new coping strategy.

As our lives become more destabilized, it's natural for us to seek out comfort and like-minded people. For adolescents, he said, finding community and validation on the app is not only normal but necessary for their development.

What can't TikTok mental health videos do for you?

The information isn't always accurate. Piacentini warns that users need to be critical of the content they're absorbing.

"TikTok is a very effective platform to communicate with, but just be aware of what's being communicated," he said.

Seeing a video on TikTok that you identify with can be the first step in your mental health journey, but always do more research. Consider each person's expertise and understand whether someone is giving advice based on personal experience or from a clinician's point of view. Sarfo said that even users like him, who are medical professionals, should be fact-checked.

It can exacerbate symptoms. Piacentini said that some patients at the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders Clinic and Tourette Assn. Center of Excellence have been exhibiting worsened symptoms that he and other professionals believe may be a result of watching content online.

He recommends avoiding anything with negative messaging or what appears to be exaggerated symptoms. While Piacentini doesn't believe that this type of content is being made maliciously, not everyone is a professional.

Research shows that more frequent use of TikTok and other social media can lead to negative effects. The cyberbullying, social exclusion and drama that can occur on these networks have been associated with higher rates of mental health issues in adolescents.

It's not enough information for a self-diagnosis. No two people are the same, Lieberman said, and it's important to figure out what you're experiencing and not assume that you're having the same issue as someone else.

If you start to identify with symptoms you see in videos, he recommended trying to learn coping skills to manage the individual symptoms rather than clumping them all together and adopting a diagnosis.

Our brains are wired to imitate, like how babies learn by watching adults, Piacentini said. This means that users can begin to imitate the things they're seeing on TikTok. In some cases, this can cause people to adopt symptoms or change their behaviors to match what's being presented on the app.

Having a basic understanding of what's going on with you is important to your overall mental health, but try to keep an open mind, Wallerich-Neils said. Just because you're presenting certain symptoms doesn't mean you have that particular mental health condition.

When it comes to taking on an actual diagnosis or making any major life changes - such as medicating - consult a mental health professional.

A good place to start, Sarfo said, is with your primary care physician or pediatrician. Because mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, ADHD and burnout are so common, most general practitioners are comfortable treating and monitoring your condition. And if they aren't, they can refer you to an appropriate specialist.

When to seek professional help

While social media can provide some relief, it might be time to consult a professional if you notice sharp changes in your behavior, mood or relationships.

David W. Bond, director of behavioral health for Blue Shield of California, told The Times that if a teen has intense feelings that last more than two weeks or has the intense feelings for most of a two-week period, that's a sign of something more serious afoot.

Getting a formal diagnosis is important, but not everybody has access to mental healthcare, Wallerich-Neils said. For adolescents, who often can't get care without an adult's permission, treatment can feel even further out of reach.

Minors who don't feel comfortable talking to their parents should consider confiding in another trusted adult or a counselor at school. While there are exceptions - for example, if the student poses a danger to themselves or others - school counselors are obligated to protect confidential information received from students.

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TikTok is helping Gen Z with mental health. Here's what it can and can't do

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Adolescent mental health has suffered due to the pandemic. Here's how the app TikTok has helped fill the gaps.

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In all advanced legal systems, treason, murder, aggravated assault, theft, robbery, burglary, arson, and rape are considered to be major offenses of criminal law. Criminal…

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When a child under 16 years old is arrested in New York and alleged to have committed a crime, he or she will typically be charged with committing a "delinquent act" and charged as a "juvenile delinquent" in Family Court. Although there are important practical implications of being identified as a legal juvenile that your criminal attorney or juvenile defense lawyer should explain, for legal purposes, a juvenile delinquent is defined in the Family Court Act Article 3, Section 301.2(a) as a person over seven and less than sixteen years of age, who commits a crime, but due to his or her age is not criminally responsible by reason of infancy. Though not explicitly defined by statute, the Family Court Act, the "delinquent act, is the functional equivalent to the crime committed by this child if he or she was an adult.

Quite different in both process and potential outcomes, juvenile delinquency proceedings are the relative equivalent of being arrested and charged with a "crime" in a criminal court as an adult. A Family Court judge can sentence the child to some level of supervision, treatment or confinement, but your Family Court attorney or juvenile delinquency defense lawyer can also negotiate with the prosecutor (Corporation Counsel in NYC) and the judge before reaching a suitable disposition or plea. Children aged 13, 14 or 15 and who are accused of committing certain serious, violent felonies can be charged as adults in a New York criminal court. However, unlike a child who is 16 or older, a 13-15 year old will be adjudicated a "juvenile offender," rather than being given a "criminal" record post-conviction.

The difference between these two outcomes - being adjudicated a "juvenile offender" and convicted of a crime as an adult - is significant. A "juvenile offender" as defined by the New York State Penal Law, Section 10.00, and means a person thirteen to fifteen years old who is criminally responsible for acts constituting certain very serious felonies. While a juvenile offender adjudication will not give the child a criminal record (this is critical), it does allow a prosecutor to treat a serious case against a child in essentially the same way as an adult charged with the same offense.

The prosecution of crimes allegedly committed by juveniles is a parallel but unique system to ordinary criminal prosecutions in New York, which requires the assistance of an attorney with expertise in both ordinary criminal law as well as the distinctive issues and dynamics at play in the context of a juvenile prosecution and Family Court more generally. The involvement of the Probation Department, family dynamics, the powers of the Family Court judge, and the office or agency leading the prosecution are just some of the unique issues at play in juvenile prosecutions throughout Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Westchester, Rockland and all of New York State. Representation of your child by an attorney experienced in both criminal law generally, and juvenile prosecutions specifically, is essential.
Commencement of a Juvenile Case
Just as with cases in New York City criminal courts and local justice courts in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties, a juvenile case typically begins with an arrest. That should come as no surprise to you or your juvenile defense lawyer. The fundamental rules and tenants of Constitutional Criminal Procedure apply just as they would in any other case and the arresting officer must have probable cause to arrest your son, daughter, niece, grandson or other family member or friend. Once the prosecutor or police officer files an accusatory instrument and officially charges the child with an offense, the child is taken to Family Court before a judge. The child can be held in an Administration for Children Services (ACS), Child Protective Services (CPS), or analogous entity's detention center until a Family Court judge is available to hear the case.
Understanding the Procedure of a Juvenile Case
Terminology and procedures can be confusing in New York Family Court on juvenile prosecutions, especially for those primarily familiar with the adult criminal justice system. If the charges proceed against a child, the Court will eventually schedule a fact-finding "hearing," which is essentially the equivalent of a non-jury or bench "trial" in an adult case if the matter cannot be resolved through some other resolution. Just as with any other trial, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to prove the charges not the child or Family Court defense attorney. The prosecutor will typically call witnesses who provide testimonial evidence in support of the charges. The prosecutor can produce physical evidence of various kinds, and the child's defense attorney will have the opportunity to present evidence and cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses. Again, unlike most adult criminal trials, there will not be a jury at the fact-finding hearing. The Family Court judge will act as both the judge of the law and of the facts, meaning the child's guilt or innocence will rest entirely in the Family Court judge's hands.

At the conclusion of the fact-finding hearing, the judge will issue a ruling as to the child's guilt. If the judge finds the child not guilty, the case is over and the child is free to go, just as with an adult criminal trial. If the judge finds the child guilty, there are several sentencing options that are unique to the juvenile justice system. The child may be released on the condition that the child stay out of trouble, not be re-arrested, and abide by any other conditions the judge deems appropriate. The judge may alternatively order formal probation or order the child to attend a relevant program to address the child's behavioral issues. Lastly, the judge may order that the child be placed in a juvenile detention facility which can either be non-secure or secure facilities.

When a child or youth is accused of a crime, their entire future is at risk. Can your attorney mitigate your child's conduct at the initial stage with probation or the prosecution? Will the case be filed and your son, niece or other youth be subject to a judge's hearing and "trial?" Be smart, prepared and diligent in your effort to protect him or her from a damaged life or even incarceration. Because an alleged mistake a child makes today should not define him or her forever, contact the New York criminal lawyers, juvenile delinquency and youthful offender attorneys, and former Manhattan prosecutors at Crotty Saland PC to put your child's interests, rights and future first.

Call the Former Manhattan Prosecutors and Juvenile Defense Lawyers at (212) 312-7129 or contact us online today.

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free consultation - call (212) 312-7129 - former manhattan prosecutor. crotty saland pc aggressively represents the accused against charges in criminal defense & crime cases. serving the bronx

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queens & manhattan. new york juvenile crimes

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delinquency and youthful offender proceedings - ny criminal defense lawyer

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New York Juvenile Crimes, Delinquency and Youthful Offender Proceedings

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Free Consultation - Call (212) 312-7129 - Former Manhattan Prosecutor. Crotty Saland PC aggressively represents the accused against charges in Criminal Defense & Crime cases. Serving the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens & Manhattan. New York Juvenile Crimes, Delinquency and Youthful Offender Proceedings - NY Criminal Defense Lawyer

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Together with partners, governments, local communities and children themselves, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can access a justice system that is child-friendly, gender-sensitive and well-equipped to secure their rights. We focus on:

Encouraging child-sensitive investigations and court procedures

Alongside governments, we work in countries to train police, judges, prosecutors and lawyers on child-friendly and gender-sensitive justice approaches. We also assess and develop child-friendly and gender-sensitive procedures within courts and police systems.

Keeping children from formal criminal proceedings

We support governments and civil society organizations to divert children from formal criminal justice proceedings when possible. Instead of being drawn into proceedings that negatively affect their physical and mental health, children receive support through social services, community-based programming, and more. This also prevents children from receiving a criminal record.

Promoting and supporting restorative justice approaches

Where appropriate, we support efforts like restorative justice approaches that bring victims and offenders to actively participate alongside one another to resolve matters arising from a crime. Restorative justice approaches include measures such as mediation and conferencing.

Advancing alternatives to pre-trial and post-trial detention

We help keep children who are pending trial out of detention by supporting family and community-based options for supervision. If detention prior to the trial is unavoidable, we focus on efforts that limit the time children spend in detention. We also work with partners to advance non-custodial sanctions and other alternatives to post-trial detention. To preclude children from being sentenced to any form of detention, we create options for them to undergo reintegration, rehabilitation and supervision within their families or communities.

Providing recovery and reintegration services

We support services that allow children to recover and reintegrate with their families and local communities through personalized reintegration plans, tailored to the needs of each child.

Empowering children to claim their rights, through legal and other services

We facilitate efforts to provide children with specialized legal aid, representation and other services as needed. We also support efforts to build every child's knowledge of their human rights and legal rights.

Preventing abuse, violence and exploitation

We recognize that - however children come into contact with the law - they are first and foremost children. Their rights, including their right to protection, must be fulfilled before, during and after they encounter the justice system. We support countries to build a comprehensive national child protection system that can prevent and respond to all forms of child neglect, violence, abuse, exploitation and harmful practices.

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Together with partners, governments, local communities and children themselves, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can access a justice system that is child-friendly, gender-sensitive and well-equipped to secure their rights. We focus on: Encouraging child-sensitive investigations and court procedures Alongside governments, we work in countries to train police, judges, prosecutors and lawyers on child-friendly and gender-sensitive justice approaches.

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Youth in the Justice System: An Overview | Juvenile Law Center

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Since the establishment of the first juvenile court in Cook County, Illinois in 1899, states have recognized that children who commit crimes are different from adults; as a class, they are less blameworthy, and they have a greater capacity for change. By the mid 1920s, every state in the country ha…

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Animal Rights: A Series of Realizations | Anne Flaherty | TEDxYouth@Wayland

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Aside from getting dolled up for a Zoom team meeting here and there, it's likely that you aren't wearing makeup (or maybe just less) while social distancing these days. It would make sense in theory that giving skin a little break from the blush and bronzer is beneficial every once in a while, but how, exactly, can it help your skin? Ahead, we ask the pros about different ways going makeup-free can help clear up your complexion.

"Often, a barrier of makeup increases oil production, so not wearing makeup can decrease oiliness, clogged pores and pimples," explains Hadley King, MD, a dermatologist in New York City. She warns, however, that these benefits could potentially come with an adjustment period.

While your skin is recalibrating and getting used to the new normal of going makeup-free, it could be temporarily affecting your sebum production, which could lead to clogged pores and breakouts, according to Dr. King. "If this is happening, keep the other parts of your skincare routine gentle-a gentle cleanser and soothing moisturizer," she says. "Consider adding in an active ingredient like a retinoid or salicylic acid. Although these ingredients can cause skin purging, they will ultimately lead to a clearer complexion." Here are the other benefits you could see when you go makeup free:

Your skin's surface will become balanced again.

"By avoiding application of foundation and blush, the skin is allowed to return to its natural oil balance and hydration," explains Nadia Kihiczak, MD, a dermatologist at Spring Street Dermatology in New York City. "Additionally, without wearing makeup, the typical daily use of toner or over-washing the skin to remove the makeup, which can strip the skin of its natural oil balance, can be minimized further, allowing the skin to recalibrate."

Your acne might be less likely to flare up.

"Unlike many skincare product ingredients, which penetrate into your skin, makeup sits on top of your skin-this coverage may affect your skin's sebum production and its natural hydrators because skin behaves differently depending on external factors like humidity," says Dr. King.

You're exposing your skin to less bacteria.

"By not wearing makeup, you are not unnecessarily exposing your delicate facial skin to bacteria which thrive in the application brushes and makeup palettes that you use day after day," says Dr. Kihiczak. "Even if you're washing your brushes regularly, the bacteria can remain in them and in the makeup itself, even if they have added preservatives."

