According to a new study from the American Cancer Institute, teens really do begin smoking as a result of seeing actors light up in movies.  In fact, the study found that teen that watch movies with a lot of smoking in them are as much as three times more likely to smoke.   The study goes on to state that teens whose parents do not smoke are the most likely to be swayed by smoking seen in movies.

 To read more about this study in the Washington Post, click here. And to read the entire study (it’s pretty long) click here.

Libraries adding video games. The American Library Association has announced a new project funded with a $1 million grant from the Verizon Foundation, the charitable branch of Verizon Communications. The project will place video gaming systems like XBOX 360’s and Wii’s in public libraries and will then will be studied to see how video gaming affects the literacy skills of young people. This is an interesting way for libraries to adapt to the changing interests of today’s youth in order to remain relevant. Read the full story here…

Summer camps place cell phones, electronics on hold. In our ultra-connected world, young campers are learning to be without their Ipod’s, cell phones, and video games. Read the full story…

Movie Studios Agree To Help Discourage Teen Smoking. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says teenagers are twice as likely to pick up the habit if they see cigarette smoking in movies, on television, or in cigarette ads. Also, tobacco companies use menthol flavor to get young people to smoke, says a new study to be published in the American Journal of Public Health. To combat this glamorization of smoking motion picture studios will be placing commercials discouraging smoking on DVD copies of films that depict characters smoking. Read the full story…

Gossip girl goes too far again. As an inappropriate follow-up to April’s edgy marketing of WB’s Gossip GIrl series (picture at left), the network has once again pushed the envelope. The series seems to be capitalizing on the criticism it has received from parent groups that have taken issue with the series’ sex and drug riddled plots involving teens. Click here to see the current marketing images…

VA School may “Go Green” and implement a 4-day school week. Read the story here...

Teens listening to more FM Radio. After a 2007 study suggested that most teens are listneing to less radio than they had in the past, a new study has stated that teens report increasing radio listening this year. While the reason for this is unknown I would speculate that young people find it easier to flip on a radio rather than constantly be flipping through songs on an Ipod. Additionally, in our connected world, listening to the radio creates a greater feeling of being linked with the outside world than an MP3 player. Read the story here…

Textbooks going electronic. With McGraw-Hill reporting that they will be offering 95% of their textbooks in electronic versions, Amazon is looking to capitalize with their new e-reader Kindle. Imagine a world where a college student can have all of their textbooks easily accessible in a device the size of a notebook. No more lugging around heavy backpacks! It reminds me of the moment I bought my first Ipod and realized I could hold my entire music collection in the palm of my hand. The one drawback is that I guess it would be hard to sell your used textbooks. Read the full story…

“Playground for pedophiles”. A new teen dating site called MyLOL.net is receiving criticism that it will become a “playground for pedophiles”. With

19,000 worldwide members (150 of which are males over 40) the site has become the top teen dating site on the net. Read the full story here. / View video here.

In This User-Generated World, Teen Girls Prefer Expert Content. Even though this is a generation that loves to create content, teen girls seem to still prefer to receive information from experts found in magazines rather than from friends’ blogs. Read the full story…

New teen show ‘Queen Bees’ Premiere’s on the N

From the lands of backstabbery and fakeness, the brats have come. Gisbelle and Stassi and Camille, from Trophy Club, Tex., and Shavon, Michelle, Kiana and Brittany have come to your television to compete on a reality show that totters between “so bad it’s good” and “so bad it’s bad and makes you question yourself and humanity.” And we are talking serious nasties, dude, girls who fake pregnancies and then miscarriages to win attention, who refuse to hang out with their “ugly” friends and “don’t really feel bad for homeless people.” Or say so. They are mean. But through the course of this show, they shall become nice. Or pretend to. For $25,000. This is the premise of “Queen Bees,” which premieres tonight at 9 on cable channel the N Network and can also be seen at The-N.com. It represents the latest incarnation of a mean girls frenzy that began with Rosalind Wiseman’s 2002 book “Queen Bees and Wannabes.” They’re the girls who start ruining life for everybody else in middle school. Read the full story…

