Adolescent girls face increased pressure to conform to societal standards. As social beings, adolescent girls gravitate to social media as an outlet for peer interaction, community, and validation. Research has found that at the critical age of adolescence, 12-18, girls experience appearance comparison on social media, which can lead to…

In debating who takes responsibility for adolescent's online activity, expectations are that a multi-systemic approach is needed. In this paper, the voices of 11-18-year-olds, teachers, and mental health practitioners in focus group conversations were analysed using thematic analysis. Results indicated that young people demonstrated empathy in…

While the influence of digital technologies on literacy expression has long been a central concern of literacy studies, the proliferation of digital platforms across contemporary life has prompted increased scholarly attention to their influence on literacy. How, this scholarship asks, do platforms' interfaces, algorithms, and business models…

Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for human development, involving an inherent tension between children's development and autonomy and their safety and well-being. The digital mediation of children's increasingly autonomous participation in the social world has been one of the most heated issues for parents and policy maker, generally…

This article explores Finnish regulatory authorities' attempts to mitigate young people's participation in mediated sexuality. Previous studies have argued that both attempted regulation and education about media and sexuality are often out of touch with many adolescents' lives. This study uses a Foucauldian inspired critical investigative method…

Intervention against cyberbullying and other risks associated with the misuse of ITC and social networks is an important social demand. The 'Asegúrate' Program tries to support teachers in this intervention. This research shows the impact of the program among those that have shown to be less sensitive in other studies: cyber-aggressors.…

Young people's interests in 21st century texts and the literacy practices that play out in Web 2.0 spaces have implications for classroom teachers and teacher educators. In the digitally mediated world in which we live, boundaries between formal and informal learning from an earlier time are breaking down, thus making room for new ways of…

In response to polarising and emotive debates around young people using the internet, this paper presents recent research findings and offers insight into the issue from the perspective of young people. In early 2010, young people in two rural Victorian towns were asked to complete surveys answering questions about their online habits. Their…

The double-edged nature of modern technology, continuously balancing between risks and opportunities, manifests itself clearly in an emerging societal problem known as cyberbullying. To analyse the extent and nature of the issue in Belgium, 1318 adolescents were questioned explicitly about their involvement in cyberbullying, as well as implicitly…

A substantial amount of research has suggested that adolescents' attitudes and behaviors are influenced by peers; however, little is known regarding adolescents' individual variability, or susceptibility, to peer influence. In this study, a performance-based index from an experimental paradigm was used to directly measure adolescents'…

Social media use has become so pervasive in the lives of American teens that having a presence on a social network site is almost synonymous with being online. Fully 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites. The authors focused their attention in this research on social network sites…

While both positive and negative peer interactions have long been a focus of scientific interest, much less attention has been given to children who tend to refrain from interacting with peers. This volume brings together leading authorities to review progress in understanding the development, causes, and consequences of shyness and social…

Neural correlates of social-cognition were assessed in 9- to- 17-year-olds (N = 34) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants appraised how unfamiliar peers they had previously identified as being of high or low interest would evaluate them for an anticipated online chat session. Differential age- and sex-related activation…

This booklet gives adults practical tips to help kids navigate the online world. Kids and parents have many ways of socializing and communicating online, but they come with certain risks. This guide encourages parents to reduce the risks by talking to kids about how they communicate--online and off--and helping kids engage in conduct they can be…

Video games provide a diverse set of experiences and related activities and are part of the lives of almost all teens in America. To date, most video game research has focused on how games impact academic and social outcomes (particularly aggression). There has also been some exploration of the relationship between games and civic outcomes, but as…