Additionally, most folks apply their makeup in the bathroom, exposing their products to other types of bacteria, which can contaminate the makeup. "In particular, mascara and eyeliners applied repeatedly to the skin of the eyes and eyelid margins can introduce bacteria to this very delicate skin possibly leading to eye infections," says Dr. Kihiczak.

Your fine lines will be less prominent.

"Makeup, especially powder makeup, can rest in fine lines and wrinkles and can actually make them appear more pronounced, especially around the eyes," says Dr. Kihiczak. "Then, the process of removing the makeup nightly can result in tugging and pulling the skin on a regular basis which can affect the elasticity of the skin and, therefore, accelerate aging."

Your lashes will look fuller.

"If you were wearing enough mascara to be causing breakage, or sleeping in it, or not removing it gently enough, and causing breakage that way, you may notice that your lashes seem longer or fuller due to lack of breakage," explains Dr. King.

Dr. Kihiczak agrees, stating that if you forego mascara for a month, you'll be stopping the irritation and rubbing, where less lashes will fall out and the density of the lashes can normalize-your lashes will appear to be thicker.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

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Five Surprising Skin Benefits Of Not Wearing Makeup For One Month

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Aside from getting dolled up for a Zoom team meeting here and there, it's likely that you aren't wearing makeup (or maybe just less) while social distancing these days. It would make sense in theory that giving skin a little break from the blush and bronzer is beneficial every once in a while, but how, exactly, can it help your skin?

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Alicia Keys usually wore makeup every time she left the house until recently, when she decided to give it up. Credit Credit Stewart Cook/Variety/Rex/Shutterstock; Mike Marsland/Wireimage/Getty Images; photograph by Mari Maeda and Yuji Oboshi

On Beauty
The question is surprisingly fraught, but the answer is simple.

Alicia Keys usually wore makeup every time she left the house until recently, when she decided to give it up. Credit Credit Stewart Cook/Variety/Rex/Shutterstock; Mike Marsland/Wireimage/Getty Images; photograph by Mari Maeda and Yuji Oboshi

The question is surprisingly fraught, but the answer is simple.
Recently, Buzzfeed compiled examples of men on Reddit and Twitter who had shared photos of women they found beautiful, seemingly amazed by their own enlightened taste: The women, celebrities like Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone, were, they believed, not wearing makeup. "Kylie Jenner looks so much better without makeup to me idk why. Im prob just weird," one man bravely tweeted.

In fact, these women were wearing makeup; in one particularly egregious instance, a photo had been taken from a magazine editorial featuring a natural makeup look, with products listed. The men had confused makeup that does not announce itself with makeup that does not exist. And who can blame them? "Natural beauty" has become less about lack of effort than about successfully hiding effort altogether. After a punishing night, when I use a fine-pointed brush to apply Clé de Peau Beauté concealer to my red-rimmed lower lashline, I am trying to fake wakefulness; I cannot fault a man who would, taking my illusion at face value, rush to celebrate his own wokefulness.

In light of this, it's not surprising that it became news earlier this year when the singer Alicia Keys declared she would abstain from makeup, declining to wear it even at public events or on television. In an essay about her decision for the online magazine Lenny, she wrote of realizing that she had written "a lot of songs about masks filled with metaphors about hiding." After years of feeling like she needed to wear makeup to perform, both as a singer and as a woman in the world, it struck her that this preparing for the public eye was only magnifying the effect of its scrutiny. The #nomakeup movement soon took off, with other celebrities and women's magazines jumping on the bandwagon. ("Mila Without Makeup" boasted Glamour's August cover.)

At first glance, Alicia Keys, Mila Kunis or Gwyneth Paltrow - women whose visages we've come to know intimately in their makeup-wearing form - look a bit naked and exposed without it, as though a veil has been lifted, revealing something private and raw. But to examine them more closely is simply to get reacquainted with the features of the human face: its shapes and curvatures; gradations of light and color; freckles; eyelashes. It would be easy to deem a makeup-less Alicia Keys "honest," or "real," or even radical, but that would be missing the point: More than anything, she looks exceptionally relaxed and open, completely at ease in her own skin. She is radiant with serenity, like a person on vacation who really knows how to let go. The message she broadcasts is that comfort is the root of confidence, and not the other way around. This is true whether a person is wearing makeup or not.

Of course, Keys's kind of comfort requires its own sort of discipline. On the beauty website Into the Gloss, her makeup artist described the many rituals and products that go into her new look: acupuncture, exercise, a healthy diet. Facials, lip treatments, sprays and oils. I began to wear a full face of makeup in middle school, as a gesture of defeat, attempting to obscure hormonal breakouts, asymmetrical features, eyebrows that were too bushy and lips that were too big. As I got older, I spent less time searching for pigmented powders to cover my face, and more time searching for concoctions to strengthen or improve it. I didn't so much want to look better as I wanted to be better. I bought serums with the consistency of liquefied amber, thick white creams expelled from pump bottles with such force that they seemed impatient to get to work, masks made from insect secretions. The irony, naturally, is that clean, clear skin is the ideal base for makeup.

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On Beauty The question is surprisingly fraught, but the answer is simple. Alicia Keys usually wore makeup every time she left the house until recently, when she decided to give it up. Credit Credit Stewart Cook/Variety/Rex/Shutterstock; Mike Marsland/Wireimage/Getty Images; photograph by Mari Maeda and Yuji Oboshi The question is surprisingly fraught, but the answer is simple.

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Just before Thanksgiving, I made a big life decision: I quit wearing makeup.

To be precise, I became a freelance, work-from-home writer, and with that came no more need for makeup. I didn't necessarily want to part with my beauty arsenal: I'm a cosmetics junkie, raised by a grandmother who would tell my mother to put on makeup just to take out the trash ("you never know who you'll meet at the end of the driveway!" she'd remind my mom) and taught me the life motto "a little powder and paint makes you what you ain't.

No matter how bad I might have felt, it always seemed better when I put my "face".

And so since high school, I've applied a litany of products every single day-no matter how bad I might have felt, it always seemed better when I put my "face" on. My most recent routine was a layer of Dior Star foundation-that's the one designed for taking perfect selfies-a quick dusting of Lancome finishing powder, cream NARS blush in Orgasm, light eyeshadow, a swipe of liquid eyeliner and plenty of mascara. But putting on all those luxurious-and let's face it, expensive-products when I'm not interacting with anyone but my dog all day seemed like a waste. So I ditched my powder and paint.

It definitely felt weird, but I had read that "makeup detoxes" were good for you. My skin would reward me for giving it a break from the daily dose of colored chemicals by becoming glow-y and blemish-free. I was looking forward to radiant skin-no products required.

That is not what I got.

My skin rebelled against being naked almost instantly. Gnarly blackheads started popping up. Zits fused together like Pangea in reverse, creating small continents on my forehead and chin. And when each one subsided, the red patches they left in their wake seemed to take an extra-long time to heal (which was glaringly obvious without my trusty cover-up). I saw no other explanation for what could be causing this sudden plummet in my skin's quality-I still washed my face twice a day, applied an SPF moisturizer each morning and was even trying to topically treat the acne. My pores had spoken. They missed their makeup.

My pores had spoken. They missed their makeup.

Confounded as to why I didn't experience the type of skin that would inspire an immediate series of no-makeup selfies, I consulted some experts. It turns out, quitting cosmetics isn't the magic cure-all I'd been led to believe. "Makeup is not a demon," said Dr. Debra Jaliman, a dermatologist in private practice in New York City and author of Skin Rules: Trade Secrets from a Top New York Dermatologist. She explained that my beloved Dior Star foundation contains titanium dioxide, which can work as an anti-inflammatory protectant, fighting the redness and irritation my new breakouts were loudly demonstrating. And it gets worse-dermatologist and psychologist Dr. Amy Wechsler also pointed out that I might be getting lazy with my twice-daily face washes because of my bare skin. "[It's possible] you were cleansing better when you were wearing makeup because you were getting the makeup off," she said. Oh. Got it.

But the changes were more than skin-deep. "You're going through a makeup withdrawal," said Dr. Harold Lancer, a dermatologist in Beverly Hills. It sounds silly, but there's a very real thing going on: "If you're accustomed to wearing makeup and you stop-there's a subconscious emotional component to not wearing cosmetics, which triggers testosterone production," said Lancer. The stress and insecurity of not wearing my daily defense layer, Lancer explained, caused my body to make more testosterone, which caused oil gland congestion, blemishes, and clogging. Not to mention, that this wasn't the only new stress in my life-after nearly a decade of going to an office every day, suddenly switching up my schedule and working from home was probably more jarring than I realized.

If you're accustomed to wearing makeup and you stop-there's a subconscious emotional component to not wearing cosmetics, which triggers testosterone production.

Routines are emotionally comforting, and makeup was one of mine. But Wechsler, Jaliman, and Lancer all agreed that I don't need to go back to wearing it to get my skin under control. The ritual is the important part, and I now have the opportunity to create one that allows me to take better care of my skin in the process. Lancer prescribed me a three-pronged morning regimen that consists of cleansing, moisturizing, and applying a skin perfector from his line, which should give me the structure I've been missing from my morning makeup. And-hopefully-glowing, gorgeous, all-natural skin.
Follow Marie Claire on Instagram for the latest celeb news, pretty pics, funny stuff, and an insider POV.

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I Quit Wearing Makeup and My Skin Became Terrible

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Just before Thanksgiving, I made a big life decision: I quit wearing makeup. To be precise, I became a freelance, work-from-home writer, and with that came no more need for makeup.

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Why Do Kids Bully? Understanding why kids bully can help you better handle the situation. Often kids bully because they lack attention from a parent at home and lash out.

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We brought together UNICEF specialists, international cyberbullying and child protection experts, and teamed up with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter to answer some of the most common questions about online bullying and give advice on ways to deal with it.

What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted. Examples include:

spreading lies about or posting embarrassing photos or videos of someone on social media

sending hurtful, abusive or threatening messages, images or videos via messaging platforms

impersonating someone and sending mean messages to others on their behalf or through fake accounts.

Face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying can often happen alongside each other. But cyberbullying leaves a digital footprint - a record that can prove useful and provide evidence to help stop the abuse.
If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, you can seek help by calling your national helpline. If your country does not have a helpline, please urgently speak to an adult you trust or seek professional support from trained and experienced carers.

1. Am I being bullied online? How do you tell the difference between a joke and bullying?

All friends joke around with each other, but sometimes it's hard to tell if someone is just having fun or trying to hurt you, especially online. Sometimes they'll laugh it off with a "just kidding," or "don't take it so seriously."

But if you feel hurt or think others are laughing at you instead of with you, then the joke has gone too far. If it continues even after you've asked the person to stop and you are still feeling upset about it, then this could be bullying.

And when the bullying takes place online, it can result in unwanted attention from a wide range of people including strangers. Wherever it may happen, if you are not happy about it, you should not have to stand for it.

Call it what you will - if you feel bad and it doesn't stop, then it's worth getting help. Stopping cyberbullying is not just about calling out bullies, it's also about recognizing that everyone deserves respect - online and in real life.

2. What are the effects of cyberbullying?

When bullying happens online it can feel as if you're being attacked everywhere, even inside your own home. It can seem like there's no escape. The effects can last a long time and affect a person in many ways:

Mentally - feeling upset, embarrassed, stupid, even afraid or angry

Emotionally - feeling ashamed or losing interest in the things you love

Physically - tired (loss of sleep), or experiencing symptoms like stomach aches and headaches

The feeling of being laughed at or harassed by others, can prevent people from speaking up or trying to deal with the problem. In extreme cases, cyberbullying can even lead to people taking their own lives.

Cyberbullying can affect us in many ways. But these can be overcome and people can regain their confidence and health.

3. How can cyberbullying affect my mental health?

When you experience cyberbullying you might start to feel ashamed, nervous, anxious and insecure about what people say or think about you. This can lead to withdrawing from friends and family, negative thoughts and self-talk, feeling guilty about things you did or did not do, or feeling that you are being judged negatively. Feeling lonely, overwhelmed, frequent headaches, nausea or stomachaches are also common.

You can lose your motivation to do the things that you usually enjoy doing and feel isolated from the people you love and trust. This can perpetuate negative feelings and thoughts which can adversely affect your mental health and well-being.

Skipping school is another common effect of cyberbullying and can affect the mental health of young people who turn to substances like alcohol and drugs or violent behaviour to deal with their psychological and physical pain. Talking to a friend, family member or school counsellor you trust can be a first step to getting help.

The effects of cyberbullying on mental health can vary depending on the medium through which it happens. For example, bullying via text messaging or through pictures or videos on social media platforms has proven to be very harmful for adolescents.

4. Who should I talk to if someone is bullying me online? Why is reporting important?

If you think you're being bullied, the first step is to seek help from someone you trust such as your parents, a close family member or another trusted adult.

In your school you can reach out to a counsellor, the sports coach or your favourite teacher - either online or in person.

And if you are not comfortable talking to someone you know, search for a helpline in your country to talk to a professional counsellor.

If the bullying is happening on a social platform, consider blocking the bully and formally reporting their behaviour on the platform itself. Social media companies are obligated to keep their users safe.

For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is key.

It can be helpful to collect evidence - text messages and screen shots of social media posts - to show what's been going on.

For bullying to stop, it needs to be identified and reporting it is key. It can also help to show the bully that their behaviour is unacceptable.

If you are in immediate danger, then you should contact the police or emergency services in your country.

5. I'm experiencing cyberbullying, but I'm afraid to talk to my parents about it. How can I approach them?

If you are experiencing cyberbullying, speaking to a trusted adult - someone you feel safe talking to - is one of the most important first steps you can take.

Talking to parents isn't easy for everyone. But there are things you can do to help the conversation. Choose a time to talk when you know you have their full attention. Explain how serious the problem is for you. Remember, they might not be as familiar with technology as you are, so you might need to help them to understand what's happening.

