Low-Income Children Not Getting Adequate Dental Care

By Madonna Behen

Children in California who have dental insurance through Medicaid and other public insurance programs are less likely to visit the dentist regularly than privately insured kids, a new study has found.

The study, by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), revealed that black and Latino children are especially at risk of having inadequate dental care.  Read more...

Kids' Neck Sizes Could Indicate Risk of Obesity Disorders

by Tom Henderson

Kids with chubby necks risk more than joining the army of the undead: They could be fat.

Measuring the circumference of a kid's neck could provide a quick and easy way to screen him or her for weight problems, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggests.

Reuters reports the task force is an influential panel sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.  Read more...

Children exposed to fewer TV ads for sweets, beverages but more for fast food

Children were exposed to fewer television advertisements for sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages in 2007 compared with 2003. However, children now see more fast-food advertisements, and racial gaps in exposure to all food advertising have increased, according to new research.

“The study showed a number of positive changes in exposure to food advertising between 2003 and 2007 seen by children,” Lisa Powell, PhD, research professor in the department of economics and senior research scientist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois, Chicago, told Infectious Diseases in Children. Read more...

Now Recorded on Film, Memories of ‘the Black Y’ Provoke Smiles and Tears

By DIRK JOHNSON

Known around town as “the black Y,” it served as the heart of the African-American community for more than 50 years after opening in 1914. Young people played basketball, learned to swim, box and play Ping-Pong. The little Y.M.C.A. branch hosted proms for black students, father-and-son banquets, even a performance by Nat King Cole.

The closing of the Emerson branch in 1969, part of the move toward racial integration, provoked a deep sense of sorrow in the black community here, a sense of loss that has not been fully voiced until lately.

HHS Awards $10 Million in Prevention and Wellness Grants to 10 National Organizations

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced awards of $10 million to 10 national non-profit organizations to support public health efforts to reduce tobacco use and reduce obesity through increased physical activity and improved nutrition. Read more...

Wash your mouth with a bar of soap: Cursing is a growing trend with teens both online and off

Sue Scheff

Generations ago many remember the threat or even use of a bar of soap if you back talked or used profanity.  Today whether it is verbal or in keystrokes, teens and kids are cussing like sailors and not thinking twice about it.  Why?  Is it our culture?  Is it peer pressure?  Do they think they are cool?

Cuss Control Academy has many answers for you.  They offer Ten Tips for Taming Your Tongue.  Read more...

A Rave Warning

Mega-dance parties known as raves are popular among today's youth. But, as Ben Tracy reports, these raves also serve as a potentially fatal venue for drugs and other illicit activities.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

4 awarded Singapore's highest youth accolade

By Alvina Soh

Four Singaporeans have been awarded the country's highest accolade for youths this year.

The Singapore Youth Award (SYA) honours those who contribute significantly to society and excel in their professions.

The four outstanding youths received their awards from Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean at *SCAPE on Sunday.

Their profiles will be exhibited at the heart of the youth precinct, in a bid to inspire other youths.  Read more...

New: Juvenile Justice page

We are pleased to announce the launch of our juvenile justice page, where policymakers, practitioners, researchers, advocates, and the media can visit to obtain data and analysis on juvenile justice matters.  The juvenile justice system is undergoing important reforms, including diverting more youth from secure confinement, adopting evidence-based programming, and recording information about youth in the system with greater accuracy than in earlier periods. Still, with nearly 100,000 youth in detention on any given day, and nearly 2,000 young people sentenced to juvenile life without parole sentences, an urgent need for a more rational approach to juvenile delinquency remains.

Our juvenile justice page contains information and analysis on a broad range of issues, including:

• Juvenile life sentences;

• Overrepresentation of youth of color;

• Transfer of juveniles to the adult system; and

• Youth reentry.

As with our other topical web pages, the juvenile justice page contains information under advocacy, publications, and news. In addition to the resources on the juvenile justice page, our Web site also contains a 50-state map of data on all aspects of the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Our thanks to Joseph Rodriguez whose photo illustrates the new Web page.

APNewsBreak: Ohio can't stop youth prison gangs

A new report says Ohio's efforts to stop gang violence in its youth prisons are ineffective and that three facilities remain unacceptably dangerous places for youth.

The report released late Wednesday says the state Department of Youth Service has tried to deal with the problem but has a misguided belief that the gang violence isn't an issue.

Youth Prisons spokeswoman Kim Parsell told The Associated Press the state is changing how it approaches the gang problem.  Read more...

Ethiopia: Speaking Truth on Behalf of Country's Youth

Alemayehu G. Mariam

ETHIOPIA'S YOUTH AT RISK

In discussing Ethiopia's youth here, I am not employing the standard quantitative age category of 15-24 years. In the context of the African economic realities, a broader swathe of the under 30 age group is warranted.

