Recent News

Children labelled hyperactive really 'just naughty'
Telegraph (UK) 03 July 2008
Teachers are misdiagnosing some children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when they are just naughty, psychiatrists have warned. Only half of children teachers suspected of having ADHD were diagnosed with the condition by a mental health expert, a study found. The results of the study carried out in East London will be presented at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Children with ADHD cannot concentrate on school work or play and are easily distracted, forgetful or fail to follow instructions. They also unduly noisy, restless and fidget constantly and often talk excessively, butt in to other's conversations and cannot wait in line. Estimates suggest that around 1.7 per cent of the population is affected by ADHD, mostly children and if it cannot be controlled with behavioural therapy then medication such as Ritalin is considered.

In the study, based in Tower Hamlets, 52 children were referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services team with ADHD-like symptoms over the course of one year. Of those, it was clear most did not have ADHD and 14 were observed in the classroom by the mental health team. Eventually six were diagnosed with ADHD.

The researchers said that they are unsure why teachers may be over-identifying children with possible ADHD diagnoses. Lead author Dr Benjamin Keene, said: "Naughty children may at some point present symptoms but someone with ADHD has them at all times." They suggest that better educational resources need to be made available to teachers to help them accurately identify those children with ADHD, and that CAMHS teams should develop structured school observation tools or telephone interview schedules, so that identified children can be independently and expertly assessed in a classroom setting.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2241791/Children-labelled-hyperactive-really-%27just-naughty%27.html

Anti-bullying measures launched
Christchurch Press 4 July 2008
New Government measures to combat bullying have been welcomed, but education leaders have warned that schools should not bear the full responsibility for reducing violence. The measures, launched by Education Minister Chris Carter yesterday, were prompted by a spate of high-profile bullying incidents. As part of the package, information cards called Step Up, Be Safe, designed by primary and secondary students, will be given to all students from Year 3 to help them recognise bullying and know what to do about it. Resources for schools would be available through the Education Ministry's Supporting Positive Behaviours website and for parents through the Team Up website.

"These new initiatives are about ensuring that our schools are safer places for students," Carter said. "I know that all parents want their children to be safe at school and not subject to bullying or harassment." The way schools deal with bullying will also come under scrutiny from the Education Review Office (ERO). Schools will be asked if their anti-bullying programmes include a focus on racist or homophobic bullying, sexual harassment and bullying of students with special needs. The initiatives have been welcomed, but sector leaders have emphasised the importance of community and family involvement.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4606607a24035.html

Gay Adoption Bill is "off the ballot" - Clark
GayNZ.com 2nd July 2008
Green MP Metiria Turei's private member's bill aiming to legalise adoption by same-sex couples has been taken out of the parliamentary ballot, Prime Minister Helen Clark advised tonight. Speaking at the Gay Auckland Business Association's AGM, Clark said the 'Adoption (Equity) Amendment Bill' had been removed, adding that adoption by gay couples was "a tough issue to tackle, which we must get to at some point." Turei's bill was submitted to Parliament twelve months ago. Under current law, single people - including gays and lesbians - can adopt, but same-sex or unmarried couples cannot.

...Describing Civil Union legislation as a major move forward for LGBT New Zealanders, Clark recognised that full marriage may be preferable, noting that some countries are moving toward this. She told the crowd, however: "We had a difficult time over Civil Unions, so we're taking a breather on that one." Taking questions later, she offered to "have a word" in Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's ear about supporting gay marriage, when the two leaders meet for lengthy discussions in coming weeks.

...The PM summed up: "I'm in politics for a kinder, fairer, more inclusive society. Legal changes like Homosexual Law Reform and Civil Unions don't trigger an instant change of attitude in all people, but over time, they serve to normalise things. "Mainstream New Zealand will move with the times - but you need that legal framework."
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/printer_6163.php

Safe family project 'in disarray'
The Dominion Post 03 July 2008
A $15 MILLION government family violence project is in disarray, hit by staffing problems, agency patch protection and uncertainty over what it is supposed to be doing, a critical report says. The Government introduced the family safety teams in July 2005, placing them in four family violence hotspots: Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, Auckland and Hamilton. Reported domestic violence has increased 30 per cent in the past year. Police get 70,000 calls a year (about 190 a day) concerning domestic incidents. In the year ending June 2006, 25,356 men and 4135 women were arrested for family violence offences. In that period, 2281 women and 3148 children were put in Women's Refuge safe houses.

