Children – Page 5 – Impact Lab

App, Big Problems, Children, Hot Issues, Human Behavior

Interesting parental control app requires kids to exercise to earn screen time

July 26, 2018

One of the iOS 12 features to generate a lot of buzz has been Screen Time – a way to monitor app usage and set limits to reduce the amount of time spent staring at your phone.

You can use it yourself, of course, but parents can also use it to limit the time their kids spend using particular apps, like games or YouTube. One company, though, thinks it has an even better idea: require kids to exercise to earn app time …

Continue reading… “Interesting parental control app requires kids to exercise to earn screen time”

Analysis, Big Problems, Children, Human Behavior

Nearly 50% of teens in the US say they’re now online ‘almost constantly,’ according to new research

July 7, 2018

A new study from Pew Research Center found that one out of two teens reports being online “almost constantly.”

The study found that another 44% say they go online multiple times each day.

The time teens spend online has gone up significantly since Pew’s 2014-2015 study. Back then, only 24% of teens reported being online constantly.

Nearly half of US teens report being online on a near constant basis, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Children, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

Inside the controversial new surgery to transplant human wombs

June 22, 2018

Pioneering surgeons have made it possible to transplant a human uterus that can bear children, offering hope to millions of women who never thought they could give birth.

On September 4, 2014, in Gothenburg, Sweden, his 36-year-old expectant mother lay on an operating table, suffering from preeclampsia—a pregnancy complication associated with high blood pressure. The baby’s heartbeat showed signs of stress. Normally the woman’s doctors might have taken a wait-and-see approach, treating her with medication and hoping to give the nearly 32-week-old fetus time to grow to full term of about 40 weeks.

But this was no normal gestation. This was the world’s first human nurtured inside a transplanted uterus. He was the product of more than a decade of research. For years, no one had been sure he could exist in that womb—let alone be born. This was not a wait-and-see situation.

Continue reading… “Inside the controversial new surgery to transplant human wombs”

Children, China, Education, Human Behavior

A school in China is monitoring students with facial-recognition technology that scans the classroom every 30 seconds

May 24, 2018

A Chinese high school in Hangzhou is using facial-recognition technology that scans students every 30 seconds.

The system is analyzing students’ emotions and actions in the classroom as well as replacing ID cards and wallets at the library and canteen.

Facial-recognition technology is widespread in China, where it is being used to predict crime.

Continue reading… “A school in China is monitoring students with facial-recognition technology that scans the classroom every 30 seconds”

Amazon.com, Children, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Amazon made an Echo Dot for kids, and it costs $30 more than the original

May 3, 2018

Those with an Amazon Echo device in their homes have likely already exposed their children to Alexa. Now, Amazon wants to give kids the opportunity to turn Alexa into their friend with the new Echo Dot Kids Edition. The hockey puck-like smart speaker doesn’t look too different from the original Dot, but it comes with new “Amazon FreeTime” content that gives kids new ways to interact with Alexa and parents more control over those interactions.

New parental controls and FreeTime Unlimited subscription coming soon, too.

Continue reading… “Amazon made an Echo Dot for kids, and it costs $30 more than the original”

Biotech, Children, DNA, Science & Technology News

Decoding your baby’s DNA: It can be done. But should it be?

April 27, 2018

Maverick Coltrin was diagnosed with pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy shortly after he was born. He now gets checkups to make sure his seizures are under control and that he’s still healthy. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Maverick Coltrin entered the world a seemingly healthy 8-pound boy. But within a week, he was having seizures that doctors could neither explain nor control. They warned that he would probably die within a few months.

“I remember my world just came crashing down,” said his mother, Kara Coltrin, 24.

Continue reading… “Decoding your baby’s DNA: It can be done. But should it be?”

Analysis, Birth, Children, Human Behavior

America’s gender-fluid future, in 100 years of baby name trends

April 14, 2018

In 1910, just 5% of American babies named “Charlie” were girls. Over 100 years later, girl Charlies took over their male counterparts for the first time in 2016—making up 51% of the share.

With little fuss or fanfare, Charlie has gone gender-neutral.

Continue reading… “America’s gender-fluid future, in 100 years of baby name trends”

Children, Entertainment, Human Behavior, Internet, Latest Trend

Generation Z is already bored by the internet

April 6, 2018

Teenagers today have unprecedented access to technology, and yet many report that they’ve never been so bored.

There is a notion among older people that teens, with their smartphones and unlimited internet access, never experience boredom. CNN and other media outlets have repeatedly declared that smartphones have killed boredom as we know it. “Today, we don’t have time to daydream. Waiting in the doctor’s office or standing in line, we can check our email, play Angry Birds, or Twitter,” a media consultant once declared in HuffPost.

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Children, Corporate Manipulation, Human Behavior

Perfect prams for perfect parents: the rise of the bougie buggy

April 2, 2018

How the rise of the luxury pram capitalised on the status anxiety of a new generation of parents

Before she had a baby, Kari Boiler never noticed what kinds of buggies were on the streets. But when Boiler – an American then working for an advertising agency in Amsterdam – became pregnant with her first child in 2001, she realised that the city’s pavements were dominated by a single buggy: the Frog, a sleek, futuristic stroller designed by a tiny Dutch company called Bugaboo. “It was all over Amsterdam – you didn’t see another stroller,” she said.

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Children, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Parenting

Baby poop is changing, science reveals. Here’s why it matters

March 9, 2018

What’s in infant diapers may help explain the rise of allergies and asthma in recent decades.

Baby poop is changing, and that could be bad news for children’s health.

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Big Problems, Children, Parenting

Where are India’s millions of missing girls?

January 31, 2018

India’s 2011 census shows a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven – activists fear eight million female foetuses may have been aborted in the past decade. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi explores what has led to this crisis.

Continue reading… “Where are India’s millions of missing girls?”

Biotech, Children, Healthcare, Parenting

2017 changed how we’ll have babies

December 27, 2017

It used to be that reproduction was a seemingly straightforward thing: A man’s sperm met and clung to a woman’s egg. If the the stars aligned and the sperm successfully fertilized the egg, nine (and some change) months of waiting would result in a baby.

Continue reading… “2017 changed how we’ll have babies”