They might not have instant answers for you, but they are likely to want to help and together you can find a solution. Two heads are always better than one! If you are still unsure about what to do, consider reaching out to other trusted people. There are often more people who care about you and are willing to help than you might think!

6. How can I help my friends report a case of cyberbullying especially if they don't want to do it?

Anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying. If you see this happening to someone you know, try to offer support.

It is important to listen to your friend. Why don't they want to report being cyberbullied? How are they feeling? Let them know that they don't have to formally report anything, but it's crucial to talk to someone who might be able to help.

Anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying.

Remember, your friend may be feeling fragile. Be kind to them. Help them think through what they might say and to whom. Offer to go with them if they decide to report. Most importantly, remind them that you're there for them and you want to help.

If your friend still does not want to report the incident, then support them in finding a trusted adult who can help them deal with the situation. Remember that in certain situations the consequences of cyberbullying can be life threatening.

Doing nothing can leave the person feeling that everyone is against them or that nobody cares. Your words can make a difference.

7. How do we stop cyberbullying without giving up access to the Internet?

Being online has so many benefits. However, like many things in life, it comes with risks that you need to protect against.

If you experience cyberbullying, you may want to delete certain apps or stay offline for a while to give yourself time to recover. But getting off the Internet is not a long-term solution. You did nothing wrong, so why should you be disadvantaged? It may even send the bullies the wrong signal - encouraging their unacceptable behaviour.

We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others.

We all want cyberbullying to stop, which is one of the reasons reporting cyberbullying is so important. But creating the Internet we want goes beyond calling out bullying. We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others. We need to be kind to one another online and in real life. It's up to all of us!

8. How do I prevent my personal information from being used to manipulate or humiliate me on social media?

Think twice before posting or sharing anything on digital platforms - it may be online forever and could be used to harm you later. Don't give out personal details such as your address, telephone number or the name of your school.

Learn about the privacy settings of your favourite social media apps. Here are some actions you can take on many of them:

You can decide who can see your profile, send you direct messages or comment on your posts by adjusting your account privacy settings.

You can report hurtful comments, messages, photos and videos and request they be removed.

Besides 'unfriending', you can completely block people to stop them from seeing your profile or contacting you.

You can also choose to have comments by certain people to appear only to them without completely blocking them.

You can delete posts on your profile or hide them from specific people.

On most of your favourite social media, people aren't notified when you block, restrict or report them.

9. Is there a punishment for cyberbullying?

Most schools take bullying seriously and will take action against it. If you are being cyberbullied by other students, report it to your school.

People who are victims of any form of violence, including bullying and cyberbullying, have a right to justice and to have the offender held accountable.

Laws against bullying, particularly on cyberbullying, are relatively new and still do not exist everywhere. This is why many countries rely on other relevant laws, such as ones against harassment, to punish cyberbullies.

In countries that have specific laws on cyberbullying, online behaviour that deliberately causes serious emotional distress is seen as criminal activity. In some of these countries, victims of cyberbullying can seek protection, prohibit communication from a specified person and restrict the use of electronic devices used by that person for cyberbullying, temporarily or permanently.

However, it is important to remember that punishment is not always the most effective way to change the behaviour of bullies. Sometimes, focusing on repairing the harm and mending the relationship can be better.

10. Technology companies don't seem to care about online bullying and harassment. Are they being held responsible?

Technology companies are increasingly paying attention to the issue of online bullying.

Many of them are introducing ways to address it and better protect their users with new tools, guidance and ways to report online abuse.

But it is true that more is needed. Many young people experience cyberbullying every day. Some face extreme forms of online abuse. Some have taken their own lives as a result.

Technology companies have a responsibility to protect their users especially children and young people.

It is up to all of us to hold them accountable when they're not living up to these responsibilities.

11. Are there any online anti-bullying tools for children or young people?

Each social platform offers different tools (see available ones below) that allow you to restrict who can comment on or view your posts or who can connect automatically as a friend, and to report cases of bullying. Many of them involve simple steps to block, mute or report cyberbullying. We encourage you to explore them.

Social media companies also provide educational tools and guidance for children, parents and teachers to learn about risks and ways to stay safe online.

Also, the first line of defense against cyberbullying could be you. Think about where cyberbullying happens in your community and ways you can help - by raising your voice, calling out bullies, reaching out to trusted adults or by creating awareness of the issue. Even a simple act of kindness can go a long way.

The first line of defense against cyberbullying could be you.

If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, urgently speak to an adult you trust. Many countries have a special helpline you can call for free and talk to someone anonymously. Visit United for Global Mental Health to find help in your country.

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Cyberbullying: What is it and how to stop it

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What teens want to know about cyberbullying

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Self-image is still just one factor in what may be making some girls feel bad
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Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Instagram made body images worse for one in three teenage girls, and the paper of record even cited Facebook's own data. Facebook has since fired back this week stating that it isn't accurate that the research demonstrated that Instagram is in fact "toxic" for teen girls - and instead suggested that Instagram made many teenage girls and young women feel better rather than worse.

The social network also said in a post on Sunday that "Body image was the only area where teen girls who reported struggling with the issue said Instagram made it worse as compared to the other 11 areas. But here also, the majority of teenage girls who experienced body image issues still reported Instagram either made it better or had no impact."

Self-image is still just one factor in what may be making some girls feel bad, as it coincides with an increase in cyberbullying. This is not a new phenomenon, but Dr. Monica Barreto, PhD and licensed clinical child psychologist at the Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, told this reporter that the problem has been increasing.

While the pandemic is certainly one part of it, Barreto said that cyberbullying has been on the rise amongst adolescents due, in part, to increased access to electronic devices, the Internet, and at times lack of supervision of online activity.

"Within the field of psychology, the research has varied on its stance on the correlation and relationship between cyberbullying and traditional bullying, however there are crucial differences that are important to identify," she explained. "It can be argued that cyberbullying is a more threatening form of aggression than traditional bullying, as cyberbullies can remain anonymous, causing bullying to occur around the clock."

What is also an issue is that the act of a cyberbully can be viewed repeatedly and shared with others without limit, making it difficult for support networks to shield victims from cyberbullying.

"Overall, cyberbullying occurs on a broader, omnipresent scale compared to traditional bullying, without physical violence, admittedly, but with the capacity to do significant harm to the reputation, emotional well-being, and social relationships of a child or adolescent," added Barreto. "Although, cyberbullying and traditional bullying share the common feature of being behaviors that communicate disrespect and domination, the expression of dominance in cyberbullying is emotional and psychological, without limits."
Social Media Amplifies Cyberbullying
As noted, cyberbullying existed before the emergence of social media - and may have included trolling on forums, message boards and even chat rooms; as well as the sharing of inappropriate photos by teens; or just the sharing of secrets and the spreading of rumors online.

However, just as more people, especially younger Americans, connect via social media it has led to an uptick in cyberbullying.

"Statistics show most cases are taking place on popular social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter," said Barreto. "Although these sites allow teens to share pictures, posts and communicate with friends, they are also a hotspot for cyberbullying. On these social media platforms, cyberbullies can make hurtful and emotionally scarring comments anonymously. These comments can be made publicly on a youth's photo or privately in a direct message. Additionally, images or comments can be made 'viral' by sharing with others instantly. An additional stressor related to cyberbullying is the unlimited access teens have to social media via their phones and home devices (i.e., iPad, laptops and computers, gaming systems). Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying can be ongoing, even after the youth has left school grounds, making a teen feel helpless and without haven."

The pandemic and the resulting lockdown have also changed social interaction for many teen girls, and even as they are going back to a physical school the problems have continued.

"Since the start of the Covid pandemic, we have seen a rise in anxiety, depression, eating disorders, isolation, and loneliness, as well as a lack of peer contact and reduced opportunities for stress reduction and emotion regulation," explained Barreto. "With the return to school, these difficulties may impact children's academic performance as well as their abilities to cope with stress and activities as some social activities continue to remain limited. It is important during this transition for parents to have open communication with their children, talk about their struggles, and seek mental health services and support as needed."

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Cyberbullying Remains Rampant On Social Media

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Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Instagram made body images worse for one in three teenage girls, and the paper of record even cited Facebook's own data.

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There are many different types of bullying that can be experienced by children and adults alike, some are obvious to spot while others can be more subtle. The different types of bullying that we look at below are some of the ways that bullying could be happening.

Physical bullying

Physical bullying includes hitting, kicking, tripping, pinching and pushing or damaging property. Physical bullying causes both short term and long term damage.

Verbal bullying

Verbal bulling includes name calling, insults, teasing, intimidation, homophobic or racist remarks, or verbal abuse. While verbal bullying can start off harmless, it can escalate to levels which start affecting the individual target.

Social bullying

Social bullying, sometimes referred to as covert bullying, is often harder to recognise and can be carried out behind the bullied person's back. It is designed to harm someone's social reputation and / or cause humiliation.

Social bullying can include:

lying and spreading rumours

negative facial or physical gestures, menacing or contemptuous looks

playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate

mimicking unkindly

encouraging others to social exclude someone

damaging someone's social reputation or social acceptance.

Cyber bullying

The Cyber Bullying Research Centre defines cyber bullying as: Intentional and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, phones, and other electronic devices.

Cyber bullying can be overt or covert bullying behaviours using digital technologies including hardware such as computers and smartphones, and software such as social media, instant messaging, texts, websites and other online platforms.

Cyber bullying can happen at any time. It can be in public or in private and sometimes only known to the target and the person bullying.

Cyber bullying can include:

abusive or hurtful texts, emails or posts, images or videos

deliberately excluding others online

nasty gossip or rumours

imitating others online or using their log-in.

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Types of bullying - National Center Against Bullying

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There are many different types of bullying that can be experienced by children and adults alike, some are obvious to spot while others can be more subtle. The different types of bullying that we look at below are some of the ways that bullying could be happening.

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Is your child glued to that videogame controller again? Take a deep breath. Researchers at Michigan State University want you to know that there's a link between video game use and creativity in children.

Specifically, a study of nearly 491 12-year-olds, funded by the National Science Foundation, found that "the more kids played video games, the more creative they were in tasks such as drawing pictures and writing stories."

So are the games the cause of said creativity? The data do not tell us that. What they show is a correlation. It could be that hours spent on Worlds of Warcraft or Call of Duty stimulates neurons in such a way that the imaginative juices start flowing. But just as likely (perhaps more so) is that creative kids are attracted to these games in the first place.

What I read here, though, is the reality-check of a message that parents need not panic just because our children inhabit worlds that are alien to us. We talked about this before on Parentlode, in a post titled "Kids Spend More Time With Screens Than Books."

...know that you are not the first generation of parents to wonder what new fangled things are doing to their children. When the ball point pen replaced the inkwell, there were some who lamented the end of penmanship and discipline. The telephone would clang through family dinnertime! The calculator would ruin their math skills!

In the history of humankind, however, there is no technology invented that has not been used. (Let's leave the defense industry out of this.) So the goal can't be to condemn screens, but rather to learn how best to use them. After all, there can be books on those screens. There is a measurable gain in eye and hand coordination. And there is legitimate value in a screen's ability to quiet and entertain a child in places -- airplanes, long car rides -- where the alternative used to be fidgeting to screaming.

Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, has been arguing for several years now, that video games boost brain power. He has not written as directly about a link between video games and creativity, but in his well-circulated talk at TED last year he talked about where creative ideas come from, and concluded that they were born out of chaos, when the brain was busy doing something else entirely.

"A new idea is a new collection of neurons firing in sequence like never before," he says. The queston is "how do you get your brain into places where these neurons are going to fire?"

He cites the first wave of coffeehouses in 17th century England as the idea breeding ground for creativity. Perhaps online gaming is the modern equivalent.

Does this make you feel any better about your child's time spent with video games? Or have you just had the creative thought of your own that perhaps these children would be even MORE creative if not for the time spent with a controller and headset?

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Paintbrushes, Poetry, Sheet Music...And Video Games?

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Is your child glued to that videogame controller again? Take a deep breath. Researchers at Michigan State University want you to know that there's a link between video game use and creativity in children.

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Many parents worry about how exposure to technology might affect toddlers developmentally. We know our preschoolers are picking up new social and cognitive skills at a stunning pace, and we don't want hours spent glued to an iPad to impede that. But adolescence is an equally important period of rapid development, and too few of us are paying attention to how our teenagers' use of technology - much more intense and intimate than a 3-year-old playing with dad's iPhone - is affecting them. In fact, experts worry that the social media and text messages that have become so integral to teenage life are promoting anxiety and lowering self-esteem.

Young people report that there might be good reason to worry. A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14-24-year-olds in the UK how social media platforms impacted their health and well-being. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image, and loneliness.

Indirect communication

Teens are masters at keeping themselves occupied in the hours after school until way past bedtime. When they're not doing their homework (and when they are) they're online and on their phones, texting, sharing, trolling, scrolling, you name it. Of course before everyone had an Instagram account teens kept themselves busy, too, but they were more likely to do their chatting on the phone, or in person when hanging out at the mall. It may have looked like a lot of aimless hanging around, but what they were doing was experimenting, trying out skills, and succeeding and failing in tons of tiny real-time interactions that kids today are missing out on. For one thing, modern teens are learning to do most of their communication while looking at a screen, not another person.

"As a species we are very highly attuned to reading social cues," says Catherine Steiner-Adair, EdD, a clinical psychologist and author of The Big Disconnect. "There's no question kids are missing out on very critical social skills. In a way, texting and online communicating puts everybody in a context where body language, facial expression, and even the smallest kinds of vocal reactions are rendered invisible."

