Powerful, unsettling, all too realistic.. An 8 year-old girl lives alone with her mother and dreams of a better life beyond the walls of their small and rundown apartment. Isolated and lonely, the girl's only friend is her doll, Polly. From her window she sees other children playing happily in a park and desperately wants to go there with her own mum. Despite best intentions, her mother is in no position to respond to her daughter's needs. When an invitation arrives to a community family picnic in the park, it seems like the perfect chance to get out of the apartment and do something with h...

A child's journey into the teenage years will involve developing an ability to make independent, grown-up decisions - and struggling with their parents over the more difficult or sensitive of these. It’s common for parents and teenagers to disagree about how much independence a young person should have. So, when should young people be able to make their own decisions on issues such as smoking, drinking, going on a date, getting a piercing or tattoo?  If you have some strong views or a recent experience that you think could help other parents in this, why not contribute to the conv...

As we move slowly but steadily into the brighter skies of spring and summer, I wonder just what the effects are of removing the sun from our kids' lives - with all that slip, slap, slopping of sunscreen, now up to SPF 80+ in NZ (although due to the lobbying of the Cancer Foundation, I believe we are for the present at least, still limited to 30+ here in Australia). Seems like I'm not alone.. http://www.journallive.co.uk/lifestyle-news/fashion-news-tips/2010/08/25/children-need-time-in-the-sun-61634-27129756/?zbrandid=2039&zidType=CH&zid=1124277&zsubscriberId=501300580&zbdom...

From a report by NetFamily News (NetFamilyNews.org) on 26 August. A whopping 90% of US 9-12 year-olds play online games, according to a survey by M2 Research <http://www.m2research.com/kids-and-games-report-release.htm>.  Broken down by gender, 91% of boys and 93% of girls play games online, M2 says. The survey of 5,000 children and teens nationwide also found that Facebook is now the favorite Web site among boys 8-11 and girls 12-15 (Note: Facebook's minimum age is 13 – see this earlier post for some experts' views on U13 use <http://www.netfamilynews.org/?p=29026>...

Who'd have thought you could even get this rubbish (that passes for research) in print.. "GRANTING teenagers access to computers can actually diminish their reading and maths results, according to a new study. The Sunday Telegraph reports a survey of more than half a million children reveals technology is counter-productive in improving student achievement. It found that introducing children to computers from 10 years of age could have a detrimental effect and was associated with "modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student maths and reading test score...