Helicopter Parents Freak Out As Kids Go Off To Camp 

Eve Pidgeon watched the large group of kids, many of them laughing and chatting excitedly as they boarded a bus for camp last summer. “They just couldn’t wait,” said Pidgeon, whose 8-year-old daughter, Zoe, was among the young campers. Then Pidgeon looked around and noticed something else: “There were no children crying — just parents.” These days, camp leaders and family counselors say it is an increasingly common dynamic. It used to be the homesick kid begging to come home from camp. While that still happens, they have noticed that it is often parents who have more trouble letting go. They call it “kidsickness,” a condition attributed in large part to today’s more involved style of parenting. Observers also say it is only being exacerbated by our ability to be in constant contact by cell phone and computer, as well as many parents’ perception that the world is a more dangerous place. Read the full story…

With school events limited, teens use Facebook to draw big crowds to private parties 

When Cliff Sheckles decided to host a dance, he didn’t call everyone he knew and invite them. He didn’t put up posters or hand out fliers. He just logged on to Facebook. The then-sophomore at the Lakeside School ended up playing host to 1,200 people at his April event in the South Lake Union Naval Armory building, his seven-person security staff holding up a line of boys as if at a nightclub — a far cry from teenage sock hops of yesteryear. Large-scale private dances, like the one he coordinated, have been easier to promote since Facebook opened its doors to high school students several years ago. And a recent decision by Seattle Public Schools to limit high schools to three dances a year — down from six or seven at some schools — seems to have added fuel to the fire. Read the ful story…

NPR: Teens, Tech And Language: A Tired Old Tale Retold 

From the telegraph to the typewriter to the text message, every new technology inspires rhapsodies about the effect it’ll have on language — especially the language of the young. In his commentary, Fresh Air’s resident linguist points out that language — and the young — somehow manage to survive. Listen to the story on NPR.org… 

 

Technology reshapes America’s classrooms 

From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America’s classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves. Just ask 11-year-old Jemella Chambers. She is one of 650 students who receive an Apple Inc laptop each day at a state-funded school in Boston. From the second row of her classroom, she taps out math assignments on animated education software that she likens to a video game. Read the full story…

Melanoma surges in young women

Increasing numbers of younger women continue to receive diagnoses of the most dangerous form of skin cancer even as the rate of new cases has leveled off in younger men, federal health officials reported yesterday. An analysis of government cancer statistics from 1973 to 2004 found that the rate of new melanoma cases in younger women had jumped 50 percent since 1980 but did not increase for younger men in that period. Read the full story…

 

Turn off TV during meals or teens may get fat.

Everyone knows what too much television can do to the mind and what too little exercise can do to the body, but a Canadian study has now shown that the boob tube can also lead to an increase in how much we eat.  Studying childhood obesity, University of Toronto nutritionist Harvey Anderson found that kids who watched TV while eating lunch took in 228 extra calories than those who ate without the television on. Read the full story…

Hannah Montana in 3D. 

The hit Hannah Montana movie will be nearly inescapable on television this month in every dimension.Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert will come to Starz in standard- and high-definition starting 9 p.m. ET Saturday, July 26, the premium cable channel announced Thursday. The 3-D version of the film, which had a limited-engagement theater run earlier this year, will begin showing on the Starz on Demand and Starz HD on Demand channels on Sunday, July 27, along with the other two versions. Read the full story…

 
New study finds 1/3 of all entertainment is consumed on computers. 

36 percent of all entertainment is consumed on computers, according to Netpop Research, whose recent findings underscore the central role of the PC as a primary access point for entertainment, reports MarketingCharts. Teens and adults (those age 13-34) with broadband connections now spend more time in front of computers than watching blockbuster movies or reading novels and fashion magazines, the study found. In a typical month, according to Netpop, content consumed on desktop and laptop computers is responsible for. Read the full story…

Theaters planning on having night long showings of new Batman movie. 

