Boarding Schools for Girls

Photographs of 40 British teens are currently posted on a website that requests visitors to vote on which ones should reach the finals of the Miss Teen Queen UK competition.

British charity Kidscape has criticized the website for putting the participating girls at risk. But according to a Sept. 5 article by John Sutton of England's Evening Gazette newspaper, the mother of 15-year-old contestant Sharne Suggett says she's fine with both the competition and her daughter's involvement:

Mum Kelly, 32, insisted the experience will be good for Sharnes self-confidence, and dismissed claims by charity Kidscape in June that the Miss Teen Queen UK competition puts girls at risk.

This is a well run competition - out at the swimming baths or in the park your kids could be at risk, but this is properly policed, said Kelly. ...

The website did display chest, hip and waist measurements, but these have since been taken down. In June, organiser of the competition Lina Perrini defended putting the measurements up, saying: Sponsors need to see the girls statistics and whether they measure up, so to speak.

This week pictures showing girls in their early teens wearing bikinis or showing cleavage remained on the website.

The debate over the appropriateness of this website and the competition it promotes is the latest in a long line of controversies related to the sexualization of young girls and the risks adolescent and teen girls face online.

Labels: sex, online, beauty

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Four exclusive private boarding schools for girls are banding together to create what the consortium claims is the world's first single-sex online secondary school.

According to a June 23 article by Jeannie Naujeck of the Nashville Business Journal, The Online School for Girls is the result of a combined effort from Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, Holton-Arms School in Maryland, the Laurel School in Ohio and Westover School in Connecticut:

The Online School for Girls will begin offering courses this September, including two this fall and four in the spring 2010 semester spanning math, science and the humanities. Students at the member schools will take the classes and evaluate them as a pilot run.

Ann Teaff, the head of Harpeth Hall, says the goal of the online school is to provide a rigorous education in an online setting that is flexible, affordable and accessible to girls around the world. She says the curriculum will be expanded in coming years.

Though a girls-only online school is a unique offering, the concept of Internet-based education itself is far from uncommon. Naujeck reported that more than one million U.S. secondary school students took at least one online course during the 2007-2008 academic year.

The movement toward more single-sex schools is also gaining steam, with mounting evidence supporting the belief that single-sex schools are best equipped to address learning differences between boys and girls.

Labels: single-sex education, online

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A study that appears in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics has discovered that girls who have been abused or who use a "provocative online identity" may be at increased risk for being victimized by individuals they meet over the Internet.

According to a May 26 article on the CNN website, a research team under the direction of Jennie G. Noll of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio reached this conclusion after studying the online activities of 173 girls between the ages of 14 and 17:

The study looked at 104 abused and 69 non-abused. .... Abused adolescents -- who had suffered neglect, physical abuse or sexual abuse -- were recruited from child protective agencies, the authors said.

Of the girls studied, 54 percent were white and 46 percent were minorities, of which 82 percent were black and 18 percent were mixed-race, the authors say.The authors held a laboratory session in which they asked the girls to create avatars on a program designed to mimic a popular social networking site, which the authors did not name in the study.

Girls could choose bust and hip size, clothing type, visible navel piercings and skin, eye and hair colors. Girls were given a range of choices that allowed for a more provocative or conservative avatar.

The authors say 40 percent of the girls reported experiencing sexual advances online, and 26 percent reported meeting someone offline after getting to know the person on the Internet. Abused girls were much more likely to have experienced both, the authors found.

Noll and her research colleagues urged parents to remain vigilant regarding their children's online activities. "Caregiver presence was associated with significantly fewer reports by adolescents of online solicitations," they wrote. "As such, the importance of parental monitoring of adolescent Internet use cannot be understated."

Several other experts have noted that, while the online world offers may social and educational benefits to adolescents and teens, it also poses a range of risks, including potential exploitation, cyberbullying, and Internet addiction.

Labels: girls, online, internet

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Very few teens interact with strangers they meet online, and instead use the Internet to keep in touch with face-to-face friends, according to a new study from the University of California.

Researchers interviewed 251 high school students about how they use social networks, instant messaging, and other means to access friends online. Only five percent said they had friends they knew only from online exchanges. Most teens use the Internet to interact with their existing friends.

Dr. Stephanie Reich, author of the study, said that her research indicates that sexual predators would have a harder time approaching teenagers than their parents may believe. Most young people do not seek out friendships with strangers on the Internet.

Teen online safety remains a pressing concern among parents and pediatric mental health experts, who worry about issues ranging from cyberbullying to video game addiction.

Labels: teenagers, online, internet

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Words like “cyberbullying” and “sexting” have become descriptors for some of the negative ways that teenagers use the Internet and their cell phones. Based on mainstream media’s coverage of these topics, it would seem that “everybody’s doing it.” But are they?

“A recent Pew Internet report on teen and tween Internet usage paints a much less ominous picture with 62 percent of kids saying they go online to get news about current events and politics while another 31 percent logon for health, dieting or physical fitness information.” [Source: Business Wire]

Many young people also have an online component for their classes. Of course, cyberbullying and sexting are real problems for some teens. But the problems aren’t as prevalent as we think.

 

Labels: computers, online, internet

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

Cyberbullying is becoming a serious issue among teenagers -- girls as well as boys. More than one case of cyberbullying has ended with the bullied teen taking his or her own life. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center wants to help kids get help when they are being bullied.

In the U.K., Facebook is launching easy access to a mini-application for teens who believe they are being subjected to cyber-bullying. The button connects the user to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP), a semi-governmental organization in the U.K. [Source: News Factor]

Once they’re on the CEOP web site, they can answer a few questions aimed at helping them determine if their situation is serious enough to require intervention. Industry analysts believe it’s just a matter of time before a similar feature is made available on the U.S. version of Facebook.

 

Labels: cyber-bullying, online, internet

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

The number of teenage girls employed as "escorts" for men is on the rise in the United States, according to a study from the Women's Funding Network.

• The Schapiro Group conducted the study in New York, Michigan and Minnesota, and found increases in the number of girls sexually exploited by commercial elements as 11% in New York, 20% in Michigan, and 27% in Minnesota.
• In New York, 3,213 young girls were used this way in February 2010 (up from 2,880 the year before).
• Almost half of the girls were were under 18 years old.

Girls are advertised on the Internet through escort services, and on escort websites and even on Craigslist.

Labels: online, internet, exploitation

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 2 Comments

Parents whose daughters are obsessed with Facebook and other online social networking sites may want to take a closer look at their daughter's self-esteem. College students who constantly update their Facebook pages and who publish "self-promoting" pictures of themselves on their profiles suffer from narcissism or low self-esteem, according to a new study from York University.

• Soraya Mehdizadeh studied the online habits and personalities of 100 York students who used the social network website, Facebook.
• Those who engaged in self-promotion by posting pictures of themselves in glamorous settings or ones that were enhanced by computer software and those who bragged about themselves in their "about me" sections were more likely to be either narcissistic or insecure.

"They are updating their status every five minutes and the photos they post are carefully construed," she said. "The question is, are these really accurate representations of the individual or are they merely a projection of who the individual wants to be?"

This study appears in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.

 

Labels: self-esteem, online, social networking

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 3 Comments