Lowering the risks

Certainly speaking indirectly creates a barrier to clear communication, but that's not all. Learning how to make friends is a major part of growing up, and friendship requires a certain amount of risk-taking. This is true for making a new friend, but it's also true for maintaining friendships. When there are problems that need to be faced - big ones or small ones - it takes courage to be honest about your feelings and then hear what the other person has to say. Learning to effectively cross these bridges is part of what makes friendship fun and exciting, and also scary. "Part of healthy self-esteem is knowing how to say what you think and feel even when you're in disagreement with other people or it feels emotionally risky," notes Dr. Steiner-Adair.

But when friendship is conducted online and through texts, kids are doing this in a context stripped of many of the most personal - and sometimes intimidating - aspects of communication. It's easier to keep your guard up when you're texting, so less is at stake. You aren't hearing or seeing the effect that your words are having on the other person. Because the conversation isn't happening in real time, each party can take more time to consider a response. No wonder kids say calling someone on the phone is "too intense"- it requires more direct communication, and if you aren't used to that it may well feel scary.

If kids aren't getting enough practice relating to people and getting their needs met in person and in real time, many of them will grow up to be adults who are anxious about our species' primary means of communication - talking. And of course social negotiations only get riskier as people get older and begin navigating romantic relationships and employment.

Cyberbullying and the imposter syndrome

The other big danger that comes from kids communicating more indirectly is that it has gotten easier to be cruel. "Kids text all sorts of things that you would never in a million years contemplate saying to anyone's face," says Donna Wick, EdD, a clinical and developmental psychologist. She notes that this seems to be especially true of girls, who typically don't like to disagree with each other in "real life."

"You hope to teach them that they can disagree without jeopardizing the relationship, but what social media is teaching them to do is disagree in ways that are more extreme and do jeopardize the relationship. It's exactly what you don't want to have happen," she says.

Dr. Steiner-Adair agrees that girls are particularly at risk. "Girls are socialized more to compare themselves to other people, girls in particular, to develop their identities, so it makes them more vulnerable to the downside of all this." She warns that a lack of solid self-esteem is often to blame. "We forget that relational aggression comes from insecurity and feeling awful about yourself, and wanting to put other people down so you feel better."

Peer acceptance is a big thing for adolescents, and many of them care about their image as much as a politician running for office, and to them it can feel as serious. Add to that the fact that kids today are getting actual polling data on how much people like them or their appearance via things like "likes." It's enough to turn anyone's head. Who wouldn't want to make themselves look cooler if they could? So kids can spend hours pruning their online identities, trying to project an idealized image. Teenage girls sort through hundreds of photos, agonizing over which ones to post online. Boys compete for attention by trying to out-gross one other, pushing the envelope as much as they can in the already disinhibited atmosphere online. Kids gang up on each other.

Adolescents have always been doing this, but with the advent of social media they are faced with more opportunities - and more traps - than ever before. When kids scroll through their feeds and see how great everyone seems, it only adds to the pressure. We're used to worrying about the impractical ideals that photoshopped magazine models give to our kids, but what happens with the kid next door is photoshopped, too? Even more confusing, what about when your own profile doesn't really represent the person that you feel like you are on the inside?

"Adolescence and the early twenties in particular are the years in which you are acutely aware of the contrasts between who you appear to be and who you think you are," says Dr. Wick. "It's similar to the 'imposter syndrome' in psychology. As you get older and acquire more mastery, you begin to realize that you actually are good at some things, and then you feel that gap hopefully narrow. But imagine having your deepest darkest fear be that you aren't as good as you look, and then imagine needing to look that good all the time! It's exhausting."

As Dr. Steiner-Adair explains, "Self-esteem comes from consolidating who you are." The more identities you have, and the more time you spend pretending to be someone you aren't, the harder it's going to be to feel good about yourself.

Stalking (and being ignored)

Another big change that has come with new technology and especially smart phones is that we are never really alone. Kids update their status, share what they're watching, listening to, and reading, and have apps that let their friends know their specific location on a map at all times. Even if a person isn't trying to keep his friends updated, he's still never out of reach of a text message. The result is that kids feel hyperconnected with each other. The conversation never needs to stop, and it feels like there's always something new happening.

"Whatever we think of the 'relationships' maintained and in some cases initiated on social media, kids never get a break from them," notes Dr. Wick. "And that, in and of itself, can produce anxiety. Everyone needs a respite from the demands of intimacy and connection; time alone to regroup, replenish and just chill out. When you don't have that, it's easy to become emotionally depleted, fertile ground for anxiety to breed."

It's also surprisingly easy to feel lonely in the middle of all that hyperconnection. For one thing, kids now know with depressing certainty when they're being ignored. We all have phones and we all respond to things pretty quickly, so when you're waiting for a response that doesn't come, the silence can be deafening. The silent treatment might be a strategic insult or just the unfortunate side effect of an online adolescent relationship that starts out intensely but then fades away.

"In the old days when a boy was going to break up with you, he had to have a conversation with you. Or at least he had to call," says Dr. Wick. "These days he might just disappear from your screen, and you never get to have the 'What did I do?' conversation." Kids are often left imagining the worst about themselves.

But even when the conversation doesn't end, being in a constant state of waiting can still provoke anxiety. We can feel ourselves being put on the back burner, we put others back there, and our very human need to communicate is effectively delegated there, too.

What should parents do?

Both experts interviewed for this article agreed that the best thing parents can do to minimize the risks associated with technology is to curtail their own consumption first. It's up to parents to set a good example of what healthy device usage looks like. Most of us check our phones or our email too much, out of either real interest or nervous habit. Kids should be used to seeing our faces, not our heads bent over a screen. Establish technology-free zones in the house and technology-free hours when no one uses the phone, including mom and dad. "Don't walk in the door after work in the middle of a conversation," Dr. Steiner-Adair advises. "Don't walk in the door after work, say 'hi' quickly, and then 'just check your email.' In the morning, get up a half hour earlier than your kids and check your email then. Give them your full attention until they're out the door. And neither of you should be using phones in the car to or from school because that's an important time to talk."

Not only does limiting the amount of time you spend plugged in to computers provide a healthy counterpoint to the tech-obsessed world, it also strengthens the parent-child bond and makes kids feel more secure. Kids need to know that you are available to help them with their problems, talk about their day, or give them a reality check.

"It is the mini-moments of disconnection, when parents are too focused on their own devices and screens, that dilute the parent-child relationship," Dr. Steiner-Adair warns. And when kids start turning to the internet for help or to process whatever happened during the day, you might not like what happens. "Tech can give your children more information that you can, and it doesn't have your values," notes Dr. Steiner-Adair. "It won't be sensitive to your child's personality, and it won't answer his question in a developmentally appropriate way."

In addition Dr. Wick advises delaying the age of first use as much as possible. "I use the same advice here that I use when talking about kids and alcohol - try to get as far as you can without anything at all." If your child is on a social media platform, Dr. Wick says that you should friend them and monitor their page. But she advises against going through text messages unless there is cause for concern. "If you have a reason to be worried then okay, but it better be a good reason. I see parents who are just plain old spying on their kids. Parents should begin by trusting their children. To not even give your kid the benefit of the doubt is incredibly damaging to the relationship. You have to feel like your parents think you're a good kid."

Offline, the gold standard advice for helping kids build healthy self-esteem is to get them involved in something that they're interested in. It could be sports or music or taking apart computers or volunteering - anything that sparks an interest and gives them confidence. When kids learn to feel good about what they can do instead of how they look and what they own, they're happier and better prepared for success in real life. That most of these activities also involve spending time interacting with peers face-to-face is just the icing on the cake.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does social media affect behavior negatively?

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How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers - Child Mind Institute

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How does social media affect teens? Experts say kids are growing up with more anxiety and less self-esteem due to social media. Read advice for parents from specialists in our article.

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January 6, 2020- Mesfin Awoke Bekalu, research scientist in the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses a new study he co-authored on associations between social media use and mental health and well-being.
What is healthy vs. potentially problematic social media use?
Our study has brought preliminary evidence to answer this question. Using a nationally representative sample, we assessed the association of two dimensions of social media use-how much it's routinely used and how emotionally connected users are to the platforms-with three health-related outcomes: social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health.

We found that routine social media use-for example, using social media as part of everyday routine and responding to content that others share-is positively associated with all three health outcomes. Emotional connection to social media-for example, checking apps excessively out of fear of missing out, being disappointed about or feeling disconnected from friends when not logged into social media-is negatively associated with all three outcomes.

In more general terms, these findings suggest that as long as we are mindful users, routine use may not in itself be a problem. Indeed, it could be beneficial.

For those with unhealthy social media use, behavioral interventions may help. For example, programs that develop "effortful control" skills-the ability to self-regulate behavior-have been widely shown to be useful in dealing with problematic Internet and social media use.
We're used to hearing that social media use is harmful to mental health and well-being, particularly for young people. Did it surprise you to find that it can have positive effects?
The findings go against what some might expect, which is intriguing. We know that having a strong social network is associated with positive mental health and well-being. Routine social media use may compensate for diminishing face-to-face social interactions in people's busy lives. Social media may provide individuals with a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time, allowing them to connect and reconnect with others and thereby expand and strengthen their in-person networks and interactions. Indeed, there is some empirical evidence supporting this.

On the other hand, a growing body of research has demonstrated that social media use is negatively associated with mental health and well-being, particularly among young people-for example, it may contribute to increased risk of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Our findings suggest that the ways that people are using social media may have more of an impact on their mental health and well-being than just the frequency and duration of their use.
What disparities did you find in the ways that social media use benefits and harms certain populations? What concerns does this raise?
My co-authors Rachel McCloud, Vish Viswanath, and I found that the benefits and harms associated with social media use varied across demographic, socioeconomic, and racial population sub-groups. Specifically, while the benefits were generally associated with younger age, better education, and being white, the harms were associated with older age, less education, and being a racial minority. Indeed, these findings are consistent with the body of work on communication inequalities and health disparities that our lab, the Viswanath lab, has documented over the past 15 or so years. We know that education, income, race, and ethnicity influence people's access to, and ability to act on, health information from media, including the Internet. The concern is that social media may perpetuate those differences.

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Social media use can be positive for mental health and well-being

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A new study assessed the association of two dimensions of social media use-how much it's routinely used and how emotionally connected users are to the platforms-with three health-related outcomes: ...

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Video gaming is something of a national pastime among teenagers in the United States. One survey found that nearly 75% of teenage boys participate in some form of gaming^1.

With so many of our kids playing video games as a principle form of recreation, and so many of the video games being highly action-oriented and even violent, it's natural to wonder how this stimulation can impact sleep.

Multiple studies have considered the impact of video gaming before going to bed.

One study ^2 published in the journal Pediatrics found that children who played video games spent less time in deep, restorative (slow-wave) sleep. At the same time, their sleep-onset latency (the time it took them to fall asleep) increased. By contrast, just watching TV without interacting didn't affect sleep patterns.

A study ^3 from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine observed the effects of pre-bedtime video game playing versus DVD watching on thirteen teenage boys. The data revealed that sleep-onset latency was greater and self-reported sleepiness was lower after video game playing than after watching a movie (learn more about sleep-onset latency and other sleep study terms here). However, the amount of time the teens spent in deep sleep did not significantly change for the two conditions. Overall, the study included that video game playing slightly reduced sleep quality.

The amount of time that children spend playing a computer game is also significant. In another study ^4, teenage boys participated in either 50 or 150 minutes of gaming. Prolonged gaming reduced total sleep time by nearly half an hour and increased sleep latency and sleep efficiency.

Together, these studies seem to demonstrate that gaming before bed-especially excessive gaming-can moderately decrease sleep quality by lengthening the time it takes to fall asleep, decreasing time spent asleep, and reducing the amount of deep-stage sleep. However, these studies were short-term and had a small sample size. To really observe the effects of daily gaming on adolescent sleep, a long-term, large scale study would have to compare the sleep patterns of chronic gamers versus non-gamers.

Video games can introduce further sleep problems when teens spend time gaming instead of sleeping, leading to reduced sleep time. During adolescence, teens are biologically programmed to want to stay up late and wake up late; they are natural "night owls" ^5! Thus, excessive video playing in the evening provides an opportunity for teenagers to put off going to bed until late at night.

This is especially important because the second study referenced above found that teenagers are likely to report feeling less sleepy after video game playing. Therefore, nighttime gaming actually compounds the issue of delayed bedtime, keeping teens up until late at night.

One of the things all these studies had in common was comparing video game playing to another form of electronic use. But using electronics at all can have a negative effect on sleep. The blue light emitted by electronic devices like phones, TVs, and computer screens interferes with sleep. This wavelength suppresses melatonin (the hormone that helps to regulate our circadian rhythm) more vigorously than other wavelengths. Many of the new energy efficient light sources (like those light bulbs you're supposed to buy) including our favorite electronic devices (smartphones, tablets, TVs), produce high concentrations of this light.

Ideally, electronic consumption should be limited prior to going to bed. Overall, we recommend not playing video games (or using any electronics) for an hour before going to bed and following a regular sleep schedule. Save the video games for waking hours!

Are you concerned that you or a loved one may have a sleep disorder? Take this daytime sleepiness quiz to find out if you're at increased risk.
Sources:
1) Rani A. Desai , PhD, MPH, et al. " Video-Gaming Among High School Students: Health Correlates, Gender Differences, and Problematic Gaming." Pediatrics.
2) Dworak, Markus et al. " Impact of Singular Excessive Computer Game and Television Exposure on Sleep Patterns and Memory Performance of School-aged Children." Pediatrics.
3) Weaver, Edward et al. "The Effect of Presleep Video-Game Playing on Adolescent Sleep." Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
4) King, Daniel L. et al. "The impact of prolonged violent video-gaming on adolescent sleep: an experimental study." Journal of Sleep Research.
5) Crowley, Stephanie J. et al. "Sleep, circadian rhythms, and delayed phase in adolescence." Sleep Medicine.
Other posts you may find interesting:
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in July 2015 and has been edited and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Julia Rodriguez

Julia joined Advanced Sleep Medicine Services, Inc. in 2011 with a background in sales, marketing and customer service. She is currently the vice president of marketing and operations and enjoys the opportunity to educate and interact with those looking to improve their health through better sleep.

