Health Buzz: Teens Using MySpace and Other Health News
Teens Who Use MySpace Often Discuss Sex, Substance Abuse, Violence
About 54 percent of adolescents who use the social networking website MySpace often discuss sexual behavior, substance abuse, or violence on the site, according to a pair of new studies published this month in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine by researchers at Seattle Children's Research Institute. In one of the studies, the researchers looked at 500 randomly selected MySpace profiles of 18-year-old teens (as reported on their MySpace pages) to determine how much they discussed high-risk behaviors and if those behaviors were influenced by their interests, activities, or other factors. Forty-one percent of the profiles referenced substance abuse, 24 percent discussed sexual behavior, and 14 percent talked about teen violence.
Males were more likely than females to include information about violence in their profiles, and teenagers who listed a sexual orientation other than "straight" were more likely to refer to sexual behaviors on their pages. Also, profiles that showed evidence of involvement in church, religious activity, sports, or hobbies were less likely to discuss risky behaviors.
In the second study, researchers randomly picked MySpace profiles of people who listed their ages as 18 to 20 and who had high-risk behaviors included on their profiles. Half of those people were sent an E-mail from a physician, suggesting that they alter their profiles. About 14 percent of the E-mail recipients deleted sexual behavior references from their pages, compared with 5 percent of those who didn't get E-mails, HealthDay reports.
Does your child use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook? Learn how to keep your kids safe online and read 3 ways teens can avoid bogus health info online. Also, here is what to do if your child is bullied online and how Facebook can help you stick to your diet regimen.
Jett Travolta and Kawasaki Syndrome
The Internet is awash with rumors over the cause of the tragic death of actor John Travolta's 16-year-old son, Jett, who died January 2. Jett, who had chronic health problems including seizures, had been seriously ill with Kawasaki syndrome as a toddler. Something else for parents to worry about—doctors who treat children with Kawasaki say it's highly unlikely that the rare ailment had anything to do with the teenager's death because the heart damage typical of the disease happens soon after symptoms start. A 2007 Taiwanese study found that 43 percent of children who were diagnosed 10 days or more after the fever started suffered coronary artery problems, compared with 14 percent of children diagnosed earlier.
How white blood cells and blood vessels interact may offer a clue to the cause of epileptic seizures, according to a recent study. The Food and Drug Administration added a suicide warning to epilepsy drugs in December.
Red Cross: Free Travel for Lucky Blood Donors
Donate blood between now and March 31 and you could be eligible to win a pair of airline tickets to anywhere Delta flies domestically. The American Red Cross's southern region will award 15 pairs of tickets to blood donors in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Puerto Rico, southern Mississippi, and northern Florida (panhandle and Jacksonville area) as part of a promotion to shore up their supplies following the holidays. You don't have to be an area resident to be eligible, according to April Phillips, a spokesperson for the Red Cross's southern blood services region. Vacationers and business travelers in participating regions who stop by to donate are welcome as well. And even though the airline ticket promotion is limited to the southern region, the Red Cross is constantly in need of blood nationwide.
Learn how to meet the criteria for blood donation. But teen donors should use caution because they're more prone to complications when they donate.
—January W. Payne
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Reader Comments
One Of The Health Problems In This World
Everyone has two vocal cords. Anyone at any age can get a paralyzed vocal cord if the nerve to the vocal cord get injured or damaged. A paralyzed vocal cord is one of the problems in this world that can cause slower speech. It takes two paralyzed vocal cords for a person to not be able to talk.
Myspace Is Good Guy;; Not A Bad Guy<3
Myspace is not a bad thing!
As long as the person using the myspace is responsible when using it then i dont see a problem.
Parents always say that myspace is bad, but its not it just depends on who the person is thats using it.
Most people use myspace to talk to there friends and family, which they should be doing but others use it to do things such as talk about sex and drugs or violence and those are the people that shouldnt be using myspace:))<3
NO we have not missed the point
To 2 previous posters:
NO, we have not missed the point of the article or of the research study or have low reading comprehension. I for one, have always scored in the top tenth of one percent in reading comprehension -- genius level.
You say kids should not discuss "bad" behavior on myspace because it can be checked when they apply to colleges or jobs. Factually, this is not even really correct and shows you do not know how myspace works. I will first address this topic and then address the ethics and morality of respecting peoples' privacy even in a public venue.
First, on myspace, the user controls the content, access to the content, and longevity of the content. Unlike news or other articles, which often remain on the internet forever, myspace page content is instantly gone once deleted or changed by the user. If a kid wants a clean myspace when applying for college, that user can log on and remove or change any wording or photos. Any comments posted by the user can also be deleted.
Second, the user controls access. The myspace can be set to private, so no one but "friends" has access to it.
Even on a public myspace, various features are only available to "friends," and each friend request is approved or denied by the user. ONLY a friend can see the Comments posted on the bulletin board, receive and send messages, post a Comment onto the user's site, or see the photos set for friend-only viewing.
Any "friend" can be deleted by the user at any time if the user does not like the postings of the friend.
What's more, a user can delete the whole page at any given time.
THIS RESEARCHER IS NOT TELLING THE TRUTH OR THE ARTICLE IS INCORRECT-- There is no way to send an email to a person on myspace, unless the user posted an email address on the site. A message can be sent on the myspace system, but only by a "Friend." The researcher must have been posed herself untruthfully to gain admittance as a friend. Using myspace for such a purpose most likely goes against the Terms of Service and is thus a crime, as we all recently learned.
The results of the study are warped. If I got a message on myspace from some nosy busybody warning me about sex, I would assume I was being stalked by a nutcase. So would any kid. The results are therefore flawed -- the behavior is not changed due to fear of the behavior or induced common sense, but for fear of the "friend" sending weird messages.
How could these myspace users have given KNOWING CONSENT to participate as HUMAN SUBJECTS in this study? How could any university or institution approve a study where subjects were studied without their consent?
RESPECTING THE PRIVACY OF OTHERS (especially of kids) IN A PUBLIC SPACE is common courtesy and decency. We ignore overheard conversations, let people be, and go about our business. DO the same with myspaces and other public places. Do not be a voyeur, pervert, busybody, or nosy nanny. RESPECT OTHERS, especially KIDS.
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