• What do children think are the worrying risks online, and how do they describe them?
• Are they concerned about risks that have been neglected from the policy agenda?
• Do their concerns vary by age, gender, culture or experience?

Here is the summary of the report:

Nearly 10,000 children told us about what upsets them and their friends online. Their responses were diverse, revealing a long list of concerns.

Pornography (named by 22% of children who told us of risks) and violent content (18%) top children’s online concerns. Overall, boys appear more bothered by violence than girls, while girls are more concerned with contact-related risks.

Violence receives less public attention than sexual material, but many children are concerned about violent, aggressive or gory online content. They reveal shock and disgust on seeing cruelty, killings, abuse of animals and even the news – since much is real rather than fictional violence, this adds to the depth of children’s reactions.

As children told us, video-sharing websites are often associated with violent and pornographic content, along with a range of other contentrelated risks. Among the children who linked risks to specific internet platforms, 32% mentioned video-sharing sites such as YouTube, followed by websites (29%), social networking sites (13%) and games (10%).

Children’s mention of risks rises markedly from nine to 12 years old. Younger children are more concerned about content and other risks. As they get older they become more concerned about conduct and contact risks. These are linked in many children’s minds to the use of social networking sites such as Facebook.

Concern about risks is higher among children from ‘high use, high risk’ countries. Policy implications are identified and discussed.

The full report can be downloaded here.

Recent advances in technology have given rise to novel methods of delivering support to smokers wanting to quit. Mobile phone text messaging permits the delivery of quitting advice at any time, with little effort and at minimal cost. We examined smokers’ attitudes toward text messaging as a tool to facilitate smoking cessation as well as preferences for message content and text delivery. Six focus groups were conducted from a total of 24 participants, with additional information obtained via paper questionnaire. Interaction with the text messaging system, tailoring message content and delivery, highlighting the positive effects of quitting, and offering encouragement by text were considered important features of a text support program. Future text messaging interventions may benefit from these findings.

The full report can be downloaded here.

For more information like technical specs of the phone visit FairPhone.

What do you think of this initiative? Would you order one of these phones? Would you support this approach?

…

The survey found that:

• Parents are not being provided with information about what data an app collects, who will have access to that data, and how it will be used. Only 20 percent of the apps staff reviewed disclosed any information about the app’s privacy practices.
• Many apps (nearly 60 percent of the apps surveyed) are transmitting information from a user’s device back to the app developer or, more commonly, to an advertising network, analytics company, or other third party.
• A relatively small number of third parties received information from a large number of apps. This means the third parties that receive information from multiple apps could potentially develop detailed profiles of the children based on their behavior in different apps.
• Many apps contain interactive features – such as advertising, links to social media, or the ability to purchase goods within an app – without disclosing those features to parents prior to download.
• Fifty-eight percent of the apps reviewed contained advertising within the app, while only 15 percent disclosed the presence of advertising prior to download.
• Twenty-two percent of the apps contained links to social networking services, while only nine percent disclosed that fact.
• Seventeen percent of the apps reviewed allow kids to make purchases for virtual goods within the app, with prices ranging from 99 cents to $29.99. Although both stores provided certain indicators when an app contained in-app purchasing capabilities, these indicators were not always prominent and, even if noticed, could be difficult for many parents to understand.

The report strongly urges all entities in the mobile app industry – including app stores, app developers, and third parties providing services within the apps – to accelerate efforts to ensure that parents have the key information they need to make decisions about the apps they download for their children. The report also urges industry to implement recommendations in the recent FTC Privacy Report including:

• Incorporating privacy protections into the design of mobile products and services;
• Offering parents easy-to-understand choices about the data collection and sharing through kids’ apps; and
• Providing greater transparency about how data is collected, used, and shared through kids’ apps.

In addition, FTC staff is developing new consumer education directed to parents to help navigate the mobile app marketplace and avoid apps that fail to provide adequate disclosures.

…

via FTC’s Second Kids’ App Report Finds Little Progress in Addressing Privacy Concerns Surrounding Mobile Applications for Children

And here an example of  an video for kids about mobile security:

 Check it out at: http://www.onguardonline.gov/

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Texting while driving has now surpassed drinking and driving as the leading cause of death among teens, according to a new study.

More than 3,000 teens die annually from texting while driving, compared to about 2,700 for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to a study by Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park.

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via Study: Texting And Driving Kills More Teens Annually Than Drinking And Driving « CBS New York.

Here is some information from MAMA taken from their website:

• MAMA content is used in over 49 countries and has reached 111 unique organizations. MAMA is bringing together a global community through sharing of mobile messages and a robust global learning agenda.
• MAMA aims to inform and empower low-income, expectant mothers who are at risk of complications and death during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as new mothers caring for their infants.
• MAMA is engaging an innovative global community to deliver vital health information to new and expectant mothers through mobile phones.
• MAMA is a public-private partnership launched in May 2011 by founding partners United States Agency for International Development and Johnson & Johnson with supporting partners – the United Nations Foundation, mHealth Alliance, and BabyCenter.

For more information go to MAMA – The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action.

 
Abstract

Objective

Compare weight loss and maintenance between a face-to-face (FTF) weight management clinic and a clinic delivered via virtual reality (VR).

Methods

Participants were randomized to 3 months of weight loss with a weekly clinic delivered via FTF or VR and then 6 months’ weight maintenance delivered with VR. Data were collected at baseline and 3 and 6 months for weight and process variables. Twenty overweight and obese individuals (31.1 ± 3.6 years of age; body mass index, 32.8 ± 5.1; 85% females; 20% minorities) responded to advertisement and met inclusion criteria. Diets (1,200–1,800 kcal/d) used prepackaged meals, fruits and vegetables, and physical activity (300 min/wk).

Results

Weight loss was significantly greater for FTF at 10.8% compared with 7.6% for VR (P < .05). However, weight maintenance was significantly greater for VR at 14.0% compared with 9.5% for FTF (P < .05).

Conclusions and Implications

Virtual reality compares favorably with FTF for weight loss and may facilitate greater weight maintenance.

Interested in Second Life? You may also like Woman with Parkinson’s Reports Significant Physical Recovery After Using Second Life – Academics Researching.