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Does Pre-Bed Video Gaming Ruin Your Sleep?

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Video gaming is something of a national pastime among teenagers in the United States. One survey found that nearly 75% of teenage boys participate in some form of gaming^1.

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A small grey pouch that locks away your phone is being used in hundreds of schools in the US. Image: REUTERS/Hannah McKay

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Could these grey pouches be the answer to smartphone addiction?

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When students enter Obama Academy in East Liberty, they place their turned-off phones in pouches and press a green button to lock them. They hold on to the pouch until the end of the school day, when it can be opened by magnets faculty possess.

Obama Principal Yolanda Colbert implemented the pouches, made by the California company Yondr, to create a phone-free environment. The pouches are an increasingly popular means of addressing the tension between educators' desire for teens' attention and the constant draw of cell phones.

Other school districts such as Penn Hills have also implemented Yondr pouches, and across the state, the Philadelphia School District is spending $5 million so that it can have students there lock up their phones.

At Obama, students see pluses and minuses in the new policy.

"To not be able to have my phone all day just felt very constricting and like maybe even my safety would be compromised," said Sydney Pellegrino, an Obama student who sits on the district-wide Superintendent's Student Advisory Council, which advocates for changes PPS students want to see in the schools.

Faced with cyberbullying, Obama Academy turns to pouches

Colbert said that school-wide data from the 2021-22 academic year indicated the need to revitalize the academic environment.

"The data was alarming in terms of incidents that involved social media, text messages, academics, behavior, attendance and parent complaints and concerns for student safety," she said. The data also showed that 90% of students were not using their phones for academic purposes.

Students had been in remote schooling from April 2020 to May 2021. They had not learned how to speak to one another, navigate conflict or develop interpersonal skills and instead turned to social media, said Colbert.

The administration saw increased cyberbullying, and kids becoming anxious and not wanting to come to school, according to Colbert. Staff and administration had talked for some time about new restrictions on phone use, according to Justin Collinger, a chemistry teacher at Obama.

Obama Academy saw a potential solution in the Yondr pouches.

Yondr pouches, created in 2014, were originally used to sequester phones in places like nightclubs and concert venues and have gradually been adopted by schools. Yondr pouches arrived at Obama Academy on Nov. 1, and Colbert promptly implemented them.

At Obama, there is a procedure in place if a student needs to use their cell phone. The student needs to ask to be excused to the main office if a parent is trying to get in touch with them. If the student isn't feeling well, they are sent to the nurse, and after assessing the problem, the nurse decides whether to permit the student access to their phone.

"The focus was really on putting that phone away and focusing when you get in that classroom," said Colbert.

If a student at Obama is repeatedly caught with their phone, an assessment meeting ensues, at which the student is asked about their behavior. Based on the student's response, faculty implement measures to help the student follow the policy.

Obama students weigh distractions, safety

Obama Academy students are still leery of the new phone rules.

Three hundred school shootings occurred in the U.S. last year, according to a K-12 School Shooting Database published by researcher David Riedman.

"It is more being concerned about not being able to call my parents if something is really happening," said Pellegrino. "With all of the school shootings happening and us being a public school in the city, there is a chance that could happen to us."

Some students said they understand that phones can distract from learning. "For some people, they either already know the stuff we're learning or they don't care enough. So then the phone does become a distraction," Pellegrino said.

"We got data from the kids," said Colbert, noting students confirmed that they were distracted when their peers texted or played music on their phones during class.

Even so, some high schoolers believe there were other measures that could have been taken prior to the restrictions.

"I've talked to a lot of people about this and I think it's a really great idea to have a charging station in every room," said Pellegrino. "If you are not doing anything in class you can grab your phone off the charging station. That way whenever you need it, it is there."

Pros and cons of 'instant access'

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new age of learning, said Carianne Bernadowski, a professor in the Department of Education at Robert Morris University. It also brought new obstacles, and teachers are struggling to keep up.

"I think we're desperate. We want to bring [students] in, keep their attention, keep them engaged, but keeping kids engaged looks so much different than it did in the past," she said. "They're used to that constant flow of information and switching gears so quickly.

"We have to find a way to deflect this technology addiction they have," Bernadowski said. "The things we can control are their cell phone usage and what they bring into the building."

"Parents have to be cognizant of how they're accessing their children during the school day. It is absolutely not necessary to ask your kid where they put their baseball bag."
Carianne Bernadowski

Bernadowski's son attends a school that also uses the Yondr pouches. Her son told her that students at his school are not allowed to have phones out unless the teacher says otherwise, which worries her.

"I have to send my kid out the door every day and hope they're armed with their phone in case there's an emergency," said Bernadowski.

She continually poses a question to herself and parents generally: "Do we want instant access to our children?"

"Yeah, I think there are times when we do, right?" she says. But with instant access, the parents have a responsibility as well.

"Parents have to be cognizant of how they're accessing their children during the school day," she said. "It is absolutely not necessary to ask your kid where they put their baseball bag."

Are the Yondr pouches in school to stay?

Colbert hopes to measure the success of Obama's policy in multiple ways.

She wants to see an increase in the number of students achieving honor roll, or at least see 43% of the student body, which has been the typical number, maintain that status. She also wants to see a decline in student infractions around cell phones and an increase in communication to home about students' disruptive behavior.

Thus far, Colbert has seen a decrease in student infractions and an increase in communications to home, so she expects to maintain the policy after this academic school year.

"I'm not going to say I'm uncompromising," she said, "but I'm always going to be courageous enough as a leader to say, 'While I understand your desire, solution A is the best solution for us.'"

Terryaun Bell is an editorial intern with PublicSource.

This story was fact-checked by Dakota Castro-Jarrett.

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PPS joins the school debate: Should cellphones be in classrooms?

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When students enter Obama Academy in East Liberty, they place their turned-off phones in pouches and press a green button to lock them. They hold on to the pouch until the end of the school day, when it can be opened by magnets faculty possess.

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CHICOPEE, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - The Chicopee High School community is speaking out ahead of a controversial cell phone lockup system being put into place this week.

Representatives from Yondr, the company that makes the magnetic locking cell phone pouches, were at the high school on Monday to assess logistics before students receive their pouches on Tuesday.

"A lot of kids are not gonna like it and they're going to rebel," said Chicopee High freshman Jayden Berard.

Chicopee High freshman Ahmad Wael Ahmad added, "It's for the better. Hopefully in the future, we'll improve the test scores."

Chicopee High School students spoke with Western Mass News before receiving magnetic locking pouches on Tuesday that will help keep cell phones off in the classroom. Students are required to lock their cell phones in the pouch upon their arrival to school. They keep the pouches with them in class until they can be unlocked at the end of the school day.

"I mean do I like it? No. Do I know what the reasoning is for it? Yeah, I get it," said Chicopee High sophomore Deven Macy.

The pilot program was proposed to limit distractions in the classroom and improve test scores. Students agree they understand why the policy is in place, but that doesn't mean everyone is on board.

[Reporter: Do you think everyone's going to comply and put their phones in tomorrow?]

"Absolutely not. I already have many people that have said we will not do it," Macy noted.

Chicopee High freshman Faisal Ahmad said, "I'm going to have to. It's not really a choice."

Jennifer Picard, whose son is a Chicopee High junior, added, "Well, my son is a rule follower, so he'll comply and do what he's supposed to, but he already does that."

Picard shared an email with Western Mass News which was sent out to parents from Chicopee High School Principal Carol Kruser that read:

"I want to thank you all for your overwhelming support of this initiative. It has been great talking to you and your children. I know this will be a transition for some."

Picard noted, "...Which is 100 percent false. Parents are not 100 percent behind this. Most parents are against it."

The pilot program runs through the end of the school year and, in total, the two-year initiative will carry a price tag of over $16,000.

"I don't think it's going to go well at all. The kids that don't comply now still won't comply and I think that we're gonna see that disciplinary action doesn't get done again, so we've just wasted a bunch of money," Picard explained.

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Chicopee High students speak out ahead of cell phone lockup program rollout

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CHICOPEE, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - The Chicopee High School community is speaking out ahead of a controversial cell phone lockup system being put into place this week. Representatives from Yondr, the company that makes the magnetic locking cell phone pouches, were at the high school on Monday to assess logistics before students receive their pouches on Tuesday.

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More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they're on the brink of a mental-health crisis.

One day last summer, around noon, I called Athena, a 13-year-old who lives in Houston, Texas. She answered her phone-she's had an iPhone since she was 11-sounding as if she'd just woken up. We chatted about her favorite songs and TV shows, and I asked her what she likes to do with her friends. "We go to the mall," she said. "Do your parents drop you off?," I asked, recalling my own middle-school days, in the 1980s, when I'd enjoy a few parent-free hours shopping with my friends. "No-I go with my family," she replied. "We'll go with my mom and brothers and walk a little behind them. I just have to tell my mom where we're going. I have to check in every hour or every 30 minutes."

Those mall trips are infrequent-about once a month. More often, Athena and her friends spend time together on their phones, unchaperoned. Unlike the teens of my generation, who might have spent an evening tying up the family landline with gossip, they talk on Snapchat, the smartphone app that allows users to send pictures and videos that quickly disappear. They make sure to keep up their Snapstreaks, which show how many days in a row they have Snapchatted with each other. Sometimes they save screenshots of particularly ridiculous pictures of friends. "It's good blackmail," Athena said. (Because she's a minor, I'm not using her real name.) She told me she'd spent most of the summer hanging out alone in her room with her phone. That's just the way her generation is, she said. "We didn't have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people."

I've been researching generational differences for 25 years, starting when I was a 22-year-old doctoral student in psychology. Typically, the characteristics that come to define a generation appear gradually, and along a continuum. Beliefs and behaviors that were already rising simply continue to do so. Millennials, for instance, are a highly individualistic generation, but individualism had been increasing since the Baby Boomers turned on, tuned in, and dropped out. I had grown accustomed to line graphs of trends that looked like modest hills and valleys. Then I began studying Athena's generation.

Around 2012, I noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional states. The gentle slopes of the line graphs became steep mountains and sheer cliffs, and many of the distinctive characteristics of the Millennial generation began to disappear. In all my analyses of generational data-some reaching back to the 1930s-I had never seen anything like it.
The allure of independence, so powerful to previous generations, holds less sway over today's teens.
At first I presumed these might be blips, but the trends persisted, across several years and a series of national surveys. The changes weren't just in degree, but in kind. The biggest difference between the Millennials and their predecessors was in how they viewed the world; teens today differ from the Millennials not just in their views but in how they spend their time. The experiences they have every day are radically different from those of the generation that came of age just a few years before them.

What happened in 2012 to cause such dramatic shifts in behavior? It was after the Great Recession, which officially lasted from 2007 to 2009 and had a starker effect on Millennials trying to find a place in a sputtering economy. But it was exactly the moment when the proportion of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50 percent.

The more I pored over yearly surveys of teen attitudes and behaviors, and the more I talked with young people like Athena, the clearer it became that theirs is a generation shaped by the smartphone and by the concomitant rise of social media. I call them iGen. Born between 1995 and 2012, members of this generation are growing up with smartphones, have an Instagram account before they start high school, and do not remember a time before the internet. The Millennials grew up with the web as well, but it wasn't ever-present in their lives, at hand at all times, day and night. iGen's oldest members were early adolescents when the iPhone was introduced, in 2007, and high-school students when the iPad entered the scene, in 2010. A 2017 survey of more than 5,000 American teens found that three out of four owned an iPhone.

The advent of the smartphone and its cousin the tablet was followed quickly by hand-wringing about the deleterious effects of "screen time." But the impact of these devices has not been fully appreciated, and goes far beyond the usual concerns about curtailed attention spans. The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers' lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health. These changes have affected young people in every corner of the nation and in every type of household. The trends appear among teens poor and rich; of every ethnic background; in cities, suburbs, and small towns. Where there are cell towers, there are teens living their lives on their smartphone.

To those of us who fondly recall a more analog adolescence, this may seem foreign and troubling. The aim of generational study, however, is not to succumb to nostalgia for the way things used to be; it's to understand how they are now. Some generational changes are positive, some are negative, and many are both. More comfortable in their bedrooms than in a car or at a party, today's teens are physically safer than teens have ever been. They're markedly less likely to get into a car accident and, having less of a taste for alcohol than their predecessors, are less susceptible to drinking's attendant ills.

Psychologically, however, they are more vulnerable than Millennials were: Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It's not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.

Even when a seismic event-a war, a technological leap, a free concert in the mud-plays an outsize role in shaping a group of young people, no single factor ever defines a generation. Parenting styles continue to change, as do school curricula and culture, and these things matter. But the twin rise of the smartphone and social media has caused an earthquake of a magnitude we've not seen in a very long time, if ever. There is compelling evidence that the devices we've placed in young people's hands are having profound effects on their lives-and making them seriously unhappy.

In the early 1970s, the photographer Bill Yates shot a series of portraits at the Sweetheart Roller Skating Rink in Tampa, Florida. In one, a shirtless teen stands with a large bottle of peppermint schnapps stuck in the waistband of his jeans. In another, a boy who looks no older than 12 poses with a cigarette in his mouth. The rink was a place where kids could get away from their parents and inhabit a world of their own, a world where they could drink, smoke, and make out in the backs of their cars. In stark black-and-white, the adolescent Boomers gaze at Yates's camera with the self-confidence born of making your own choices-even if, perhaps especially if, your parents wouldn't think they were the right ones.

