#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

[alphie-in-the-sky]

[andersunmenschlich]

[theresilientmnd]

Building Safer Futures

Engaging Our Youth Together In the heart of every community lies the duty to protect and nurture its youth. This responsibility doesn’t belong to one individual or organization but to everyone—parents, mentors, and community leaders alike. At a recent gathering focused on youth safety, we were reminded of the power of prayer, unity, and proactive engagement in shaping a better future for our…

[compassionmattersmost]

A Bipartisan Approach to Compassionate Care for Unaccompanied Children

Our nation is home to tens of thousands of unaccompanied children—young lives that need stability, education, and compassionate care. This need transcends political divisions, calling for unity and a shared responsibility to care for the vulnerable. Why Bipartisan? When it comes to the well-being of these children, both parties share a commitment to providing safe, nurturing homes, free from…

[trials-of-a-spirit-worker]

Dude hell yeah! BACA FOREVER!

Source 

[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.

[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.

[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.

[trials-of-a-spirit-worker]

I say this as a child care worker.

Listen to your fucking kids.

I can yadda yadda about the validation all day long.

No. It's the fact that shit like that, cases like above, if handled wrong your child will never trust you again. Not the same. Maybe even not at all anymore.

Children internalize so fucking much.

Hear your kids the fuck out.

It might be nonsense. Hell, it might even be something massively stupid and not the case of 60k bees.

The point is to have your child feel like they can come to you. Parents have no idea how much they truly impact their child.

I'm glad that parent apologized about the Halloween decoration and fixed their mistake.

bees?

[alinahdee]

HER NAME IS EMILY PIKE.

#NOMORESTOLENSISTERS #MMIW

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thanks for listening to my sad backstory. Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[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

[4sh-n4]

AU where bruce and co. (his entire hoarde of kids, even jason in disguise) are at a gala. And it's a really big gala, party of the year type of thing in Gotham, absolutely unmissable. And usually, even the rogues know that this night is off limits, so it's relatively safe. So, they're all at this gala, right?

And then the joker crashes it because he has no respect for Gotham traditions. Breaks in through a window, yada yada. He starts to go on this whole villain speech as per usual, and everyone is waiting for the heroes to come. But all the heroes are at the gala, in their civilian identities, with a thousand eyes on them. No one can reasonably slip away, except for maybe jason, who's already seething mad and ready to attack. But with the chaos and people trying to get away, all the exits are blocked, and his helmet is at home.

Bruce is at the front of the crowd, facing the Joker. Joker sees him and makes a comment about Jason, and goes on about how Bruce must've felt when his baby died. And then he brings up how he killed the little birdie too, just a few days before the terrorist attacks that allegedly killed Jason. And he mentions how much he tortured Robin before his death, and Bruce snaps.

He leaps forward, absolutely hammering the shit out of the joker. Beats him up so bad, no finesse or technique to it, just pure rage. His kids try to pull him off, to no avail. No one else even tries. By the end of it, by the time the police arrive, the joker is more blood than body, and Bruce has finally calmed down. Everyone is just staring at him in shock, understandably. (The joker ends up in hospital, paralysed and in a coma)

His kids all drag Bruce home and give him an entire lecture about his persona and how his cover has probably been blown. About excessive violence and how he refused to kill joker but then pulled this in public?? They're all worried about the fallout in the news the next day.

No one sleeps that night, for various reasons, but then when the newspaper comes out the next morning... there's just nothing bad written?? The headline is something about Bruce being a hero for saving everyone from the joker, but there's no other mention about Batman or anything else.

Turns out, no one in Gotham is surprised that Brucie Wayne, no 1 airhead, beat up the joker because "did you SEE him as a teenager?? We were all just glad when he came from his travels pretending to be stupid instead of picking fights with everyone. If anything, it's understandable that he snapped, I would too if a clown started bragging about killing my son." The only reason no one brought up his violent past is because they were worried he would revert back to that behaviour.

[indestinatus]

#are these your thieves, Zeus?

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS (2023) | 1.03