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Because of all that free time summer gives kids, the season calls for a little extra thought and family communication about the mental and physical health effects of more screentime. In fact, Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer recommends a “media diet” for summer vacationers, reports SafeKids.com’s Larry Magid in CBSNEWS.com - because kids in general spend 45-50 hours a week consuming media, let … [Read more...] about Kids’ summer screentime & media use

Here’s something you don’t hear often: Playing videogames can help kids get into reading. It happened to 8th-grader Christopher. He told the Press-Enterprise (in southern Calif.) that there are action games and storyline games, and he found he really liked the latter (he was reading below grade level at the time). One of those, Tales of Symphonia, was recommended to him by a relative, and “quickly … [Read more...] about Videogame hooks kid on reading

One in 10 teenagers (2 million+) have abused cough medicine, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. “Both in liquid and gel-cap forms, they're highly accessible and cheap and come with little social stigma attached. But, like other over-the-counter drugs, they can be dangerous when abused,” US News & World Report reports. It adds that “thousands of Web sites promote the abuse of … [Read more...] about Cough-med abuse sites

Given how much texting goes on in the UK and Europe, I was surprised to see this finding that the US isn’t far behind Britain in Web access by phone. Researchers Telephia and comScore say 19% of Britons (ages 15+) access the Web via mobile phone (5.7 million compared to the 30 million who use the Web on computers). That compares to 17% of Americans, with 30 million on the Web via cellphone … [Read more...] about Web access from phones

More than a quarter of US 18-to-24-year-olds don’t even have landlines, and even more – 29% - of 25-to-29-year-olds are cellphone-only users, the Associated Press reports. That’s according to a just-released study by the Centers for Disease Control. “The percentages declined with age after that, with 2% of those 65 or over having only cellphones.” Youth shares this move away from landlines with … [Read more...] about Youth: Cellphones not landlines