A 2006 evaluation of the project has been issued after the National Party requested it under the Official Information Act. The party's justice spokesman, Simon Power, had asked why it took so long to issue. The lack of collaboration revealed was "extremely concerning", as collaboration was the linchpin for the project. "This is an extremely sensitive and important area and we've simply got to do better," he said.

The teams, comprising police and social workers, were supposed to coordinate between domestic violence agencies, including police and Child, Youth and Family, to intervene with at-risk families. Instead, the report by academics and Justice Ministry officials found though the teams made some progress, they faced "mistrust and resistance" in some areas. They were blocked from essential information from CYF, courts, police and women's refuges. And when they identified issues of concern, they could not deal with them as other agencies would not support them. They also struggled to keep staff, were uncertain about their role and found workloads so big they could not deal with the large geographical areas assigned to them.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4605505a6479.html

Scheme to stamp out playground violence
The Dominion Post 03 July 2008
An escalation of physical violence and emotional bullying in schools has sparked a major investigation by the children's commissioner amid increasing concerns about pupil safety. The move follows research showing violence toward New Zealand schoolchildren is high compared with other developed countries and that bullying is one of their biggest fears. Education Minister Chris Carter will today unveil his own anti-bullying package to make schools safer. It is in response to a spate of high-profile attacks on schoolchildren and an increase of alerts from teachers about violent and disruptive pupils.

The package will include resources written by pupils to encourage in-class discussions about bullying and changes to the way the Education Review Office assesses schools' anti-bullying programmes. Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro said physical and emotional violence was a problem in all schools and an issue of public concern. It was consistently highlighted by children as one of their gravest fears and could have devastating emotional effects on young victims.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4605504a10.html

Kiwis second highest drug users - study
Christchurch Press 02 July 2008
New Zealand ranks second only to the United States in a scientific survey of illegal cocaine and cannabis use in 17 countries. The study uses data from the countries participating in the World Health Organisation's (WHO) World Mental Health Survey Initiative. It found that 16.2 per cent of people in the United States reported using cocaine in their lifetime, the second highest level of cocaine use was in New Zealand, where 4.3 per cent of people reported having used the drug. Cannabis use was highest in the US (42.4 per cent), followed by New Zealand (41.9 per cent).

The research was based on interviews with 85,052 participants in 17 countries. It was published today in the journal of the Public Library of Science.

...Differences in illegal drug use were more marked among young adults: by the age of age 15, drug users in New Zealand (27 per cent) and the USA (20 per cent) had the highest levels of cannabis use, with almost no use in Asia, Middle East, or Africa. Only 7 per cent of teens in the Netherlands had used cannabis by the age of 15. But the majority of young adults in New Zealand (62 per cent) and the USA (54 per cent) had used it by age 21, compared to 35 per cent of those in the Netherlands.

Drug use "does not appear to be simply related to drug policy," the authors said. Countries with stringent policies towards illegal drug use often had higher levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies. In the Netherlands – which has more liberal policies than the USA – 1.9 per cent of people reported cocaine use and 19.8 per cent reported cannabis use.

Males were more likely than females and younger adults were more likely than older to have used all the drugs examined.
Higher income was related to drug use of all kinds.
Marital status was found to be related to tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine use, but not alcohol use. People who were never married or those previously married had higher odds of lifetime cocaine and cannabis use than the currently married, but tobacco use was more likely in people who have been previously married and less likely among the never married.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4604114a24035.html

Laws a legal minefield: lawyer
Brisbane Times June 30, 2008
Anti-smacking laws to punish Queensland parents who used "excessive force" to discipline their children could be too hard to prosecute, a lawyer has warned. Moves by the Labor Party to toughen its stance on smacking were made at its state conference earlier this month, with suggestions the practice would eventually be outlawed. But Brisbane lawyer Michael Bosscher, of criminal defence firm Ryan and Bosscher, said changes to the Criminal Code to make smacking illegal would be a legal minefield and would cause more problems than they solved.