In a frenzy, fans have bought so many late-night tickets for the July 18 opening of the next Batman movie that theaters in places like San Diego, Chicago, and even Eagan, Minn., are scheduling 6 a.m. screenings for those who can’t get in at midnight or 3 in the morning. Movie theaters have sometimes opened their doors at odd hours for their most highly anticipated films, say, an entry in the “Star Wars” series, and midnight shows have become part of the summer blockbuster ritual. Read the full story…

Teens find it easy to get heroin.

There is an alert for parents everywhere. A dangerous drug is lurking the halls of your child’s school. Health officials say heroin is quickly becoming the drug of choice not just for those who typically use it, but for high school students in search of a new high. Most parents have no idea how easy this is for their kids to get a hold of. The issue is a big concern in Portage and the focus of a meeting at the district’s Administration Building Thursday. The death of Amy Bousfield, a recent Portage Central graduate is shining light on a heroin problem among teens. The 18 year old recently died from overdosing on the drug. Read the full story…

 

DVD Piracy On Rise; Young Men Leading Culprits

Despite the growth of new high-definition Blu-Ray DVD technology, old-fashion standard-definition DVD piracy continues to climb. According to one media consultant/researcher, Futuresource Consulting, about one-third DVD users have admitted to making copies of pre-recorded DVDs in the last six months, including many big blockbusters. A majority of the recording is coming from young men, ages 18-24. This activity is up from about 25% in 2007.
The company says if DVD users were unable to make copies, just about two-thirds would have made some of these DVD purchases. But those respondents added that they would buy those titles only if they were on sale or at a promotional price. Read the full story…

Foreclosures’ financial strains take toll on kids 

Millions of young people have become the largely overlooked victims of a real estate crisis that’s led to record foreclosures, sinking home prices and rising numbers of families straining to pay mortgage bills as adjustable-rate loans grow more costly and home equity shrinks. Children and teenagers are enduring a variety of consequences — forced to move and say goodbye to friends, leaving behind schools and teachers, and losing the ability to take family vacations or take part in summer camps because of the financial strain. Some are giving away family pets or suddenly finding themselves in charge of babysitting siblings because parents can no longer afford child care. In the most drastic cases, some wind up living with relatives or even in temporary shelters for the homeless. Read the full story…

Generation Y’s unique challenge 

Two weeks from now, product designer Dav-id Seymour will board a plane to Pakistan to begin an eight-month tour of Asia.  Seymour, 25, graduated in 2006 and has been working in design for a manufacturing company since then, but now he feels ready to broaden his horizons. His plan is to travel overland through India, China, Laos and Vietnam before flying on to Australia, where he will spend a year working freelance.  After that he will move on to South America for more travelling and then perhaps to North America before he considers his options for a permanent job.  “I think my generation feel freer to follow our own paths,” he said. “There are so many options open to us. It’s a cliché, but you only live once. You have to find a job you love, and experience as much of life as you can.”  Seymour’s views are typical of a group researchers call Generation Y – of those born after 1980 who have grown up in the information age. Several studies have been carried out into the characteristics of this group and now, as they begin to dominate the graduate-jobs market, recruiters are striving to understand what motivates them. Read the full story…

What teens want 

What do teens want? Tech, tech and more tech. From the latest mobile phone and game system to a new Apple i-something and a virtual apartment, technology increasingly defines the lifestyles of teenagers, say marketing experts and company executives. That was the main theme of the “What Teens Want” conference in Manhattan last month, as advertisers sought insights into a tech-savvy and globally connected generation that is remaking the image of the typical consumer. Read full story…