Article 36 of the Ethiopian Constitution enumerates a whole set of guarantees to ensure the health, education and welfare of the country's children and youth. But the statistics on Ethiopia's children in general is shocking. Though the population under the age of 18 is estimated to be 41 million, or just over half of the country's population, UNICEF estimates that malnutrition is responsible for more than half of all deaths among children under age five.[2] Ethiopia has an estimated 5 million orphans - approximately 15 per cent of all children. Some 800,000 children are estimated to be orphaned as a result of AIDS. These children are highly vulnerable to all forms of exploitation including child labour and sexual, and receive little educational services, social support or supervision. Urban youth unemployment is estimated at 70 per cent. According to a Population Council report 'the vast majority of Ethiopian adolescents, 85 per cent, live in rural areas. Levels of education are very low, especially for girls and for rural youth. A substantial proportion of adolescents do not live with their parents, especially in urban areas, where 33 percent of Ethiopian girls aged 10-14 live with neither parent. Some regions have extremely high rates of early marriage. For example, 46 percent of girls in the Amhara region were married by age 15'.[3] There are also about 2.5 million children with disabilities receiving very little government assistance. Frustrated and in despair of their future, many urban youths drop out of school and engage in a fatalistic pattern of risky behaviours including drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse, crime and delinquency and sexual activity that exposes them to a risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. There is a serious problem of child trafficking, and highly publicised instances of adoption fraud and abuse cases have been documented in the international media in the past year.  Read more...

Tell Your Congressional Representatives to Make Juvenile Justice a Priority This Year

For too long, "tough on crime" political rhetoric has resulted in juvenile justice policies that are bad for youth and don't keep the public safe. More effective ways to deal with juvenile offenders exist, and now is the time for Congress to take action, but we need your help.

Time is running out!  On July 7, please let Congress know that voters care about juvenile justice reforms.

Three major juvenile justice initiatives remained stalled in the Congress:

• Reauthorizing the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), which is currently three years overdue for reauthorization. The JJDPA, first enacted in 1974, promotes the use of effective community-based alternatives to detention, keeps youth out of adult facilities, reduces the disproportionate involvement of youth of color in the system, and promotes other research-driven best practices in the juvenile justice system. Call on Congress to reauthorize the JJDPA bill, S. 678.
• Increasing appropriations for juvenile justice programs, which were the only category of children's programs that received a significant decrease in funding in the President's proposed budget. In order for the States to make positive changes, they must receive the federal support they need to prevent youth crime and rehabilitate juvenile offenders. States have experienced a steady decline in funding for juvenile justice programs since 2002. Ask Congress to preserve and increase juvenile justice appropriations for the coming fiscal year.
• Passing the Youth PROMISE Act to promote cost-effective prevention-based strategies to reduce youth crime. Among many improvements to juvenile justice, this legislation allows representatives from the communities facing the greatest juvenile crime challenges to develop a comprehensive plan to prevent youth crime through a coordinated prevention and intervention response. 
  
  Action item:  On July 7th, contact your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. House Representative and urge them to make juvenile justice a priority in the 111th Congress by:
  
  •    Reauthorizing the JJDPA;
  •    Increasing juvenile justice appropriations; and
  •    Passing the Youth PROMISE Act.
  
  Click here
   
  to contact your Congressional Representative and Senators on Wednesday. After entering your zip code, you will be provided with the phone numbers for your representatives, along with suggested talking points and a feedback form to report on the response you received.

Media Exchange Group Announces Development of a Youth Sports Social Network and Digital Trading Card

Rachel Baer, Secretary for Media Exchange Group, Inc. (f/k/a China Wireless Communications, Inc.) (Pink Sheets:CWLC), announced today the formation, development and beta testing which has begun on the company's Digital Trading Card, a mobile application. Similar to baseball cards of old, the Digital Trading Card allows users of all ages, with proper consent, to upload a photo of their own youth star athlete, along with his or her statistics, and trade these cards with friends on their mobile phone or other device. Offering other features as well, such as video links and trivia, this application is designed to compliment youth sports and the athletes who participate in them, in any and all sports throughout the world.  Read more...

Jaden Smith's role in 'The Karate Kid' is a refreshing depiction of a black youth

By Lonnae O'Neal Parker

Forty-five minutes into "The Karate Kid," I looked around the theater, wondering if anyone else was marveling.

My 8-year-old son Satchel's eyes were glued to the screen. The story of unlikely friendship and triumph hit familiar notes, but I was seeing something new. Jaden Smith was playing a black boy in three dimensions: vulnerable, contemplative and in possession of a wholly formed interior world.  Read more...

Teen Abuse: A Growing problem

 

BY CHARLENE MUHAMMAD AND NISA MUHAMMAD

Teen dating violence is a type of intimate physical, emotional, or sexual violence between people who are in a close relationship. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has determined it a public health problem that leads to poor performance in school, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, depression, and even suicide.

According to the CDC, 72 percent of 8th and 9th graders reportedly “date” and 1 in 4 adolescents report verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse from a dating partner each year. About 10 percent of students nationwide said they were physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past 12 months.  Read more…