#Protecting Children

[reasonsforhope]

"Parents of tweens will likely be aware of the daily battle over when to give their child a smartphone. They are probably forced into discussing it over breakfast, on the school run, at bedtime – after all, no kid wants to be left out if their friends all have one.

Which is why a town in Ireland came together to devise a solution.

Parents and teachers in Greystones, County Wicklow, launched a town-wide ‘no-smartphone code’ in May, when headteachers from the town’s eight primary schools wrote to parents asking them to sign up to the ban. By coming together en masse, the thinking went, parents could do away with the peer pressure around smartphone ownership.

Now, ministers in the Irish cabinet have approved new guidelines on the banning of smartphones in school, which were brought by education minister Norma Foley on 7 November. The proposals would help parents to collectively implement smartphone bans, with government support. Ministers are also considering outlawing the sale of smartphones to all children of primary school age.

“We can already see smartphones creeping into our primary schools,” explained Rachel Harper, headteacher at St. Patrick’s school, which led on the initiative. “Parents, even at the junior end, were already getting worried about what age their kids were going to be asking for smartphones.”

Parental concerns around the dangers of smartphones are justified, according to the latest scientific research. In 2020, a systematic review of academic studies investigating smartphones, social media use and youth mental health found that, in the last 10 years, mental distress and treatment for mental health conditions had risen in parallel with the use of smartphones by children and adolescents...

There’s also a desire, said Christina Capatina, a Greystones parent whose daughters are aged 11 and nine, to prioritise face-to-face interactions over digital ones for as long as possible. “Childhood is getting shorter,” she said. “It’s really important for them to be in a place where they can be happy and enjoy being out, just being children.”

Parents in Greystones are now empowered to hold off giving their kids access to the devices until the age of 12, when they transition to secondary school in Ireland.

Eight months since the ban came in, what has its impact been? “It has completely solved the problem,” said Capatina. “Instead of having long conversations about it, this is so simple.”

The code is voluntary, so some parents have chosen not to take part, but enough have signed up to create a sense of phoneless-ness being the norm. While some in the media have argued that the code demonises technology, Harper refutes this: “We’re not against technology. We’re not against phones. We’re just simply asking them to wait till secondary school.” [Again, that's age 12 in Ireland.]

She said the launch of their no-smartphone code led to school principals all over the world getting in touch with messages of support, an indication it seems of how universal parents’ fears over childhood smartphone use are.

And with ministers now working on guidelines for communities that wish to follow in Greystones’ footsteps, Harper is proud of all she and fellow parents have achieved. “It’s nice to be an ambassador in a positive way,” she said.

-via Positive.News, November 17, 2023

[alwaysbewoke]

[mycptsdstory]

Do you guys remember that argument I had with someone who said "watching your child's phone is abuse. They are allowed to have privacy".

Well... Erm what happens when THIS happens and your child, doesn't tell you a creep, went into THEIR DMS? What happens when you don't check your child's phone and they are talking to adults?

Well, this happened to a parent and thank god, the child SEEMED to have a good relationship with their parents/caregivers/guardians.

The original tweet

Please check your child's phone. This CAN happen.

[alphie-in-the-sky]

[andersunmenschlich]

[dannydvo]

What you need to understand about me is I am deadass… a fucking snitch. Stay away from me you cunts.

I will post the entire conversation if requested. Or dm me.

[stephsgrn]

Does The Pain Ever Go Away???

Your mom sent this to me this morning. I can’t say I’ve missed you quietly today, not after reading that. This post will likely take a long time to write, it’s hard to type when tears blur your vision. In 9 days, it will be 8 months that you’ve been gone. I know it hasn’t been all that long for me to assume it will never go away, but I’m pretty sure it won’t.  You weren’t my own child, we…

[bruciemilf]

Really glad we’re crowning Dick as the scariest batfamily member. Society is healing.