Psst! Rumor has it gossip websites hit home
Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to dish on your friends, neighbors and co-workers. Taking a cue from popular celebrity gossip blogs, a growing number of websites are offering a place for anonymous users to post stories, gossip and rumors about average people. “This is the new-wave form of media,” said Nik Richie, the blogger behind TheDirty.com, a national gossip site with a New Jersey section. “People want to know about their neighbors. They don’t want to hear about Britney Spears.” While neighborhood gossip sites have been gaining readers, they also are drawing the attention of lawmakers and legal experts who are scrambling for ways to shut them down. Most critics object to the sites allowing their users to remain anonymous as they post malicious stories and photos of others by name. Earlier this year, New Jersey’s attorney general subpoenaed the owners of JuicyCampus.com, a popular college gossip site that features posts like “Sluttiest girl on campus” and “Who’s in the closet.” Read full story…

New York Times: Forget Gossip, Girl; the Buzz Is About the Clothes 

Since its debut last fall, “Gossip Girl” has always been more than a television series about its overt subject, the social machinations of Manhattan private-school students.It has also presented a cavalcade of fashion, its primary viewership of teenagers and young women tuning in not only for the plots, but also to render judgment on the clothes. The extravagant wardrobes of the stars — a clash of piped blazers, tiny kilts, dueling plaids and festoons of jewelry — have inspired countless posts on fan Web sites, and magazine features about the female leads. Read the full story…

Other Headlines: 

• Behind the Viral Video: What’s Fake, What’s Real
  
• Youth without youthful pretensions: Teens and the Movies
• Yearbook’s fake names target black students at Charter Oak High
  

TheStar.com:  Can subcultures still thrive in the glare of the digital age?

The underground, and especially the subcultures that inhabit it, have been much debated and examined since British academic Dick Hebdige published Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979), a groundbreaking examination of the symbols and rituals of the punk subculture in London. Almost a decade after Subculture, in an essay reflecting on youth culture, Hebdige wrote: “Subculture forms up in the space between surveillance and the evasion of surveillance, it translates the fact of being under scrutiny into the pleasure of being watched. It is a hiding in the light.” Read the full story… 

Family meals turn teenaged girls away from drugs, alcohol 

Adolescent girls who sit down for frequent meals with their families are half as likely to smoke, drink and use marijuana as those who share family meals less often, according to a new study. “Part of it is just parents being more in touch with their kids, being able to see earlier on if their kids are veering down a path that might not be filled with healthy choices,” says Marla Eisenberg, lead author of the paper and a professor of pediatrics in the University of Minnesota’s medical school. Read the full story…

MediaPost: Overexposed: Kids See Too Many Alcohol Ads On Cable

Alcohol TV commercials are on the rise—and more young people are being exposed to them, especially on cable programs. Georgetown University’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) says 12- to-20-year-olds witnessed nearly a 40% rise in alcohol messaging from 2001 to 2007. The group says exposure levels to these ads by young people are the highest since the group begin monitoring ads in 2001. But there is some progress—especially from one self-regulating approach from alcohol trade associations. Where 30% or more of a TV show’s audience is made up of underage drinkers—under age 21—the group notes that the percentage of alcohol product ads on these programs has been trimmed to 6.3% in 2007 from 11% in 2003. The main problem is cable TV. Read the full story…

New York Post: RETAILER SEES RED OVER RISQUE AD ‘SPEED DRESSING’ 

New York ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi is trying to contain the damage after a major client, JC Penney, took the firm to task over a fake viral ad that makes light of teen sex. The ad, called “Speed Dressing,” shows two teens practicing taking their clothes off - and then putting them back on quickly - in anticipation of eventually hooking up in the basement while mom is upstairs. The spot displays Penney’s logo and campaign slogan, “Every Day Matters.” Penney officials claim they became aware of the ad, which never aired on television, only after it popped up on YouTube and a slew of other Web sites over the weekend. Read the full story…