Fifteen years later, during my own teenage years as a member of Generation X, smoking had lost some of its romance, but independence was definitely still in. My friends and I plotted to get our driver's license as soon as we could, making DMV appointments for the day we turned 16 and using our newfound freedom to escape the confines of our suburban neighborhood. Asked by our parents, "When will you be home?," we replied, "When do I have to be?"

But the allure of independence, so powerful to previous generations, holds less sway over today's teens, who are less likely to leave the house without their parents. The shift is stunning: 12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009.

Today's teens are also less likely to date. The initial stage of courtship, which Gen Xers called "liking" (as in "Ooh, he likes you!"), kids now call "talking"-an ironic choice for a generation that prefers texting to actual conversation. After two teens have "talked" for a while, they might start dating. But only about 56 percent of high-school seniors in 2015 went out on dates; for Boomers and Gen Xers, the number was about 85 percent.

The decline in dating tracks with a decline in sexual activity. The drop is the sharpest for ninth-graders, among whom the number of sexually active teens has been cut by almost 40 percent since 1991. The average teen now has had sex for the first time by the spring of 11th grade, a full year later than the average Gen Xer. Fewer teens having sex has contributed to what many see as one of the most positive youth trends in recent years: The teen birth rate hit an all-time low in 2016, down 67 percent since its modern peak, in 1991.

Even driving, a symbol of adolescent freedom inscribed in American popular culture, from Rebel Without a Cause to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, has lost its appeal for today's teens. Nearly all Boomer high-school students had their driver's license by the spring of their senior year; more than one in four teens today still lack one at the end of high school. For some, Mom and Dad are such good chauffeurs that there's no urgent need to drive. "My parents drove me everywhere and never complained, so I always had rides," a 21-year-old student in San Diego told me. "I didn't get my license until my mom told me I had to because she could not keep driving me to school." She finally got her license six months after her 18th birthday. In conversation after conversation, teens described getting their license as something to be nagged into by their parents-a notion that would have been unthinkable to previous generations.

Independence isn't free-you need some money in your pocket to pay for gas, or for that bottle of schnapps. In earlier eras, kids worked in great numbers, eager to finance their freedom or prodded by their parents to learn the value of a dollar. But iGen teens aren't working (or managing their own money) as much. In the late 1970s, 77 percent of high-school seniors worked for pay during the school year; by the mid-2010s, only 55 percent did. The number of eighth-graders who work for pay has been cut in half. These declines accelerated during the Great Recession, but teen employment has not bounced back, even though job availability has.

Of course, putting off the responsibilities of adulthood is not an iGen innovation. Gen Xers, in the 1990s, were the first to postpone the traditional markers of adulthood. Young Gen Xers were just about as likely to drive, drink alcohol, and date as young Boomers had been, and more likely to have sex and get pregnant as teens. But as they left their teenage years behind, Gen Xers married and started careers later than their Boomer predecessors had.

Gen X managed to stretch adolescence beyond all previous limits: Its members started becoming adults earlier and finished becoming adults later. Beginning with Millennials and continuing with iGen, adolescence is contracting again-but only because its onset is being delayed. Across a range of behaviors-drinking, dating, spending time unsupervised- 18-year-olds now act more like 15-year-olds used to, and 15-year-olds more like 13-year-olds. Childhood now stretches well into high school.

Why are today's teens waiting longer to take on both the responsibilities and the pleasures of adulthood? Shifts in the economy, and parenting, certainly play a role. In an information economy that rewards higher education more than early work history, parents may be inclined to encourage their kids to stay home and study rather than to get a part-time job. Teens, in turn, seem to be content with this homebody arrangement-not because they're so studious, but because their social life is lived on their phone. They don't need to leave home to spend time with their friends.

If today's teens were a generation of grinds, we'd see that in the data. But eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders in the 2010s actually spend less time on homework than Gen X teens did in the early 1990s. (High-school seniors headed for four-year colleges spend about the same amount of time on homework as their predecessors did.) The time that seniors spend on activities such as student clubs and sports and exercise has changed little in recent years. Combined with the decline in working for pay, this means iGen teens have more leisure time than Gen X teens did, not less.

So what are they doing with all that time? They are on their phone, in their room, alone and often distressed.

One of the ironies of iGen life is that despite spending far more time under the same roof as their parents, today's teens can hardly be said to be closer to their mothers and fathers than their predecessors were. "I've seen my friends with their families-they don't talk to them," Athena told me. "They just say 'Okay, okay, whatever' while they're on their phones. They don't pay attention to their family." Like her peers, Athena is an expert at tuning out her parents so she can focus on her phone. She spent much of her summer keeping up with friends, but nearly all of it was over text or Snapchat. "I've been on my phone more than I've been with actual people," she said. "My bed has, like, an imprint of my body."

In this, too, she is typical. The number of teens who get together with their friends nearly every day dropped by more than 40 percent from 2000 to 2015; the decline has been especially steep recently. It's not only a matter of fewer kids partying; fewer kids are spending time simply hanging out. That's something most teens used to do: nerds and jocks, poor kids and rich kids, C students and A students. The roller rink, the basketball court, the town pool, the local necking spot-they've all been replaced by virtual spaces accessed through apps and the web.

You might expect that teens spend so much time in these new spaces because it makes them happy, but most data suggest that it does not. The Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and designed to be nationally representative, has asked 12th-graders more than 1,000 questions every year since 1975 and queried eighth- and 10th-graders since 1991. The survey asks teens how happy they are and also how much of their leisure time they spend on various activities, including nonscreen activities such as in-person social interaction and exercise, and, in recent years, screen activities such as using social media, texting, and browsing the web. The results could not be clearer: Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy.

There's not a single exception. All screen activities are linked to less happiness, and all nonscreen activities are linked to more happiness. Eighth-graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to say they're unhappy than those who devote less time to social media. Admittedly, 10 hours a week is a lot. But those who spend six to nine hours a week on social media are still 47 percent more likely to say they are unhappy than those who use social media even less. The opposite is true of in-person interactions. Those who spend an above-average amount of time with their friends in person are 20 percent less likely to say they're unhappy than those who hang out for a below-average amount of time.
The more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression.
If you were going to give advice for a happy adolescence based on this survey, it would be straightforward: Put down the phone, turn off the laptop, and do something-anything-that does not involve a screen. Of course, these analyses don't unequivocally prove that screen time causes unhappiness; it's possible that unhappy teens spend more time online. But recent research suggests that screen time, in particular social-media use, does indeed cause unhappiness. One study asked college students with a Facebook page to complete short surveys on their phone over the course of two weeks. They'd get a text message with a link five times a day, and report on their mood and how much they'd used Facebook. The more they'd used Facebook, the unhappier they felt, but feeling unhappy did not subsequently lead to more Facebook use.

Social-networking sites like Facebook promise to connect us to friends. But the portrait of iGen teens emerging from the data is one of a lonely, dislocated generation. Teens who visit social-networking sites every day but see their friends in person less frequently are the most likely to agree with the statements "A lot of times I feel lonely," "I often feel left out of things," and "I often wish I had more good friends." Teens' feelings of loneliness spiked in 2013 and have remained high since.

This doesn't always mean that, on an individual level, kids who spend more time online are lonelier than kids who spend less time online. Teens who spend more time on social media also spend more time with their friends in person, on average-highly social teens are more social in both venues, and less social teens are less so. But at the generational level, when teens spend more time on smartphones and less time on in-person social interactions, loneliness is more common.

So is depression. Once again, the effect of screen activities is unmistakable: The more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression. Eighth-graders who are heavy users of social media increase their risk of depression by 27 percent, while those who play sports, go to religious services, or even do homework more than the average teen cut their risk significantly.

Teens who spend three hours a day or more on electronic devices are 35 percent more likely to have a risk factor for suicide, such as making a suicide plan. (That's much more than the risk related to, say, watching TV.) One piece of data that indirectly but stunningly captures kids' growing isolation, for good and for bad: Since 2007, the homicide rate among teens has declined, but the suicide rate has increased. As teens have started spending less time together, they have become less likely to kill one another, and more likely to kill themselves. In 2011, for the first time in 24 years, the teen suicide rate was higher than the teen homicide rate.

Depression and suicide have many causes; too much technology is clearly not the only one. And the teen suicide rate was even higher in the 1990s, long before smartphones existed. Then again, about four times as many Americans now take antidepressants, which are often effective in treating severe depression, the type most strongly linked to suicide.

What's the connection between smartphones and the apparent psychological distress this generation is experiencing? For all their power to link kids day and night, social media also exacerbate the age-old teen concern about being left out. Today's teens may go to fewer parties and spend less time together in person, but when they do congregate, they document their hangouts relentlessly-on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook. Those not invited to come along are keenly aware of it. Accordingly, the number of teens who feel left out has reached all-time highs across age groups. Like the increase in loneliness, the upswing in feeling left out has been swift and significant.

This trend has been especially steep among girls. Forty-eight percent more girls said they often felt left out in 2015 than in 2010, compared with 27 percent more boys. Girls use social media more often, giving them additional opportunities to feel excluded and lonely when they see their friends or classmates getting together without them. Social media levy a psychic tax on the teen doing the posting as well, as she anxiously awaits the affirmation of comments and likes. When Athena posts pictures to Instagram, she told me, "I'm nervous about what people think and are going to say. It sometimes bugs me when I don't get a certain amount of likes on a picture."

Girls have also borne the brunt of the rise in depressive symptoms among today's teens. Boys' depressive symptoms increased by 21 percent from 2012 to 2015, while girls' increased by 50 percent-more than twice as much. The rise in suicide, too, is more pronounced among girls. Although the rate increased for both sexes, three times as many 12-to-14-year-old girls killed themselves in 2015 as in 2007, compared with twice as many boys. The suicide rate is still higher for boys, in part because they use more-lethal methods, but girls are beginning to close the gap.

These more dire consequences for teenage girls could also be rooted in the fact that they're more likely to experience cyberbullying. Boys tend to bully one another physically, while girls are more likely to do so by undermining a victim's social status or relationships. Social media give middle- and high-school girls a platform on which to carry out the style of aggression they favor, ostracizing and excluding other girls around the clock.

Social-media companies are of course aware of these problems, and to one degree or another have endeavored to prevent cyberbullying. But their various motivations are, to say the least, complex. A recently leaked Facebook document indicated that the company had been touting to advertisers its ability to determine teens' emotional state based on their on-site behavior, and even to pinpoint "moments when young people need a confidence boost." Facebook acknowledged that the document was real, but denied that it offers "tools to target people based on their emotional state."

In July 2014, a 13-year-old girl in North Texas woke to the smell of something burning. Her phone had overheated and melted into the sheets. National news outlets picked up the story, stoking readers' fears that their cellphone might spontaneously combust. To me, however, the flaming cellphone wasn't the only surprising aspect of the story. Why, I wondered, would anyone sleep with her phone beside her in bed? It's not as though you can surf the web while you're sleeping. And who could slumber deeply inches from a buzzing phone?

Curious, I asked my undergraduate students at San Diego State University what they do with their phone while they sleep. Their answers were a profile in obsession. Nearly all slept with their phone, putting it under their pillow, on the mattress, or at the very least within arm's reach of the bed. They checked social media right before they went to sleep, and reached for their phone as soon as they woke up in the morning (they had to-all of them used it as their alarm clock). Their phone was the last thing they saw before they went to sleep and the first thing they saw when they woke up. If they woke in the middle of the night, they often ended up looking at their phone. Some used the language of addiction. "I know I shouldn't, but I just can't help it," one said about looking at her phone while in bed. Others saw their phone as an extension of their body-or even like a lover: "Having my phone closer to me while I'm sleeping is a comfort."

It may be a comfort, but the smartphone is cutting into teens' sleep: Many now sleep less than seven hours most nights. Sleep experts say that teens should get about nine hours of sleep a night; a teen who is getting less than seven hours a night is significantly sleep deprived. Fifty-seven percent more teens were sleep deprived in 2015 than in 1991. In just the four years from 2012 to 2015, 22 percent more teens failed to get seven hours of sleep.

The increase is suspiciously timed, once again starting around when most teens got a smartphone. Two national surveys show that teens who spend three or more hours a day on electronic devices are 28 percent more likely to get less than seven hours of sleep than those who spend fewer than three hours, and teens who visit social-media sites every day are 19 percent more likely to be sleep deprived. A meta-analysis of studies on electronic-device use among children found similar results: Children who use a media device right before bed are more likely to sleep less than they should, more likely to sleep poorly, and more than twice as likely to be sleepy during the day.
I've observed my toddler, barely old enough to walk, confidently swiping her way through an iPad.
Electronic devices and social media seem to have an especially strong ability to disrupt sleep. Teens who read books and magazines more often than the average are actually slightly less likely to be sleep deprived-either reading lulls them to sleep, or they can put the book down at bedtime. Watching TV for several hours a day is only weakly linked to sleeping less. But the allure of the smartphone is often too much to resist.

Sleep deprivation is linked to myriad issues, including compromised thinking and reasoning, susceptibility to illness, weight gain, and high blood pressure. It also affects mood: People who don't sleep enough are prone to depression and anxiety. Again, it's difficult to trace the precise paths of causation. Smartphones could be causing lack of sleep, which leads to depression, or the phones could be causing depression, which leads to lack of sleep. Or some other factor could be causing both depression and sleep deprivation to rise. But the smartphone, its blue light glowing in the dark, is likely playing a nefarious role.

The correlations between depression and smartphone use are strong enough to suggest that more parents should be telling their kids to put down their phone. As the technology writer Nick Bilton has reported, it's a policy some Silicon Valley executives follow. Even Steve Jobs limited his kids' use of the devices he brought into the world.

What's at stake isn't just how kids experience adolescence. The constant presence of smartphones is likely to affect them well into adulthood. Among people who suffer an episode of depression, at least half become depressed again later in life. Adolescence is a key time for developing social skills; as teens spend less time with their friends face-to-face, they have fewer opportunities to practice them. In the next decade, we may see more adults who know just the right emoji for a situation, but not the right facial expression.

