TikTok ramps up privacy protection for teens

SAN FRANCISCO – TikTok became the latest tech company Thursday to announce tighter protections for teenagers as social media platforms come under increased scrutiny over their privacy safeguards.

The short video-sharing app will roll out a number of features in the coming months, including a default curb for 16 and 17-year-olds on in-app messaging unless it is switched to a different setting.

Under 16s will see a pop-up message when they publish their first video, asking them to choose who can watch.

And users aged 16 and 17 will be able to receive a pop-up asking them to confirm who can download their videos. Downloads are already disabled on content posted by under 16s.

The Chinese-owned platform will also stop sending push notifications to users aged 13 to 16 from 9pm — and an hour later for 16 to 17-year-olds — with the aim of reducing their screen time at night.

The moves announced by head of child safety public policy Alexandra Evans and global head of privacy Aruna Sharma build on previous measures to protect young users from predators, bullies and other online dangers.

“It’s important to ensure even stronger proactive protections to help keep teens safe, and we’ve continually introduced changes to support age-appropriate experiences on our platform,” Evans and Sharma said.

“We want to help our younger teens in particular develop positive digital habits early on.”

Google, YouTube and Facebook-Instagram have all recently bolstered defenses for teen users, while critics have been urging Facebook to abandon plans for a children’s version of Instagram.

TikTok was the world’s most downloaded app last year, overtaking Facebook and its messaging platforms, according to market tracker App Annie.

The video app surged in popularity, according to market tracker App Annie, despite efforts by former president Donald Trump to ban it or force a sale to US-based investors.

Agence France-Presse

Justin Bieber is new style icon of Adidas Neo

MANILA, Philippines - Adidas Neo has appointed global phenomenon and pop/R&B superstar Justin Bieber as its style icon. Teens worldwide can hunt down the superstar’s exclusively customized Neo gold sneakers online in a bid to win a pair and meet Justin on tour.

As Neo’s new global style icon, Bieber will inspire young consumers with the label’s stylish and fresh teen looks through a two-year partnership until the end of 2014. Justin will make appearances for the label in its major markets throughout 2013 and share its latest news and collections through his vast social media reach. He will front Neo’s seasonal campaigns under its “Live Your Style” positioning, with spring/summer 2013 to debut in February.

Bieber spoke of Neo, the newest addition to a brand he has always loved. “I found a real connection with Neo because it is about fashion, freedom and being true to who you are.  With my new album, ‘Believe,’ I am spreading the message of believing in yourself. The first step is showing who you are, and one of the great ways to showcase yourself is through fashion.  For me style is an adventure, something to have fun with and Neo believes this, too,” he said.

To mark the appointment, Adidas Neo Label and Justin launched a competition to find his Neo sneakers online in the “Find My Golden Shoes” challenge. Pictures of Bieber’s exclusively customized Neo gold sneakers that he is wearing during his Believe World Tour concerts are hidden online.  Daily clues will be posted on Neo’s Facebook site leading searchers to find the Neo gold sneaker images hidden in a different site on the Internet each week. By solving the clues and finding the picture, a code will be available for successful sleuths to submit to Neo’s Facebook site.

One entrant each week over five weeks will win a pair of the Neo gold sneakers and an all-inclusive trip to meet Justin on tour in Miami. Entrants will also have the chance to win daily prizes of Neo goodies.
Hermann Deininger, chief marketing officer Adidas brand, said Bieber possesses an undeniable young, fun spirit and energy that embodies the Adidas Neo Label.

Adidas Neo is available in selected SM Department Stores, Robinsons Department Stores, Toby’s, Planet Sports and other sports stores nationwide.

source: philstar.com

Teens with acne told not to wash often

A U.S. dermatologist advises teens plagued with acne not to wash their faces too often -- in fact, that may make it worse.

"Don't wash your face too often," Dr. Kent Aftergut of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas said in a statement. "Acne isn't caused by dirt, so frequent washing won't help, and scrubbing instead may irritate your skin to make acne even worse."

Those affected should wash no more than twice a day using a medicated face wash containing salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide -- available in products purchased over-the-counter -- Aftergut recommended.

However, a dermatologist could prescribe more powerful treatments for acne that doesn't clear up, Aftergut said.

Aftergut said recent data showed teens who eat a diet high in dairy products and sugar might worsen acne. High sugar consumption can also stimulate the body's production of certain chemicals that drive acne and milk contains hormones that can do the same, Aftergut said.

Teens need some dairy to provide calcium and vitamin D so dermatologists don't recommend stopping these, just consuming in moderation and maintaining a balanced diet, Aftergut said.

source: upi.com

US teen drunk driving rate cut in half in 20 years

ATLANTA - The percentage of U.S. high school students who drink and drive has dropped by more than half in two decades, in part due to tougher laws against driving under the influence of alcohol, federal health officials said on Tuesday.