Red Herring: Report: Apple Killed Music Industry 

Apple’s iPod is partly to blame for the collapse of the music industry, according to a report Friday from researcher eMarketer. The Mac maker helped set the tone for a “rat’s nest of restrictions and incompatibilities” that have stalled the growth of digital music, according to Paul Verna, the author of the report. Revenue in the music industry continues to decline in part because of consumer confusion, the report said. A big part of the reason is music fans are asked to sort out the explosion of incompatible formats, players, restrictions, and retailers. That lack of simplicity  has slowed sales. Apple has been a “double-edged sword” for the industry, the report said. Its closed system works well for iPod users, “but leaves many frustrated consumers outside of that system.” Read the full story…

CNET: Kid Rock’s surprising take on illegal downloading 

Kid Rock’s sarcastic “just do it” YouTube rant on illegal downloading is funny and makes the point—illegal downloading is stealing. With a smile on his face Rock says, “I’m rich,” so sure it’s OK to steal my music. Oh, and while you’re at it, “Steal everything.” Steal an iPod, Steve Jobs is a billionaire, he’ll never miss it. Get yourself a Toyota, “They’re foreign” and the gas too, “You know how much money the oil companies make?” Rock shrugs it all off, “They’re not going to miss $30 or $40 worth of gas.”  Read the full story and watch the video… 

MSNBC: Religious Americans: My faith isn’t the only way 

America remains a nation of believers, but a new survey finds most Americans don’t feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise.  The findings, released Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don’t know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.  Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.  Read the full story…

AP: Little `Barbie Brat’ bullies become concern 

Recess was Allie Long’s favorite part of the day until the second grade, when some of her friends on the playground pressured her to join their whisper campaign against a classmate. Allie shrugged. She didn’t want to hear their rumor or help spread it around. In an instant, her best friends since kindergarten became her tormenters. “They started taunting and teasing her,” said Allie’s mom, Trudy Ludwig. “She was on this play structure and they blocked all of the exits and wouldn’t let her off. They started moving closer to her. Allie just freaked out. One of the girls realized it was getting out of hand and got a teacher to help.” Bullying among adolescents has captured the attention of researchers, educators and parents alarmed by a parade of mean girls and cyber-bullies caught in mid-punch on viral video. But such aggression may not just happen in a whirl of adolescent hormones, some in the growing anti-bully movement argue. Read the full story…

Advertising Age: Hey, Buddy, Can I Bum a Snus Off You? 

Faced with rising taxes for cigarettes — in New York the price of a pack hit $9 — and ever-tightening smoking bans in places such as Los Angeles, where a bill threatens to force smokers out of all outdoor eating areas, Big Tobacco is trying a new approach to keep America’s dwindling 45 million smokers in the fold. The solution: snus (they are always curiously plural), a pinch of steam-cured tobacco nestled in a tiny tea-bag-like pouch. Snus don’t need to be spit out like traditional fermented dipping tobacco; they simply remain under your upper lip until you’ve gotten your nicotine fix.  Read the full story…

Advertising Age: In Google We Trust

The most reputable company in America: Google, which toppled Microsoft from the top perch in the 2007 Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient study released today — and sent it tumbling all the way down to No. 10. But what should be even more eye-opening to the companies rounding out the top 10 — which include Johnson & Johnson and General Mills — and the rest of the list is that Google’s victory shows that a company that spends nothing on advertising can still be the most positively perceived by consumers.  Read the full story…

Texting ‘addiction’ costing teens, parents

When the cell bill arrived, complete with a $300 payment notice, Travis Ramsay was in a state of disbelief. Travis Ramsay ran up a $300 mobile phone bill, mainly because of texting charges. “I was pretty mad,” the 13-year-old said. “I walked outside and punched the wall as hard as I could.” He was mad because even though the bill was his father’s name, Travis Ramsay had to pay it. After all, it was his text messaging that padded the amount due. Ramsay said when he started texting his friends, some who at times were standing right by him, and he didn’t realize the cost. Plus, he said, it was fun. Read the full story…

Emaxhealth: Strong Student Connection To School Community Key To Preventing Violence

