Pro-anorexia, or sometimes called “pro-ana,” Web sites have been a common fixture in the internet world including popular social sites like Facebook. These sites have users sharing dangerous diet tips and posting pictures of very skinny girls. The purpose of these sites is to give one another “thinspiration”. Users tend to comment and posting anonymously or with a secret aliases.

In 2004, a survey by NPD Group showed that on average, girls started to use beauty products at the age of 17. Today that average is 13.

Did You Know: 3 in 10 girls in the United States gets pregnant before age 20.
Finally Some Good News – Teen Pregnancy
Could it be? Good news about teen pregnancy rates? According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, teen pregnancy rates in the United States declined 38 percent between 1990 and 2004. Teen birth rate also declined 32 percent between 1991 and 2006. This was the case across all ethnic groups. More teenagers are waiting longer before having sex and those who were sexually active were using …

Pornography Influence on Teens
A recent research study, conducted by Cyber Sentinel, of 1,000 teenagers showed that the average teenager spends 87 hours a year looking at porn. That is equivalent of 1 hour and 40 minutes a week browsing for pornography.
What other topics did the teenagers search for online?

31 hours a week looking at soft pornography, plastic surgery, family planning, emotional support and dieting.
1 Hour 8 Minutes on cosmetic surgery sites on procedures like breast augmentation and collagen implants.
Teens also go online to find information on pregnancy, contraceptives, sex and …

Almost across the nation 50% of young girls are engaged in negative activities such as injuring and cutting themselves or engaging in unhealthy eating habits and disorders due to self-esteem and self-image issues.

Secret Life of the American Teenager
Influence of Sexual TV Programming on Teenagers
“This is the strongest evidence yet that the sexual content of television programs encourages adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse and other sexual activities. The impact of television viewing is so large that even a moderate shift in the sexual content of adolescent TV watching could have a substantial effect on their sexual behavior.”
This article discusses two new programs on ABC called “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and “Greek”. ABC has traditionally known as a “family channel” have …

Teen Sharing Explicit Photos Everywhere
“What teens and young adults are doing electronically seems to have an effect on what they do in real life: Nearly one-quarter of teens (22%) admit that technology makes them personally more forward and aggressive. More than one-third of teens (38%) say exchanging sexy content makes dating or hooking up with others more likely and nearly one-third of teens (29%) believe those exchanging sexy content are “expected” to date or hook up.”
This articles discusses how social media sites as well as advances in communicative technology via …

“…I wasn’t too happy with ads for erectile-dysfunction drugs popping up every 15 minutes whenever I watched a football game with my daughters in the room.” ––Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, 2006
Common Sense Media released a study on the content of TV ads & commercials shown during NFL game broadcasts. They studyed nearly 60 games covering 180 hours of game time coverage. Within that period there were nearly 6,000 commercials and the easy conclusion was that it is impossible to watch a single game without visually taking in messages …

Daniel Petric Kills Mother, Wounds Father
Daniel Petric, a teenager from Ohio was charged and found guilty for aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder for killing his mother and wounding his father in Oct 20, 2007 because they wouldn’t let him play Halo 3.
Daniel was 16 when he snuck out of the house to buy Halo 3 after his parents told him he was not allowed to play it. His father, Mark Petric 45, forbade him to play it because it is very violent in nature and sexually explicit. Halo is …

Media Impact on Teenager Depression
Media Exposure and Depression
A report in the February issue of “Archives of General Psychiatry” states that exposure to more television and media during teenage adolescent years seems to be associated with the development of depression symptoms in young adulthood. This is especially the case with young men.
“The development of depression in adolescence may be understood as a biopsychosocial, multifactorial process influenced by risk and protective factors including temperament, genetic heritability, parenting style, cognitive vulnerability, stressors (e.g., trauma exposure or poverty) and interpersonal relationships,”
Depression is said to …

Soon, all online gamers in China must register with real names rather than made up game alias. This is a mandatory program that will be implemented for anti gaming addiction monitoring purposes.
Is online gaming addictive? Numerous studies and tests seem to support this case as massive online multiplayer games are becoming more popular both for children, teens and adults alike. Not only are more people playing, but many are spending countless waking hours building up their online characters.
Game addiction has become a serious problem all over the world. The Chinese …

Dr. David Walsh is the founder of the National Institute for Media and the Family (NIMF). To the public he is a prominent source in regards to game violence.
Below are two blockquotes from the interview he had with gamebyte.