I realize that restricting technology might be an unrealistic demand to impose on a generation of kids so accustomed to being wired at all times. My three daughters were born in 2006, 2009, and 2012. They're not yet old enough to display the traits of iGen teens, but I have already witnessed firsthand just how ingrained new media are in their young lives. I've observed my toddler, barely old enough to walk, confidently swiping her way through an iPad. I've experienced my 6-year-old asking for her own cellphone. I've overheard my 9-year-old discussing the latest app to sweep the fourth grade. Prying the phone out of our kids' hands will be difficult, even more so than the quixotic efforts of my parents' generation to get their kids to turn off MTV and get some fresh air. But more seems to be at stake in urging teens to use their phone responsibly, and there are benefits to be gained even if all we instill in our children is the importance of moderation. Significant effects on both mental health and sleep time appear after two or more hours a day on electronic devices. The average teen spends about two and a half hours a day on electronic devices. Some mild boundary-setting could keep kids from falling into harmful habits.

In my conversations with teens, I saw hopeful signs that kids themselves are beginning to link some of their troubles to their ever-present phone. Athena told me that when she does spend time with her friends in person, they are often looking at their device instead of at her. "I'm trying to talk to them about something, and they don't actually look at my face," she said. "They're looking at their phone, or they're looking at their Apple Watch." "What does that feel like, when you're trying to talk to somebody face-to-face and they're not looking at you?," I asked. "It kind of hurts," she said. "It hurts. I know my parents' generation didn't do that. I could be talking about something super important to me, and they wouldn't even be listening."

Once, she told me, she was hanging out with a friend who was texting her boyfriend. "I was trying to talk to her about my family, and what was going on, and she was like, 'Uh-huh, yeah, whatever.' So I took her phone out of her hands and I threw it at my wall."

I couldn't help laughing. "You play volleyball," I said. "Do you have a pretty good arm?" "Yep," she replied.
This article has been adapted from Jean M. Twenge's forthcoming book, iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy-and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood-and What That Means for the Rest of Us.

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Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

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More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they're on the brink of a mental-health crisis.

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Center for Injury Research and Prevention

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Few devices have transformed our society as thoroughly as smartphones have over the past 10 years. For teens in particular, smartphones are a primary way to communicate and a social lifeline. But smartphones have also become a cause for concern as increasing evidence shows that excessive time spent on the devices can be a factor in depression and suicidal thoughts in teens and children.

I recently talked with two of my expert colleagues at CHOP about the competing dangers and benefits of smartphones for teens and children, and how parents can help kids manage their screen time appropriately.

Jeremy M. Esposito, MD, MSEd, is an attending physician in the Division of Emergency Medicine at CHOP, who is studying how to improve the behavioral health screening process used to connect suicidal teens and children with the right resources. He says the screening process should include questions about smartphone use to help better inform clinicians about their young patients' mental health histories.

Researchers have noted that an increase in depression and suicide among U.S. teenagers between 2010 and 2015 occurred during the same time period that teens' smartphone use was ramping up. During those five years:

The number of teens exhibiting signs of depression increased 33%.

Teen suicide attempts rose 23%.

The number of teens who committed suicide increased 31%.

At the same time, smartphone use among teenagers rose steadily, with 73% having access to a smartphone by 2015.

Researchers concluded that teens who spend more time online and less time socializing with friends in person are more likely to be depressed.

One of the biggest questions Dr. Esposito's team wrestles with is whether to let kids use their smartphones while they're in the hospital for observation or awaiting transfer for inpatient treatment. "We decided not to take away phones unless the teen is exhibiting aggressive behaviors," he explained to me. However, stickers will be placed over the camera portion of the phone so that kids can't engage in social media like Snapchat. Smart phones can only be used during certain times and CHOP reserves the right to take that privilege away.

And yet, smartphones have their benefits for teens as well, and can even be used to help teens and children suffering from depression and stress. At CHOP, Nancy Kassam-Adams, PhD, the Associate Director for Behavioral Research at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, is leading the development of an online game for ill or injured children suffering from posttraumatic stress.

Designed to be played on a tablet, computer or smartphone, Coping Coach is intended to help children ages 8 to12 deal with the psychological challenges of recovering from an unexpected traumatic event, from car crashes to natural disasters. The game lets children direct themselves, features relatable characters and-most importantly-has captured the interest of children helped to test it. "We pay a lot of attention to what kids want and make changes," Dr. Kassam-Adams explained.

Helping Kids Understand Their Own Symptoms

Coping Coach was created to be a supplemental tool to help children recognize and report their own symptoms; understand the relationship of helpful or unhelpful thoughts to their own feelings and behavior; and learn how to reduce their reliance on avoidance behaviors as a coping strategy. Coping Coach also provides information for parents about how and when to seek professional help for their child. Of course, if a family is trying to reduce a child's screen time, the game may not be the right intervention, Dr. Kassam-Adams acknowledged.

Ultimately, Dr. Esposito and Dr. Kassam-Adams agreed, smartphone use is all about balance for the individual teen or child. Dr. Esposito's recommendations include that parents should:

Always supervise smartphone use for children age 10 and younger.

Set limits on when smartphones can be used at home by older children and teens; for example, banning smartphones at the dinner table or during other family times.

Model the behavior they want to see in their children by limiting their own smartphone use.

Check in with their kids regularly to see how and when they use their devices, and for how long.

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It's All About Balance: Navigating the Pros and Cons of Smartphones for Teens and Children

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Few devices have transformed our society as thoroughly as smartphones have over the past 10 years. For teens in particular, smartphones are a primary way to communicate and a social lifeline. But smartphones have also become a cause for concern as increasing evidence shows that excessive time spent on the devices can be a factor in depression and suicidal thoughts in teens and children.

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Teens on being tethered to their phones and social media

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Study Examines Growing Concerns About Teenagers And Smartphone Addiction

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It's the 21st century and the amount of time teens spend on electronics correlates with what we see on the media. The severnesses of body shaming has been amplified and is the face of social media. This damages a teen's self-esteem and as a result, the world needs to take action and stop making people feel that they are less than perfect.

According to the article on teenagers spend about six to nine hours looking at their phones. During that time we are constantly exposing ourselves to new content and engaging our brains.

With all this exposure to the world through such a small device, there are many negatives. The internet gives teenagers masks to hide behind since people can pretend to be whoever they want. With that mask, it makes people believe that they can say whatever they want. This creates a perfect platform for people to shame others' bodies with no repercussions.

The mainstream media shows gorgeous models with the same body type and tells young teens what they should look like. This makes teens think that they are not good enough. I believe this is the moment the shaming starts. If they are not "the beauty standard" people are automatically shamed by those who are insecure about themselves and trying to make themselves feel better.

Teenagers look up to influencers through social media to find idols and people that they can admire, they could be from tv shows, an artist, or a musician. Billie Eilish's connection to many teenagers ' young minds creates an easily influenced group of adolescents. The paparazzi took a photo of Eilish on an insanely hot day where Eilish was wearing merely a tank top and shorts just outside her home. That being said, when Eilish's "rare" photo sends Twitter into a war, the press takes something so simple and turns Eilish into someone with a body that is flawed in the eyes of social media. Eilish's photo sparks controversy on labeling an 18 year old's body.

In the Calvin Klein collaboration "I Speak my truth" Eilish explains that she wears baggy clothes so that people can't have an opinion on what they cannot see. Eilish constantly wore baggy clothes to hide her body image so that she couldn't be judged by what society deems as the beauty standard. This connects to teens as many people look up to her as an idol and seeing her being body-shamed by others proves

Eilish's point is proven that the world is so judgemental and cruel. If you can't see that this was wrong you are a part of the problem. The Paparazzi who took this photo had to only have taken it to make her look bad. It worked and now Eilish faces the consequences for dressing according to the weather. Young minds with the same body type as Eilish may think themselves unworthy or not perfect, but there is no such thing as the perfect body type. We as a society should understand how young minds are so easily susceptible to the opinions of people around us and should be more accepting of people who aren't perfect. Especially since there is no such thing as perfect.

This is one of the many ways people are body shamed. Skinny shaming, even though it's not talked about often, still exists. Skinny shaming is one of the most toxic forms of body shaming because teens are shamed for being the beauty standard. This is definitely apparent on the popular app Tik Tok.

This is especially apparent within the comment sections of young girls comment sections. Comments like "I wasn't going to eat anyway" are extremely backhanded and make teens feel like they are responsible for making someone else feel bad about themselves. Those comments are completely unnecessary and harm the person in the video. When people are confident in their bodies, they are put down anyway. It feels like teens can't win.

Body-shaming is not something that should be normalized in social media. The only way that we can stop this unnecessary hate towards bodies is through personal action. It's not going to be a law and it's not something that can be enforced. It's up to the person behind the screen to realize the amount of power that they have in their words.

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It's the 21st century and the amount of time teens spend on electronics correlates with what we see on the media. The severnesses of body shaming has been amplified and is the face of social media. This damages a teen's self-esteem and as a result, the world needs to take action and stop making people...

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Do you ever wish you could change something about your body? If so, you're not alone. Lots of people feel unhappy with some part of their looks. But when you get stuck on what you don't like, it can really bring down your self-esteem.

You don't need a perfect body to have a good body image. When you like your body as it is, right now, you boost your body image. And your self-esteem too.

What Does Body Image Mean?

Your body image is the way you think about your body. This includes your thoughts and feelings about it. These can be good or bad and can change from time to time.

How Can I Accept the Way I Look?

Some people think they need to get in better shape to have a good body image. They think, "When I get in better shape, I'll like my body." But it's best to start the other way around. Accept yourself first. Here are ways to do that:

Realize that nobody's perfect. Everyone has "flaws," even people with seemingly ideal figures. So see your body the way it is rather than the way you want it to be.

Don't body-shame yourself. When you make harsh comments about your own body, it harms your self-esteem. That's true whether you say something out loud or think it to yourself. It can hurt as much as if someone else said it. So be kind and respectful to yourself. Ask, "Would I talk this way to my best friend?" Treat yourself like a good friend would.

Don't compare yourself with other people. The saying goes "comparison is the thief of joy." Find things to like about your own body and be thankful for all the great things it can do.

Accept compliments. When someone gives you a compliment, say "thank you" instead of not believing what's being said.

How Can I Like My Body?

When you accept your body, it's possible to learn to love (or at least like) what you have. Here's how:

Find things to like about your looks. Every time you look in the mirror, find at least two things you like about yourself. Maybe your hair, face, or hands. What about your shape, shoulders, or legs? Your eyes or smile? Make a habit of telling yourself what you like and why. If you get stuck, ask someone who cares about you, like a good friend or trusted adult. Know that there's lots to like about you. Let yourself feel good.

Focus on what your body can do. There's more to your body than your looks. When you play a sport, walk, run, dance, or swim - that's your body in action. Your body is there for you when you stretch, reach, climb, or jump for joy. It also allows you to you carry and build things, and give someone a hug. Be amazed and thankful.

Be aware of your body. Pay attention to your body as you go through the day. Enjoy the way it feels when you walk, run, and play. Listen to it when it needs food or rest. Things like yoga can help you observe your body more closely, teaching you to pay attention to how you breathe and move.

How Can I Take Care of My Body?

Taking good care of your body can make you feel better about it. Start caring for yourself with these tips:

Eat healthy foods. Learn what foods are good for you and how much is the right amount. Take your time when you eat. Really taste your food and enjoy it. Eating right helps you look your best and boosts your body image. It also gives you the energy you need. When you treat your body right, you feel good about yourself.

Get good sleep. Learn how much sleep you need for your age and get to bed on time. Turn off screens hours before bedtime so you can sleep well.

Be active every day. Your body needs to move to be strong, fit, and healthy. Be active by playing a sport. You can also run, walk, work out, do yoga, or dance. Pick activities you like and have fun.

Keep a healthy weight. Being at a healthy weight is good for you, and it helps you feel good about your body. Don't compare your weight with someone else's. Your doctor can tell you what you should weigh. If you're not at a healthy weight, don't try to change your diet on your own. Always talk with a parent or doctor first. Your doctor can suggest ways to reach and stay at a weight that's right for you.

What if I Need Help With My Body Image or Self-Esteem?

Sometimes, body image or self-esteem problems are too much to handle alone. Health issues, depression, or trauma can affect how you feel about yourself. And eating disorders can cause a poor body image that isn't true.

Tell a parent, doctor, or therapist what you're going through. Ask for help. Body image and self-esteem can get better with help and care.

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When your body changes, so can your image of yourself. Find out how your body image affects your self-esteem and what you can do.

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Last Updated: February 2021

As much as we like to think it doesn't matter how others feel about us, the truth is that what others say and think can be very impactful on our mental health - especially for teenagers.

More than other age groups, teens are often inclined to believe what other people think about them.

Combined with unrealistic cultural norms, fashion trends and social media feeds, the body-shaming that many teens endure can lead to severe emotional trauma and even cause depression and other serious mental health disorders.

Learn more about body-shaming, how body-shaming harms teenagers, and what you can do if your teen is experiencing body-shaming.

What Is Body-Shaming?

Body-shaming occurs when one is making fun of, or mocking, someone's physical appearance. It can also take place when one is criticizing their own appearance.

It's more than just pictures or words. It is commonplace and harmful to many teenagers.

Whether it is done in-person or online, body-shaming can take place through photos and videos or spoken words. When body-shaming is done online, it is called cyberbullying, and given the 24-hour access that most teens have to the internet, it can be especially harmful.

