Youtube to ban disturbing children videos… finally.

https://mashable.com/article/youtube-bans-disturbing-kids-videos/
IMAGE: THOMAS TRUTSCHEL / GETTY

Youtube announced this week that they will no longer allow videos that target children that include certain disturbing content. For years, youtube had been criticized for allowing disturbing content targeting children to be circulated.

The policy notes describe disturbing content as “… that contains mature or violent themes that explicitly targets younger minors and families in the title, description and/or tags will no longer be allowed on the platform…”

You can read more: Youtube bans disturbing kid videos

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Increased youth suicide rates linked to Netflix ’13 Reasons Why’

Study associating youth suicide with Netflix '13 reasons why'
Study associating youth suicide with Netflix ’13 reasons why’ – Image: Beth Dubber/Netflix

Two separate studies were released assessing the monthly suicide rates among various age groups with the release of the Netflix show ’13 Reasons Why’. The popular Netflix show depicted the suicide of its main protagonist which had alarmed mental health experts who were concerned about how this may influence and it’s effect on young viewers. The first study found that the suicide rate among 10 to 17-year-olds boys increased significantly in the month after the release and remained higher for the subsequent 2 months. They found no significant changes in the suicide rates among older age ranges. The second study, conducted by a separate team, came to the same conclusion. In the 3 months after the Netflix show’s release, youth suicide rate for 10 to 19-year-olds rose by 13%. This study was done on both male and female youths.

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Limiting screen time or parenting screen time?

The New Childhood by Jordan ShapiroThe overuse of technology has overtaken drugs, sex and bullying as the biggest parental worry, according to the annual Brigham Young and Deseret News American Family Survey.

So what should we do about it? Should we limit screen time? Take away their phones?

Jordan Shapiro, a Temple University professor’s suggest something different. In his new book, The New Childhood, his argument is that we’re not spending enough screen time with our kids. “One of the things I suggest in the book is that kids should be starting on social media much younger,” he says. And, play more video games with your kids, too.

After Shapiro’s divorce, he found himself solo parenting two little boys (now 11 and 13) who were obsessed with video games. He started playing the games simply as a way to connect with them… He came to realize that part of his job as a parent was to help his children make sense of their online experiences and teach them how to uphold enduring values in the new world they are living in.

Check out the book here: https://amzn.to/2sSTxM3

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New app rewards discounts for not looking at your phone

We all know we stare at our smartphones a little too much. Ok, perhaps a LOT too much. We know it’s hard because everything about our smartphones from notifications, to the itch to check statuses and emails is difficult to fight against.

Then comes this new, fun idea. An app that rewards you for NOT looking at your phone. Intrigued?

Growing Smartphone Addition

We’ve documented quite a bit on Clean Cut Media about the various studies that have shown the adverse affect of screen time and the impact of smartphones on our generation. We’ve also provided some great solutions to help curb or limit internet use and avoid the dangers of the internet through solutions like covenant eyes.

It’s a growing problem that have robbed a generation of social abilities, abilities to cope with life demands, shorter attention spans, happiness while causing greater game addiction, cyber-bulling, suicides and loneliness.

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New teen study shows more phone use leads to unhappiness

Anti-social teenagers on phones

New study on teenager phone usage and unhappiness

A new study on teen smartphone usage from San Diego State University showed that teens who spent more time on their smartphones were markedly unhappier. Professor Jean M. Twenge, Gabrielle Martin and W. Keith Campbell analyzed data of a survey given to more than a million U.S. 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. This survey asked the youth about their phone, tablet and computer usage as well as various questions about their happiness, relationships and social interactions. The study showed that teens who spent more time on the screen, whether playing games, browsing the internet, using social media, or watching videos, were considerably less happy than those who spend more time playing sports, reading books or participate in other face to face social activities.

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Family hit by 3192 Paintballs for Media Profanity

Profanity Impact in Movies

What if for every curse word you heard in a movie, someone shot you with a paintball?

Now watch a family get hit with 3192 Paintballs in 5.2 Seconds. Yea that’s a lot of swear words.

Profanity has been increasing steadily in the media, particularly in movies. There was a time where a curse word would actually shock the viewers. Now? It’s the norm. Very few ever flinch. Thus it’s much more difficult to find family friendly movies, even movies rated PG-13 are no longer safe.

Profanity and Swearing in Film

1939: Gone with The Win
– First Swear Word in Film

2013: The Wolf of Wall Street
– Most Swear Words in Cinema History
– 528 F-Words alone.
– 200+ other swear words.