In a report issued by McLean Hospital, the United States Secret Service and the United States Department of Education, researchers note that creating a positive school climate in which students believe the school staff genuinely wants to hear from them about threats or possible attacks is critical to preventing future Columbine-like school violence. The 15-page report “Prior Knowledge of Potential School-Based Violence: Information Students Learn May Prevent a Targeted Attack,” available at www.secretservice.gov , outlines the results of multiple interviews of bystanders to violent school attacks to determine how students with prior knowledge of school violence made decisions regarding what steps, if any, to take after learning the information. Read the full story…

New York Times: Starving Themselves, Cocktail in Hand

Manorexia. Orthorexia. Diabulimia. Binge Eating Disorder. All are dangerous variations on the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia, and have become buzzwords that are popping up on Web sites and blogs, on television and in newspaper articles. As celebrity magazines chronicle the glamorous and the suffering, therapists and a growing number of researchers are trying to treat and understand the conditions. The latest entry in the lexicon of food-related ills is drunkorexia, shorthand for a disturbing blend of behaviors: self-imposed starvation or bingeing and purging, combined with alcohol abuse.  Read the full story…

The National Post: Exposed G-string tied to today’s social values.

For hippies, it was the androgynous tunic; for modern teens, it is the exposed G-string. “There’s always a link between style and social values,” said Mariette Julien, a professor at L’Universite du Quebec a Montreal who presented a paper on the topic of teen dress at the country’s largest annual gathering of academics last week. “People aren’t conscious of the symbolism in their style of dress, but it remains very present.” Read the full story…

Other Headlines:

 

• Possible Gossip GIrl Spinoff
• Gen Y Fears Wrinkles: Cosmeceutical Sales To Hit $21 Billion
• Beloved Characters as Reimagined for the 21st Century
• Disney Revs Up Tween Star Machine
• Thai School gets bathrooms for transvestite students
• Why GTA IV Was the Beginning of the End
• Teen Choice Awards 2008 Nominations
• Sears teams with MTV to lure teens
• Facebook overtakes MySpace worldwide
• Disney’s “Camp Rock” racks up ratings
  
  

I have noticed a strange trend in behavior among parents and other adults, many of whom are associated with the church. I am referring to the people who embark on zealous crusades against any media or art that so much as hints at immorality. While being concerned and appropriately vocal about concerns regarding our culture, these tactics can also be highly ineffective.  By this I mean that no matter how many boycotts, protests and petitions there are, negative film, television, music, video games, and books will still exist in the world that we, and the youth we care about, live in.

An example of this type of well meaning concern can be found in the current uproar over the marketing of summer blockbusters like Iron Man, Indiana Jones, and The Incredible Hulk to children.  You see, movie studios are not allowed to directly advertise their movies to kids younger than the given age rating of a particular movie. This means that a PG-13 movie, like Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk, cannot be directly promoted to anyone under the age of 13. Advertisers have gotten around this rule by producing commercials that pair products that are marketed to young children with movies that they are far too young to see.

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Entertainment Weekly: How teens took over pop culture

Anyone who’s a teenager — or one of the many adults whose pop culture tastes lean in that direction — might want to blow off that summer job. Given how much teen entertainment will soon be gushing into the nation’s TiVo queues and iPod playlists, this might be the best time ever to be a fan of teen-tertainment. Whereas five years ago you’d have been stuck with only The O.C., now you’ll spend summer catching up on Gossip Girl while downloading new albums from Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Jesse McCartney. 

Read the full story… 

 

 What not to say to overweight teens.

Canadian study says Facebook violates privacy.

The university’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is asking the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to investigate what it considers to be Facebook’s violations of Canadian privacy law.

Facebook’s policies – from sign-up requirements and advertising policies to third party applications and mobile access – represent 22 privacy violations, according to CIPPIC.

 Read the full news story…

Wall Street Journal: A film with underage fans faces marketing chalenges.