The Harmful Effects of Teen Body-Shaming

Body-shaming can propagate low self-esteem which can lead to a myriad of mental health issues in teens. Low self-esteem has been linked to:

Body dysmorphic disorder

Depression

Other eating disorders

Social isolation

As well as many other conditions that can be incredibly dangerous to your child's mental and physical health and require medical or therapeutic intervention.

How to Stop Body-Shaming in Teenagers

If you are concerned about your child or a teen in your life who is being body-shamed, consider these four steps that you can take to combat its harmful effects:

1. Be a truth-teller.

Don't be hesitant to tell your child what you love about them. Focus on their character and personality more than their looks to help them overcome low self-esteem.

2. Differentiate "fit" from "fiction."

There's no doubt your teen is being bombarded with photoshopped images telling them what beautiful is. In your home, beauty is determined by you. Focus on fitness and nutrition and healthy habits over superficial looks. It's a good reminder to the whole family that looks are fading but being healthy has lasting benefits.

3. Lead by example.

If you think your child is being body-shamed, evaluate your own attitude towards your body. Try to stay away from words like "diet" and "skinny." Focus on health and good nutrition, instead of skipping meals and being self-critical - especially in front of your teen.

4. Recognize the consequences of body drama.

The first step in fighting body-shaming is recognizing its existence and the power it may hold over your teen. One in ten adult women feels good about their body. It's time to speak out for the sake of our children and address the unrealistic ideals of our culture.

How Teens Can Heal From Body-Shaming

The good news is that your teen can heal from body-shaming. Finding treatment for depression, eating disorders and self-esteem issues can help restore them mentally and physically. There are therapeutic protocols and programs to help them take their life back. They can learn to accept themselves exactly as they are and learn not to compare themselves to unrealistic ideals.

If you are a witness to body-shaming in-person or online, say something. If on a social media platform, report it as "inappropriate content." You can help make a difference in your child's or other people's lives, by raising awareness of what body shaming is and how harmful it can be.

There is always hope. Your teen can overcome this and it's time they know it.
Body shaming is devastating but you can find healing for your child. Learn more by contacting Embark Behavioral Health for support today.

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Last Updated: February 2021 As much as we like to think it doesn't matter how others feel about us, the truth is that what others say and think can be very impactful on our mental health - especially for teenagers. More than other age groups, teens are often inclined to believe what other people think about them.

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Girls Ages 6-18 Talk About Body Image | Allure

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what body positivity means to today's teens - cnn

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What body positivity means to today's teens

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Some of Ellie Zerr's go-to spots for a confidence boost are Instagram and TikTok.

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are you okay? | Award-Winning Short Film

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Girls Ages 5-18 Talk About What Beauty Means to Them | Allure

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Teen girls open up about the 'constant pressure' of social media

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Challenges face models who want more inclusion, diversity to fashion | USA TODAY

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Most people agree that everyone should treat animals well and look after their needs. However, there is often disagreement about what this means. The term animal rights is...

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The animal rights movement strives to make the public aware of the fact that animals are sensitive, emotional, and intelligent beings who deserve dignity and respect. But first, it's important to understand what the term "animal rights" really means.

What are animal rights?

Animal rights are moral principles grounded in the belief that non-human animals deserve the ability to live as they wish, without being subjected to the desires of human beings. At the core of animal rights is autonomy, which is another way of saying choice. In many countries, human rights are enshrined to protect certain freedoms, such as the right to expression, freedom from torture, and access to democracy. Of course, these choices are constrained depending on social locations like race, class, and gender, but generally speaking, human rights safeguard the basic tenets of what makes human lives worth living. Animal rights aim to do something similar, only for non-human animals.

Animal rights come into direct opposition with animal exploitation, which includes animals used by humans for a variety of reasons, be it for food, as experimental objects, or even pets. Animal rights can also be violated when it comes to human destruction of animal habitats. This negatively impacts the ability of animals to lead full lives of their choosing.

Do animals have rights?

Very few countries have enshrined animal rights into law. However, the US and the UK do have some basic protections and guidelines for how animals can be treated.

The UK Sentience Bill

In 2021, the United Kingdom's House of Commons introduced the Animal Sentience Bill. If passed, this bill would enshrine into law that animals are, in fact, sentient beings, and they deserve humane treatment at the hands of humans. While this law would not afford animals full autonomy, it would be a watershed in the movement to protect animals-officially recognizing their capacity to feel and to suffer, and distinguishing them from inanimate objects.

The US Animal Welfare Act

In 1966, the United States passed the Animal Welfare Act. While it is the biggest federal legislation addressing the treatment of animals to date, its scope is fairly narrow-the law excludes many species, including farmed animals, from its protections. The law does establish some basic guidelines for the sale, transport, and handling of dogs, cats, rabbits, nonhuman primates, guinea pigs, and hamsters. It also protects the psychological welfare of animals who are used in lab experiments, and prohibits the violent practices of dogfighting and cockfighting. Again, this law does not recognize the rights and autonomy of animals-or even their ability to feel pain and suffer-but it does afford non-human animals some basic welfare protections.

What are some examples of animal rights?

While few laws currently exist in the UK or US that recognize or protect animals' rights to enjoy lives free from human interference, the following is a list of examples of animal rights that could one day be enacted:

Animals may not be used for food.

Animals may not be hunted.

The habitats of animals must be protected to allow them to live according to their choosing.

Animals may not be bred.

What's the difference between animal welfare and animal rights?

Animal rights philosophy is based on the idea that animals should not be used by people for any reason, and that animal rights should protect their interests the way human rights protect people. Animal welfare, on the other hand, is a set of practices designed to govern the treatment of animals who are being dominated by humans, whether for food, research, or entertainment.

Do animals need rights? Pros and cons

The idea of giving animals rights tends to be contentious, given how embedded animal products are within societies such as the United States. Some people, including animal activists, believe in an all-or-nothing approach, where animal rights must be legally enshrined and animals totally liberated from all exploitation. On the other end of the spectrum are people whose livelihoods depend upon animal-based industries. Below are some arguments both in favor of and opposing animal rights.

Arguments in favor of animal rights

Should the rights of animals be recognized, animal exploitative industries would disappear, as would the host of environmental problems they cause, including water pollution, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and deforestation.

Halting the widespread use of animals would also eliminate the systematic cruelty and denial of choice that animal industries perpetuate. The physical and psychological pain endured by animals in places like factory farms has reached a point many consider to be unacceptable, to say the least. Animals are mutilated by humans in several different ways, including castrations, dehorning, and cutting off various body parts, usually without the use of anesthetic.

Many species never see the outdoors except on their way to the slaughterhouse.

As their name suggests, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) pack vast numbers of animals in cramped conditions, often forcing animals to perpetually stand in their own waste. Many species-including chickens, cows, and pigs-never see the outdoors except on their way to the slaughterhouse. Recognizing animal rights would necessitate stopping this mistreatment for good.

Arguments against animal rights

Most arguments against animal rights can be traced back to money, because animal exploitation is big business. Factory farming for animal products is a multi-billion-dollar industry. JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, posted $9 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2020 alone.

A lesser-known, yet also massive, industry is that which supplies animals for laboratories. The US market for lab rats (who are far less popular than mice for experiments) was valued at over $412 million in 2016. Big industrial producers of animals and animal products have enough political clout to influence legislation-including passing laws making it illegal to document farm conditions-and to benefit from government subsidies.

Many people depend upon animal exploitation for work. On factory farms, relatively small numbers of people can manage vast herds or flocks of animals, thanks to mechanization and other industrial farming techniques. Unfortunately, jobs in industrial meatpacking facilities are also known to be some of the most dangerous in the US. Smaller farmers coming from multi-generational farming families more directly depend upon using animals to make a living and tend to follow welfare standards more judiciously. However, smaller farms have been decreasing in number, due to the proliferation of factory farms against which they often cannot compete.

Although people may lose money or jobs in the transition to animal alternatives, new jobs can be created in the alternative protein sector and other plant-based industries.

When did the animal rights movement begin in the US?

The modern day animal rights movement in the United States includes thousands of individuals and a multitude of groups who advocate for animals in a variety of ways-from lobbying legislators to support animal rights laws, to rescuing animals from situations of abuse and neglect. While individuals throughout history have believed in and fought for animal rights, we can trace back the modern, US-based animal rights movement to the founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in 1866. The group's founder, Henry Burgh, believed that animals are "entitled to kind and respectful treatment at the hands of humans and must be protected under the law." The organization worked with the New York City government to pass and enforce anti-cruelty laws that prevented the abuse of carthorses and provided care for injured horses. Since then, the ASPCA has expanded its advocacy across different non-human animal species-including farmed animals-and many more animal protection groups have sprung up, both locally and nationwide. Currently, there are over 40,000 non-profit organizations identified as animal groups in the US.

Why are animal rights important?

Animal rights are important because they represent a set of beliefs that counteract inaccurate yet long-held assumptions that animals are nothing more than mindless machines-beliefs popularized by western philosopher Rene Descartes in the 17th century. The perception of animals as being unthinking, unfeeling beings justified using them for human desires, resulting in today's world where farmed mammals outnumber those in the wild, and the majority of these farmed animals are forced to endure harsh conditions on factory farms.

Farmed mammals outnumber those in the wild.

But the science is increasingly clear: The animals we eat ( pigs, chickens, cows), the animals we use in laboratories ( mice and rats), the animals who provide us with clothing, and those whose backs we ride upon have all been found to possess more cognitive complexity, emotions, and overall sophistication than has long been believed. This sophistication renders animals more susceptible not only to physical pain but also to the psychological impacts caused by the habitual denial of choice. Awareness of their own subjugation forms sufficient reasoning to rethink the ways animals are treated in western societies.

The consequences of animal rights

Currently, laws in the US and UK are geared toward shielding animals from cruelty, not giving them the same freedom of choice that humans have. (Even these laws are sorely lacking, as they fail to protect livestock and laboratory animals.) However, the animal rights movement can still have real-world consequences. Calls for animal liberation from places like factory farms can raise public awareness of the poor living conditions and welfare violations these facilities perpetuate, sometimes resulting in stronger protections, higher welfare standards, and decreasing consumer demand. Each of these outcomes carries economic consequences for producers, as typically it is more expensive for factory farms to provide better living conditions such as more space, or using fewer growth hormones which can result in lower production yields.

Of course, should the animal rights movement achieve its goals, society would look much different than it does today. If people consume more alternative sources of protein, such as plant-based or lab-grown meat, the global environment would be far less impacted. Clothing would be made without leather or other animal products; alternative sources, such as pineapple leather created from waste products from the pineapple industry, could replace toxic tanneries. The fur industry is being increasingly shunned, with fashion labels rejecting fur in favor of faux materials. Ocean ecosystems would be able to recover, replenishing fish populations and seafloor habitats. Today these are razed by bottom trawling fishing, resulting in the clear-cutting of corals that can be thousands of years old.

How you can advocate for animals

A world in which animals are free from human exploitation still seems far off, but we can make choices that create a kinder world for animals, every day. We can start by leaving animals off our plate in favor of plant-based alternatives-a choice that recognizes animals as the sentient beings that they are, and not products for consumption.

When we come together, we can also fight for better protections for animals in the US and around the world. There's a robust movement to hold corporations accountability and end the cruelty of factory farming-an industry which causes immense amount of suffering for billions of animals. If you want to help end this suffering and spread compassion for animals, join our community of online animal activists and take action.

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Animal Rights: Definition, Issues, and Examples

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Animal rights advocates believe that non-human animals should be free to live as they wish, without being used, exploited, or otherwise interfered with by humans.

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Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. Many of us bought our beloved animal companions at pet shops and kept beautiful birds in cages. We wore wool and silk, ate McDonald's burgers, and went fishing. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. Now you or your child are asking, "Why should animals have rights?"

Why You and Your Family Should Support Animal Rights

In his seminal book Animal Liberation (1975), philosopher Peter Singer observes that the basic principle of equality doesn't require equal or identical treatment-it requires equal consideration. This is an important distinction when talking about animal rights. People often ask if animals should have rights, and the answer is YES! Animals surely deserve to live free from suffering and exploitation. In 1789, another philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, declared that when determining a being's rights, "the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" Bentham pointed to the capacity for suffering as the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration. All animals, including humans, have the ability to suffer. We all feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness, and love. Whenever we consider doing something that would interfere with animals' needs, we are morally obligated to take them into account.

Supporters of animal rights believe that animals have an inherent value that's completely separate from their usefulness to humans. We believe that every sentient being has a right to live free from pain and suffering. Animal rights is not just a philosophy-it's a social movement that challenges society's traditional view that all nonhuman animals exist solely for human use. As PETA founder and President Ingrid Newkirk has said, "When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Each one values his or her life and fights the knife."

Only prejudice allows us to deny others the rights that we ourselves expect to have. Whether it's based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or species, prejudice is unacceptable. If you wouldn't eat a dog, why eat a pig? Dogs and pigs have the same capacity to feel pain, and it's prejudice based on species that allows someone to think of one animal as a companion and the other as dinner.

How to Help

You can take vital steps to get thoughtless cruelty to animals out of your family's life and inform others around you, including your kids. We teach our children to live by the Golden Rule-"Treat others the way you want to be treated"-and compassion for animals is an important part of that. Let's make sure the words we use about animals are kind. You can also download TeachKind's free Share the World kit, a perfect tool for teaching empathy and compassion to elementary school-age kids. And your child can become an official PETA Kids member, too!

Spread the word: Animals are here with us, not for us.

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Why Animal Rights Is Important | Parents | PETA Kids

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Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. Many of us bought our beloved animal companions at pet shops and kept beautiful birds in cages. We wore wool and silk, ate McDonald's burgers, and went fishing. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved.

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It’s a sunny afternoon at the Bronx Zoo, in New York City. A monorail train approaches the elephant exhibit. A child screeches in delight as a female Asian elephant named Happy comes into view. Happy flaps her ears and wraps…

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