Enjoy this visual representation of swear words hitting us through media. By Paintball. 3,192 Paintballs in 5.3 Seconds to be exact.

Watch Movies Pre-filtered

This video was made by VidAngel. VidAngel allows you to stream movies that pre-censor out profanity, sex and other potentially offensive scenes in movies and TV Shows. These tags allow user to filter out what they want to avoid based on their personal values and content preferences. Even better? You can watch a movie for only $1. Pretty new movies at that! For legal reasons you “pay” $20 to get the movie so you “own” the movie and legally censor out what you wish, but then after watching you can sell it back for $19. Yea a little bit complicated, but in allowing you to watch a movie with all the filters you (or your family) want in place, it’s a pretty sweet deal.

Use this VIP link to find out more about VidAngel.

That paintball video mentioned earlier!

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Movie Review: Masterless Movie

Masterless Movie Poster

Masterless Synopsis

Adam LaVorgna (from the popular TV Series in the 90s called 7th heaven), plays Kane Madison, an architect working in Los Angeles looking to work his way up the corporate world. His counterpart, a Ronin, lives in the parallel spirit world where he is tempted to follow a dark lord and deviate from his path to finding truth.

What Makes Masterless Unique

When I first heard of this synopsis, I really respected the creativity required to come up with this concept. I am a fan of medieval Japan so I was intrigued. However as I was watching the film, it became apparent to me that if the viewer has no background in the idea of the “spiritual realm” as described in the bible, it would have been easy to get lost or not appreciate what this movie was trying to depict. So here is a quick high level explanation of what a viewer should know going into this film.

The title, Masterless, is partly based from this verse:

Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

It’s the simple idea that in the end you can only serve one master or one true purpose.

Masterless Samurai Adam LaVorgna

The whole story is based on Kane Madison’s struggle with success in his career. There are two notable “masters” competing for Kane Madison’s attention. His wife, Emi Masuda played by Okiko Saito, urges him to go to church and read the bible. So on one side is truth and the seeking of this truth. Kane isn’t really interested and gets quite annoyed at Emi whenever she brings up the subject. On the other end, the other “master” is success and money. Kane is an ambitious man, initially driven by (small spoiler alert) his wife’s sickness and his desire to take care of her, but as he starts to taste success, he slowly gets drawn into the corporate world. Like what we see often in real life, he gets sucked in by the success and starts to value his work and recognition above the more important things in life. So this master isn’t just career, but the money, the recognition, and the comforts that come with it.

This is the battle that is depicted in the “spiritual realm” by his samurai-like counterpart. This character is a Ronin, a samurai without a master. He doesn’t have any one in particular to follow and has no true purpose. He is a character that represents his internal battle with money and success. As we see his ups and downs in the real world, we see his counter part struggling along his journey, battling attempts at his life, being seduced by a temptress and dealing with a masked Lord who both wants him to join him as well as want to kill him. He is on a journey to find truth, to find answers but he is often derailed by all sorts of troubles and temptations.

It’s an interesting concept to watch as our internal struggle with money, with success, and faith is visually shown through the live action battles of the Ronin.

Ephesians 6:12 – For our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Masterless Full Poster MovieClean Cut Thoughts

It’s an interesting film. The acting is good. No Oscar winners here, but no cringe moments either and believe me, many movies have such moments (think Anakin Skywalker). I love the creativity and they did a good job on making the spiritual realm look dreamy and artsy. As I previously stated, I think people who are not familiar with the basis of the spiritual realm needs a bit more information in the beginning to better appreciate what is being attempted here. Though I also understand the difficulty here because for someone who is familiar with the spiritual realm idea, the movie seems to spell things out too much and make it too obvious. It would have been nice to have an “ah-hah!” moment where the person can make the connection themselves rather than making all the links for the viewer. How to balance the two is a difficult question though and would require a lot more thought. I still don’t know what the best solution would have been.

Story: The story is pretty basic, but I don’t think the story is really the point here, but it really is the depiction of the spiritual realm which I thought was very interesting.

Overall: I think the part of me that loves art and creativity enjoyed watching this piece because it was unique and interesting. What they attempt, I’ve never seen anyone do or perhaps even thought about. The part of me that is into story, acting, scriptwriting thought it wasn’t so great. It’s clearly a B-level movie with a limited budget. I absolutely admire the attempt at something new and different though, just felt it could have been done better. It’s honestly one of those movies that I am glad to have seen, but probably won’t see a second time unless I wanted to share it with someone else who might benefit or enjoy how the spiritual realm was depicted in this two-universe style. Basically I am saying the same thing in many different ways, can you tell?

