Tag Archives: Teens

New report shows three quarters of teens are exposed to Porn by 17 and the devastating side effects

Romans 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Three Quarters of Teens Exposed to Porn by 17 – One State Just Launched These New Protections
  • Legislators in Louisiana recently enacted a new law to require age verification for accessing adult websites. House Bill 142 – now called Act 440 – passed with bipartisan support.
  • According to a report by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit child advocacy group, three-quarters of teenagers have viewed pornography online by the age of 17, with the average age of first exposure at age 12.
  • Lisa Thompson, NCOSE Vice President of Research, said porn’s well-documented harms to kids are devastating.
  • “Everything from depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, reduced grades in school, more adoption of sexist attitudes, greater involvement in risky sexual behaviors and even engaging in exploitative activities with other children,” Thompson told CBN News.
  • Thompson hopes more states will follow Louisiana’s lead and implement age verification to better protect children from the harms of pornography.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Wildfires destroying lives, Power Grid on verge of blackouts and shut downs, but Newsom uses millions to become national Hub for Abortions

Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Important Takeaways:

  • Next Level Abortion Hub: CA Launches $1M Website to Promote Abortion for Out-of-State Teens, Illegal Immigrants, Everyone
  • The state budgeted $200 million of taxpayer money to strengthen access to abortion in California, including $1 million to build a website promoting the state’s abortion services.
  • Pro-life advocates and other critics have lamented the use of public funds to boost such services, arguing California has a myriad of other problems more deserving of public funding, including the state’s electrical grid and the continuing threat of wildfires.

Read the original article by clicking here.

Factbox: Countries respond to heart inflammation risk from mRNA shots

(Reuters) – Some countries have halted altogether or are giving only one dose of COVID shots based on so-called mRNA technology to teens following reports of possible rare cardiovascular side effects.

Europe’s drug regulator said in July it had found a possible link between a very rare inflammatory heart condition and COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

However, the benefits of mRNA shots in preventing COVID-19 continue to outweigh the risks, European and U.S. regulators and the World Health Organization have said.

Here are some of the steps some countries are taking:

CANADA

The Public Health Agency of Canada said data suggested that reported cases of rare heart inflammation were higher after Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine compared with the Pfizer/BioNTech shots.

SWEDEN

Sweden paused the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for younger groups, citing data from a yet unpublished Nordic study.

The Swedish health agency said it would pause using the shot for people born in 1991 and later as data pointed to an increase of myocarditis and pericarditis among youths and young adults that had been vaccinated.

DENMARK

The Danish Health Agency said on Friday that it was continuing to offer Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to under-18s, and that a statement on Wednesday suggesting a suspension had in fact been a miscommunication.

FINLAND

Finland paused the use of Moderna’s vaccines for younger people and instead would give Pfizer’s vaccine to men born in 1991 and later. It offers shots to those aged 12 and over.

HONG KONG

A panel of health experts advising the Hong Kong government has recommended in September children aged 12-17 should get only one dose of BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine after reports of heart inflammation as a side effect.

NORWAY

Norway is giving one dose of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to children aged 12-15.

UNITED KINGDOM

Britain has been offering all 12-15-year-olds a first a shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Second doses would not be offered to the age group until at least spring when there may be more data from around the world.

(Compiled by Antonis Triantafyllou; Editing by Anna Pruchnicka and Tomasz Janowski)

Florida teens travel to state capital demanding action on guns

Mourners attend a service for Carmen Marie Schentrup, one of the victims of the school shooting at St. Andrew Church Catholic Church in Coral Springs, Florida, U.S. February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

By Katanga Johnson

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) – Busloads of Florida students headed on Tuesday to the state capital Tallahassee to call for a ban on assault rifles, pressing on with protests after a shooting rampage at a high school that killed 17 teens and educators.

Last week’s killing, the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in U.S. history, has inflamed a national debate about gun rights and prompted teens from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and across the United States to demand legislative action. The incident has galvanized advocates for stricter gun controls, including many survivors of the shooting.

A Washington Post/ABC News opinion poll released on Tuesday showed that 77 percent of Americans believe the Republican-controlled Congress is not doing enough to prevent mass shootings, with 62 percent saying President Donald Trump, also a Republican, has not done enough on that front.

Students who survived the shooting have promised they will push for action. Jaclyn Corin, a 17-year-old junior at the school in Parkland near Fort Lauderdale, said on Twitter that she had secured a meeting with Florida’s Republican Governor, Rick Scott, on the issue.

Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone confirmed the governor would be “meeting survivors later this week.”

Mourners attend a service for Carmen Marie Schentrup, one of the victims of the school shooting at St. Andrew Church Catholic Church in Coral Springs, Florida, U.S. February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipp

Mourners attend a service for Carmen Marie Schentrup, one of the victims of the school shooting at St. Andrew Church Catholic Church in Coral Springs, Florida, U.S. February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

Nikolas Cruz, 19, is accused of returning to the high school from which he had been expelled and opening fire with a semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle on Feb. 14. He faces 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Students, many of whom have grown up in a world where they regularly train for the possibility of being targeted by a shooter on the loose, teachers and gun safety advocates were due to gather in Tallahassee on Wednesday to demand that state lawmakers enact a ban on the sale of assault weapons in Florida.

Gun ownership is protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and remains one of the nation’s more divisive issues. The Washington Post/ABC News poll found that fewer than seven in 10 Republicans support the idea of a ban on assault weapons, the reverse of Democrats, 71 percent of whom support it. A federal ban on assault weapons, in force for 10 years, expired in 2004.

The suspect, whose mother died in November, was investigated by authorities after videos surfaced on the social media platform Snapchat, showing him cutting himself, an assessment by Florida’s Department of Children and Families said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has acknowledged it failed to act on a tip that was called in last month and that warned that Cruz possessed a gun and the desire to kill.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Frances Kerry)

Drinking, drug use largely down among U.S. teens in 2016

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The use of alcohol, marijuana, prescription medications and illicit substances declined among U.S. teens again in 2016, continuing a long-term trend, according to a study released on Tuesday by the National Institutes of Health.

But the research found that high school seniors were still using cannabis at nearly the same levels as in 2015, with 22.5 percent saying that had smoked or ingested the drug at least once within the past month and 6 percent reporting daily use.

“Clearly our public health prevention efforts, as well as policy changes to reduce availability, are working to reduce teen drug use, especially among eighth graders,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a statement accompanying the study results.

“However, when 6 percent of high school seniors are using marijuana daily, and new synthetics are continually flooding the illegal marketplace, we cannot be complacent,” Volkow said.

The annual survey, part of a series called Monitoring the Future which has tracked drug, alcohol and tobacco use among teens since 1975, also found that during 2016 there was a higher use of pot among 12th graders in states with medical marijuana laws.

According to the study, marijuana and e-cigarettes are more popular among teens than regular tobacco, with a large drop in the use of tobacco cigarettes among 8th, 10th and 12th graders.

In 2016, 1.8 percent of high school seniors smoked half a pack or more of tobacco cigarettes per day, compared with 10.7 percent in 1991.

The use of alcohol has seen similar declines, according to the research, with 37.3 percent of 12th graders reporting this year that they had been drunk at least once, down from a peak of 53.2 percent in 2001.

The analysis found that the use of illicit drugs other than marijuana by teens was at its lowest levels since tracking began.

The study, which is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, surveyed 45,473 students from 372 public and private schools.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

New England Teens Invite Friends With Special Needs To Prom

What was once a night of dresses, tuxes, partying, and popularity has now been redefined as a night to reach out and include everyone in the festivities.

Matty Marcone, a student in Canton, Massachusetts, has special needs and several medical issues. He never dreamed that he was going to be asked to prom, but his friend and classmate, Kaitlin McCarthy, changed that.

Kaitlin invited Matty to Prom after he claimed he was going to buy Disney World for her.

“I said, if he’s going to buy Disney World for me, I should bring him to the prom,” said Kaitlin.

With the help of the hockey team, special education teachers, and school nurses, Matty was able to attend prom with Kaitlin and other friends. Matty and Kaitlin were voted Prom King and Prom Queen.

While Matty was invited to prom by Kaitlin, another special needs teen in New York was about to get asked to prom as well.

Michael Pagano has autism and had been rejected by several girls he had asked to prom. However, senior and friend, Sarah Kardonsky, had a plan to invite Michael to the prom.

Michael is a New York Jets fan, which led Sarah to asking the Jets players via Instagram to help her make a video prom invitation. Nine Jets players total sent videos to Sarah asking Michael if he would go to the dance with her.

And while this invitation to prom led to national publicity, including a spot on a popular daytime television show, Sarah was more concerned that her friend was happy.

“People who worry so much about what dress to wear or who to go with, that’s not what prom is about. Prom is about having a good time. You should just be surrounded by people who make you happy.”