The video shining a light on the unhealthy pursuit by teens of the perfect image, when a child becomes the family scapegoat, and outcry over Instagram for Kids.
Our selection of thought-provoking and useful resources from around the web on educating and raising children, and supporting families.
Watch the 'Reverse Selfie' video highlighting the unhealthy pursuit by teens of the perfect selfie
The importance of healthy body image for our young people has been an issue we’ve been highlighting recently on The Parents Website. Dr Zali Yager presented an excellent webinar for parents and carers, with invaluable guidance on how to help promote positive body image for tweens and teens. She also provided a supporting article summarising the webinar, and another on positive body image for boys.
So we thought we’d share this ‘Reverse Selfie’ video from the people at Dove, which highlights the pressure on young people to create the perfect selfie, using editing apps.
Released by Dove in Canada last year, it begins with a young women posting a heavily edited selfie. The process is then reversed – the young woman is, in fact, a teenage girl.
It’s part of the celebrated self-esteem project by Dove, which has been promoting positive body image since its inception in 2004.
Toxic Families: How the scapegoated child gets chosen
(Peg Streep, Psychology Today)
As part of her research for a new book on verbal abuse, the author discovered the subject of scapegoating in a family was a reoccuring theme.
In a family with a parent who is controlling, combative, or narcissistic, regularly singling out a child for blame is a way to maintain control not just over the family, but also over the family narrative. If it weren’t for one individual, family life would be perfect.
Which child becomes the scapegoat? Maybe the rebel, maybe the sensitive one, or perhaps the outlier. Or in the case of divorce, the child who reminds a parent of their former partner.
This is an unsettling insight to a form of toxic parenting that can be devastating for the child who is scapegoated.
Read the full articleInstagram for kids – the social media site no one asked for
(The Guardian)
News that Facebook is working on an Instagram service for kids has many people worried, including lawmakers in the United States.
This explainer sets out what’s happening. At the moment, Instagram is meant to be only for those over 13. Facebook says the motivation for the new platform is to have dedicated spaces for children, so they don’t lie to get on to adult sites where there is no parental oversight.
But there is growing concern over the proposed Instagram for Kids, as voiced by US attorneys general in a letter to Mark Zuckerberg urging him to abandon the plan.
‘Use of social media can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of children, who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account,’ they wrote. ‘Further, Facebook has historically failed to protect the welfare of children on its platforms.’
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As part of our Best of The Parents Website series, Shane Green looks at the growing awareness of the dangers posed by perfectionist thinking by girls, in this feature first published in 2016.
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