Monday, March 30, 2009

Newspaper Articles on Teens

Teens, TEENS, TeEnS...

Article 1: "Confronting Dating Violence by Telling Teens That More Abuse Is Not the Solution"
New York Times, 29 March 2009
This article was both a positive and negative one. It was about teen violence, but it was someone that was explaining it to a group of teenagers; informing them about it. The students seemed as if they were engaged in the speakers (Mrs. Garcia) assembly. She works for Day One, a nonprofit organization that supports those who suffer from teen violence. The speakers goes out to schools and such educating them on what goes one with teen violence, how to get help, and get yourself out of the situation. I enjoyed reading the article. It was nice to see that someone is educating teens about teen violence. Recently I did a project on teen violence and was shocked at the statistics. Hopefully people like Mrs. Garcia and the Day One organization can help teens and stop or at least lower the numbers of teen violence.

Article 2: "Sexting May Place Teens at Legal Risk"
New York Times, 26 March 2009
"One in five teens may be a child pornographer risking life in prison — for the crime of taking and distributing naked pictures of themselves." What is that all about!? This article was discussed a new thing that teens do called, sexting. In other words, the teens take pictures of themselves (naked or semi-naked) and electronically send them to others. Sometimes it gets out of hand, such as s boy that sent a picture to a girl and she sent it to others who sent it to others. In the end the picture reached 300 teens! This like this can get the teens into trouble. "It’s illegal under federal and state child-porn laws to create explicit images of a minor, posses them or distribute them." If caught, the teen could be sentenced and have to register as a sex offender. I did not know about this law until I read the article. Also, I did not know that teens were into this thing of sexting or sending these types of photos to others. Do they seriously think that they will not get sent and sent and sent? The article was shocking, but interesting. If you have a chance, take a look. http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/sexting-may-place-teens-at-legal-risk/?scp=2&sq=article%20on%20teenagers&st=cse

Article 3: "Depression Tests Urged for Teenagers"
New York Times. 29 March 2009
Yet another shocking article... "An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to perform routine screening on all American teenagers for depression, a step that acknowledges that nearly two million teenagers are affected by this debilitating condition." I never really thought about teens being depressed. But, the more that I think about it I think it's very, very possible. Teens have a tough time living during these years; finding out who and what they are, accepting or rejecting stereotypes, gaining responsibility, facing peer pressure, etc. With all of this and more going on, it is easy to slip into a depression. I think that parents may let it go by simply thinking that their son or daughter "is just being a teen and they will get over it"
"An estimated 6 percent of American teenagers are clinically depressed. Evidence shows that detailed but simple questionnaires can accurately diagnose depression in primary-care settings like a pediatrician’s office." This made me think about a recent situation, a boy I know just committed suicide at age 15. Are teens sometimes crying out for help and we just do not see it or we choose to ignore it? I have heard about teens committing suicide in the past and many say that they never saw it coming, but do we see it? I think that the screenings should be done. Although I do not think I necessarily agree with medicating the teens for pretty much the rest of their lives with medication, I do think that they need help. Hopefully they would be able to function in later years without the medication and not come dependent on it.

All of these articles were about teens, but they were very different from one another. One about educating teens, teens and technology, and teens health. I enjoyed reading the articles and was glad to have learned new things and become more aware.

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