Basically if the concept of a dual spiritual realm depicted in two parallel worlds sounds interesting to you, give it a shot. If it doesn’t, well it’s a free world. All I know is, thanks for reading this review!

If you have seen Masterless or have thoughts on it? Please add your thoughts or comments below!

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Movie Review: CAPTIVE (2015)

CAPTIVE the Movie 2015 - David Oyelowow Kate Mara

Movie Synopsis – CAPTIVE

CAPTIVE, based on a miraculous true story that drew the attention of the entire nation, is a thrilling drama about the spiritual collision of two broken lives. When Brian Nichols – on the run as the subject of a city wide manhunt and desperate to make contact with his newborn son – takes recovering meth addict Ashley Smith hostage in her own apartment, she turns for guidance to Rick Warren’s best-selling inspirational book, The Purpose Driven Life. While reading aloud, Ashley and her would-be killer each face crossroads where despair and death intersect hope.

David Oyelowow - Captive 2015 Movie

Movie Spotlight:

When CAPTIVE first came to my attention, I was slightly intrigued but a little hesitant. I wasn’t quite sure if this was a Christian movie or if it just happened to have Christian themes in it because of Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life”. I was intrigued by how Rick Warren’s book managed to convict a convict (see what I did there *groan*) to turning himself in. Remember this was based on a true story. How did that book even get into the picture? How did different parts of the book take hold of Brian Nichols? What kind of inner turmoil must he have gone through? I was excited to see what had actually happened. In the same time I knew it would immensely difficult to capture such psychological nuances let alone not come off as preachy or overtly religious. The good news is that it didn’t come off preachy or religious at all. But that is also the bad the news. The movie didn’t really show or explain how different pieces of the book transformed his life. I was expecting the bulk of the movie to be centered around this “conversion” or whatever you want to call it. However it went by quickly without much explanation. I am still left with the question I want answered: “How did Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life, change Brian Nichols from a convict on a murder spree to turning himself in?”. The one question I wanted answered, never was. In all honesty, I think the story could have been better written, and a lot more attention should have been given to how Brian Nichols came around. Perhaps the movie was afraid to dive in because it didn’t want to seem overly Christian? I am not certain. Having said that, the acting was well done. Very believable. David Oyelowo, who plays Brian Nichols, recently got a lot of attention for his role as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma.

CAPTIVE RATINGS:

Story: 2 of 5
Acting: 3 of 5
Film Quality: 2 of 5
Family Friendly: No (drug use, gun shooting)

CAPTIVE Trailer:

Have you seen CAPTIVE?
Tell us what you thought of the movie below.

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Reading on your iPhone before Bed is Very Bad

Reading iPad Screen before Sleeping

How many of you read on your iPhone or iPad before going to bed?

  • Check some news?
  • Check your facebook?
  • Check your email?
  • Play some Angry Birds? Flappy Birds? Big Birds?
  • Poke around your apps for no good reason and waste a good 30 minutes?
  • Then feel tired the next day regretting it all?

Well guess what. It isn’t just the 30 minutes (or 2 hours) sleep you had lost. Additional New research suggest the problem is much more serious.

I say “suggest” because like any study there are always holes you can knit pick about or poke holes at, such as how many participants there were or whether some variable was considered. But take it for what it is, either way it is an interesting topic of discussion. Also keep in mind this is one of numerous studies that confirm the same findings. I for one feel more tired if I was reading something on the screen the previous day.

The Read Screen before Sleep Study

A study published in the journal “Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences” seems to further support numerous studies on this subject that find reading on a screen before bed could be harmful.

“We found the body’s natural circadian rhythms were interrupted by the short-wavelength enriched light, otherwise known as blue light, from these electronic devices,” said Anne-Marie Chang, PhD

Previous studies have shown that looking at a screen (more specifically having blue light shining into your eyes) suppressed melatonin levels and messes up your alertness levels.

This study compared people who read on normal books versus people who read on a screen right before sleep. Study was for two weeks with 12 participants who read on an iPad or printed books for a couple hours before bed for several days straight.

Those who read iPads took longer to fall asleep and when they did had shorted REM sleep compared to those who read printed books. They also were more tired the next day even if they had a full eight hours of sleep.

So what is the moral of the story?

Since you probably can’t stop reading the last article or email before sleeping (I’m being realistic here), just resist if you have to wake up early or have an important engagement the next day. Big test? Don’t do it. Big date? Don’t do it. Eye exam? Don’t do it. Going hunting with your love ones? Don’t do it!