 

In 2011, 10.3 percent of high school students 16 and older reported drinking and driving in the previous 30 days, compared to 22.3 percent in 1991, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

 

The CDC credited the nearly 54 percent decline to stricter laws against drunken driving and restrictions on teen driving privileges, such as limits on the hours teenagers may legally drive at night.

 

"We've seen really good progress," CDC Director Thomas Frieden told reporters. "We're moving in the right direction, but we need to keep up the momentum."

 

Despite the decrease, nearly 1 million high school students consumed alcohol before driving last year, the report showed.

 

Drinking and driving among teens is a factor in more than 800 deaths annually, and car crashes remain the leading cause of death among teens aged 16-19, the CDC said.

 

For the report, the CDC analyzed risk behavior data collected from thousands of high school students through national surveys and from 41 states.

 

In 2011, the percentage of students who reported drinking and driving in the previous 30 days ranged from a low of 4.6 percent in Utah to a high of 14.5 percent in North Dakota.

 

Male students aged 18 and older were the most likely to drink and drive and 16-year-old female students were the least likely, the CDC said. Eighty-five percent of high school students who reported drinking and driving in the prior month also admitted binge drinking, defined as having five or more drinks during a short time period.

 

The CDC said another factor in the decline of teen drinking and driving was that high school students increasingly were driving less, possibly because of higher gasoline prices and a slowdown in the economy.

 

From 2000-2010, the percentage of high school seniors who did not drive during an average week jumped by almost a third from 15 percent to 22 percent, the health agency said.

 

Frieden said parents were vital in ensuring that rates of teen drinking and driving continue to decrease.

  

"Children see how their parents drive from a young age and model that behavior," he said. "Parents are a key part of the equation here." - Reuters

 

source: gmanetwork.com

 

New world record set at mobile-phone throwing contest

HELSINKI — A Finnish teenager has smashed the world record — and probably his phone — in this year’s annual mobile-phone throwing contest in Finland.

Eighteen-year-old Ere Karjalainen launched a phone the “amazing” distance of 101.46 metres (332 feet 10 inches), Finnish public television network YLE said after Saturday’s event.

Second place went to South African Jeremy Gallop, who threw a phone 94.67 metres.

According to contest organisers, the competition offers mobile phone users a unique opportunity to “pay back all the frustrations and disappointments caused by these modern equipments.”

Finland is the home of Nokia and is awash in obsolete phones, organizers said.

“There will be no doping tests,” organisers said on their English website.

“However the jury can rule out the contestant if his/her mental or physical preparedness is not adequate for full a performance.”

The event has been held in the southeastern town of Savonlinna since 2000.

article source: interaksyon.com

Former Prostitute Lauri Burns Helps Rescue Troubled Teen Girls

Lauri Burns was just 23, but she was ready to die. Emaciated, heroin-addicted, working as a prostitute, she was shooting up alone in a Santa Ana, Calif., motel room one night in 1986 when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

"My hair was all over," Burns recalls. "I had blood dripping down my arms. It was the most horrible feeling."

That moment, after a decade of life on the street – and a near-fatal beating from a john a few months later – scared her straight. She vowed to turn her life around and succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, going to trade schools and parlaying a knack for math into a thriving career as a computer program manager at defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman.

Even as she rebuilt her own life, Burns resolved to rescue other girls at risk of falling through the cracks. Since 1998, she has taken in more than 30 girls as a foster mom; in 2007, she founded the Teen Project, a nonprofit that has provided counseling, life-skills education and old-fashioned mothering to hundreds of girls when they age out of foster care at 18.


Growing up in a physically abusive home on New York's Long Island, Burns was shoplifting and taking drugs by the time she hit her teens; she even did a Girl Interrupted-like stint in a mental institution. Pregnant at 19, she would leave her baby daughter Summer with friends for weeks at a time until she finally entered rehab and sobered up for good. "I was broken," she says.

Today, at 49, she is a strong and steady support for five young women now living in the Teen Project home, a five-bedroom house not far from Burns's home in Mission Viejo, Calif. Burns purchased the house with funds raised from private donations. One of Burns's two employees serves as a den mother to former foster kids who stay there for about two years.

Earlier this year, Burns opened a drop-in center for homeless young people in Venice, Calif. Burns has found temporary homes – in some cases her own – for 10.

Young women whom Burns has helped say her energy and belief in them made all the difference. "My life has changed in every way," says Rose Hernandez, 21, who escaped a childhood home she describes as abusive. She recently graduated from cosmetology school.

Also moving up in the world is Janelle Garcia, 25, who finished her stint at the Teen Project house last year and then lived with Burns while she completed her associates degree. Recently accepted at the University of Alaska, she plans to become a doctor and just got engaged. "If Lauri can see it in me, and she's that successful, then I believe it. And I know I can make it."

All of which makes Burns—married for three years to Jeff McMullens, 61, and eagerly anticipating the upcoming wedding of daughter, Summer, 29, a Columbia University graduate and social worker—feel her own struggle was worth it. "I wouldn't," she says, "trade my life for anyone's."

source: people.com