Don’t mind me, just imagining Bruce’s hands, big, soft, covered in the labor of violence, holding his eldest’s face, saying, “This is Dick. He’s the kindest person I know.”

Dick’s fists are behind his back. He’s holding some socialite’s bloody tongue in them. If they’re going to use it to talk shit about his father, they don’t need it. His smile is sunshine and war.

[trials-of-a-spirit-worker]

Dude hell yeah! BACA FOREVER!

Source 

[publicacionesconverclick]

WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 2024: PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM TOBACCO INDUSTRY INTERFERENCE

by ads Converclick on May 28, 2024

Every year, on May 31st, the world comes together to observe World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), a global initiative established by the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1987.

[secondbeatsongs]

for anyone too young to know this: watching The Truman Show is a vastly different experience now, compared to how it was before youtube and social media influencers became normal

before it was like, "what a horrifying thing to do to a human being! to take away their autonomy and privacy, all for the sake of profits! to create fake scenarios for them to react to, just to retain viewership! to ruin their happiness just so some corporate entity could harvest money from their very humanity! how could anyone do something so evil?"

and now it's like, "ah, yeah. this is still deeply fucked up, but it's pretty much what every influencer has been doing to their kids for a decade now. probably bad that we've normalized this experience"

[impulsivelycontentious]

I think that we define "protect" differently.

When I say "protect", I mean "secure wellbeing emotionally and/or physically", and I include securing someone's right to personhood as an aspect of both of these things.

When they say "protect", they mean "secure their purpose," and they include the right to act however they feel is necessary to insure their investment pays off or else cannot be used by others.

The "family" is not people you love, it's people you *own*; it has goals. Sure you can love it. You can love a business or a church, too. It's assumed. But these things exist *for a purpose* and when they say "protect family values" or "protect children" they mean "secure them for their purpose."

That's why it's ok to discard children who have, ultimately, failed to reach their intended shape. Why it's ok that conversion therapy kills. Why it's ok to beat a disobedient child - or wife. And still call it "protection".

We have fundemnetally different views of the world. You can love someone you hurt.

They see inhibiting someone from becoming the purpose for which they were born as harm. We see forcing someone to be something they aren't as harm. We see the force itself as harm.

They see it as necessary and good.

It is a fundemental disconnect of values and language and THEY ARE, BY LARGE, AWARE OF THIS.

At least politically. The politicians know that we mean different things but they will imply that it's all the same thing when continent.

After all much of this comes from evangelism and their answer for suffering is "god does it for our own good". And if GOD can hurt us for our own good - sometimes to death. Well.

I think the hardest part about addressing child abuse is getting people to acknowledge, not just intellectually but actually responding accordingly, is that the biggest threat to children, the biggest risk of abuse, is family and parents.

it is of course most often parents who are crowing about needing to protect children (often against far smaller threats than family), and pointing out that they are, statistically, the biggest threat to their kids is not gonna be received well.

[soothsayersblog]

Early Signs of Stranger Abduction and the Role of Child Recovery International

In today’s world, the fear of stranger abduction looms large for parents, guardians, and society. The unsettling truth is that stranger abduction can take various forms, with perpetrators ranging from complete strangers to friends and even family members. The urgency of seeking relief in such dire situations is paramount, and organizations like Child Recovery International (CRI) emerge as beacons…

[lilislegacy]

*percy controlling akhlys’ poison to use it against her and choking her on her own tears and saliva*

annabeth: never do it again. never do anything like it again. i’m begging you

many years later

*percy and annabeth’s teenage children being held at knifepoint by enemies, seconds away from being killed*

annabeth: percy, do it

[craftyandy]

The Truth About Anthony Oliver Rich Men North of Richmond

#workersrights #richmennorthofrichmond  #oliveranthony  Lets talk about this song everyone is in a tism over. It has some problems, but I think it's more important to focus on the relatable aspects while addressing it's miss fires. Talking about all this while making a tattoo design commission https://youtu.be/QwOIk2wy12I

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