Or suffer the consequences… or not. Don’t do it!

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National Geographic Photo Winner – The Smartphone Stare

And the winner of the National Geographic 2014 photo contest is…

“A Node Glows in the Dark” by Brian Yen from Hong Kong.

National Geographic Photo Contest mobile

“I feel a certain contradiction when I look at the picture,” Yen told National Geographic. “On the one hand, I feel the liberating gift of technology. On the other hand, I feel people don’t even try to be neighborly anymore, because they don’t have to.”

Personal Thoughts

This picture reminded me of a time I visited Tokyo about 7-8 years ago. As soon as I entered the crowded train, every single hand immediately went into their pockets, pulled out a phone, and every head went down as each person looked intently at whatever their little screen was showing them. It was an eery experience as the entire train was dead silent. These were not all single riders mind you, but couples, families, but no one spoke except us loud Americans.

But I was also told, Japan is always a year or two ahead of America in terms of culture. And truth be told not long there after, I look around and people are glued to their smartphones. Kids playing games. Adults watching videos. A couple at a cafe, both staring at their phones.

Will it get better or only worse?

What comes to your mind as you look at this picture?

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How Brands Sell to Teens Online

Girl Teens on Internet

 

Teenagers and social media are inseparable. Kids will communicate with one another online, all while sitting on the same sofa.

The PBS Frontline documentary film, “Generation Like” (2014) points out that teenagers are often unknowingly taking part in marketing studies and become de facto marketing agents when they “Like” a Facebook page or otherwise share their preferences online. In effect, consumers have become unwitting members of the company sales force. Welcome to the new world of advertising.

Is Social Media Dangerous?

Sure, it’s fun and engaging. Everyone wants to be “liked.” But how much personal data are kids letting dangle in hyperspace? Are there identity protection issues that could have far-reaching effects on a young life? The Federal Trade Commission warns that information stolen from kids can be used to open bank accounts, get credit cards, get a licensed driver, and can cause real damage that can take plenty of headache and money to straighten out.

Content Teenagers Love

Whether you think targeted social media marketing is smart business or sales at its worst, here are four hot areas targeted for social media marketing:

Open Forum Networks: Marketers don’t have to chase after prospects anymore. They are eager to give an unbelievable amount of data for free. Oreo, for instance, posted a photo of a multi-colored cookie, with the caption “Pride,” on its Facebook page and drew massive response. Hundreds of thousands of people Liked the post. Can you imagine how much advertising traction a mailing list of people who support liberal issues could get and what it would be worth?

Video Sites: YouTube, the Google-owned hangout where anyone can post a video about virtually anything, is the second largest search engine on the planet, notes Social Media Today. It is also a place where teens love to congregate. That is why Kohl’s is launching an effort to reach teenage girls via YouTube. The department store planned avenues to reach the teens are the YouTube channels of Amanda Steele, whose teen issues videos get hundreds of thousands of views each, and Lisa Marie Johnson. Lisa’s Baby Food Challenge video boasts 1.3 million views. The plan: The girls will help promote a new line of clothing. S.o. R.a.d.

Memes: Pair a photo with a memorable saying. If it takes off, you’ve created a meme. “A First World Problem,” for instance, is an issue much of the world doesn’t have the luxury to experience. The Gift of Water video that pushed the meme mainstream has currently chalked up about 6.4 million views. The film begins with a poor African child saying, “I hate it when my phone charger won’t reach my bed.” Who could make money off a list of people who care about Third World issues? Go to QuickMeme.com’s First World Problem page, and you will likely be greeted by an advertising message targeting people with compassion. Dos Equis, by the way, parlayed its “Most Interesting Man in the World” meme into a quick sales increase of over 26 percent, reports Fast Company.

Photographs: Instagram and Pinterest are prime territory for marketers. Our fast-moving society prefers a picture and a few words. Marketers have found that those who have graduated from written posts to photos are typically more experienced and influential than other social media users. It’s a goldmine! Consequently, advertising dollars are moving in that direction. According to the 2014 Social Media Marketing Report, 42 percent of marketers said they planned to increase their spend on Instagram.

Better be a Believer

Whether you are a worried parent, a concerned teen, or a take-it-to-the-bank marketer — it is important to admit something Fortune 500 sales trainer Debbie White points out to her clients constantly: Everything is ABOUT sales, and Everybody is IN sales.

That’s just the way it is in our online, connected world.

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