In this podcast, Dr Weston talks to Chief Constable Simon Bailey about the culture of violence against women and girls, particularly in schools. They outline the key things that parents and schools should do to cultivate open and honest discussion around issues of sexual harassment, sexting and predatory behaviour online.
In this podcast, Dr Weston talks with Dr Fiona Vera-Gray about the need for change in the discourse surrounding women and girls’ everyday experiences of sexual harassment. They discuss early teenage romantic relationships, the impact of pornography and how parents can help both girls and boys to become agents of change.
As parents, we can be under frequent pressure to download particular apps. This downloadable checklist of things to discuss with your child before they download Snapchat can be used in conjunction with our Snapchat FAQs.
We have designed this journal for your teens to fill in over a 14 day period. It aims to encourage them to reflect on their experiences and achievements and build resilience. It provides prompts that can help them to develop and maintain a positive mindset and improve wellbeing.
Dr Anna Conway Morris returns to our podcast series to discuss life as a child psychiatrist during the pandemic and the impact of lockdown on young people’s mental health, social development and body image. She talks about digital literacy, pornography and self-harm, and gives us her top tips for future-proofing our children.
In this podcast, Dr Weston talks to gaming and family technology expert Andy Robertson. They discuss all of the positive learning opportunities that games can offer and the optimal ways to engage with children about their digital world. They explore games which promote critical thinking, empathy and better communication and examine how the skills developed through gaming can translate to other scenarios.
In this podcast, Dr Weston talks to Dr Jeffrey DeMarco about how we should engage with our children about the online world. They discuss the importance of teaching skills such as digital literacy, fact-checking and critical thinking, to ensure that children can access the amazing resources on the internet safely. They also talk about online radicalisation and sexual exploitation, and how to protect children against these threats.
Sending naked or partially naked images of oneself by text (sexting), is a relatively uncommon, but growing, activity among young people. It’s important that teens are fully aware of the potential consequences of sexts before they decide to send one, or worse, feel pressured into doing so. Discuss the realities of sharing images with your teen and agree on some sensible promises, using our suggestions as starting points. There is space to add your own too.
This practical exercise allows young people, alongside a parent or teacher, to weigh up some of the factors that might come into a decision to ‘sext’. We have provided an example of how this exercise might play out and also a blank template which teens can fill in during conversation about sexting. Remember, without sensible and realistic chats, there is no barrier between teens and these impulsive decisions, which they may later regret. Hopefully, these conversations will help teens to realistically evaluate the risks, and see that, whilst there might be some upsides to sexting, the downsides can be serious.
Sexting is the sending, receiving or forwarding of sexually explicit images, photographs or images of oneself or others. We have collected 25 interesting facts about sexting that you can use as a springboard for chats with your teen. Which facts do you both find surprising or shocking? What conclusions can you make?