He cited the example of New Zealand, where anti-smacking legislation had sparked a public backlash and had prompted calls for a referendum. "It is amazing to think Queensland is considering going down this path when New Zealand is trying to reverse its decision," Mr Bosscher said. "Our laws already provide the option to prosecute parents who abuse their children.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/antismacking-laws-a-legal-minefield-lawyer/2008/06/30/1214677902879.html#

Child sexualisation shrouded in weasel words
The Age (Australia) June 29, 2008
IN A store one Saturday morning early in 2006, I became aware of a bank of television screens tuned to a music video showing a rap singer engaged in simulated sex with several barely clad dancers. The women were bent over while the rap singer rhythmically thrust his genitals at their backsides. There were quite a few children in the store with parents. I looked around to see if anyone was shocked that soft porn should be shown in a "family environment", in public on a Saturday. No one seemed to be taking any notice and I thought maybe it was just me. I considered complaining, but wondered whether I was so out of touch I would be regarded as weird.

So instead, a few day later I asked two of my researchers at the Australia Institute, both young women with progressive social attitudes, to carry out a study of the sexualisation of children. When our report, titled "Corporate Paedophilia", was released in October 2006 it set off a tsunami of public concern, especially from parents and parent groups. Psychologists, criminologists and child development experts soon joined the fray with expert commentary about the damage being done as children are exposed to erotic imagery and behaviours. It quickly became apparent to me that my feelings of dismay in the Harvey Norman store were not weird but common in the community.

Messages of support poured in to the Australia Institute. Mothers rang to say they were shocked when their eight-year-old daughters began doing sexy dances in public and asking for frilly underwear. Others expressed disgust at T-shirts for six-year-olds reading: "And all daddy wanted was a blow-job." Many objected to department store ads showing 10-year-olds pouting at the camera. The report examined the content of three new magazines aimed at five-to-12-year-old girls and found them full of stories about make-up, catwalk models, sexy celebrities, "crushes" and how to look like Paris Hilton.

...Community groups such as Kids Free 2B Kids have uncovered more and more alarming examples. Director Julie Gale found that Dolly magazine, with 50% of its readership under 14, tells girls that anal sex is a "personal choice".
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/child-sexualisation-shrouded-in-weasel-words-20080628-2yj5.html?page=-1

Father's Day cards banned in Scottish schools
Telegraph (UK) 23 June 2008
Thousands of primary pupils were prevented from making Father's Day cards at school for fear of embarrassing classmates who live with single mothers and lesbians. The politically correct policy was quietly adopted at schools "in the interests of sensitivity" over the growing number of lone-parent and same-sex households. It only emerged after a large number of fathers failed to receive their traditional cards and handmade gifts. Family rights campaigners last night condemned the policy as "absurd" and argued that it is marginalising fathers, but local authorities said teachers need to react to "the changing pattern of family life".

An Office for National Statistics report in April found that one in four British children now lives with a lone parent - double the figure 20 years ago. ...The making of Mother's Day cards and crafts, in the run-up to Mothering Sunday, remains generally permitted. But the Father's Day edict follows a series of other politically correct measures introduced in primary schools, including the removal of Christian references from festive greetings cards.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2176315/Father's-Day-cards-banned-in-Scottish-schools.html

Jim Hopkins: Care to take a dictation, Mr Mugabe?
NZ Herald June 27, 2008
PM CONDEMNS ZIMBABWE'S POLL THUGGERY - Clark joins international calls for free and fair elections - Herald headline, June 23.
Dear President Mugabe,
Oh, Robert. Robert, Robert, Robert. Buga me, what are we going to do with you? You're such a goose, Bob. Such a silly old duffer. You really haven't got this dictatorship thing sorted, have you? No!!! You haven't.
...And no need to be a bully when you can be a sneak. See, Blob, we've got this issue here in Outer Roa. Smacking. And its dodgy, Bob. Dodgy. Well, dodgy for the gummint, anyway. Something you'd understand all too well, I imagine. Here's what's happened. Before the last election, our leader told people she wouldn't support any Bill that turned good parents into "criminals" by making a light smack illegal. Then, after the election, they passed one. Yes, I know. That's what politicians do, Bob. You of all people would understand that. The thing is, people didn't like it, Mr Gumbabe. Not at all. So they got this referendum going. Couldn't get the numbers apparently - according to the bureaucrats. Then they did. And, hey presto, just when an anti-vote seems inevitable, along comes the Ministry of Justice and tells the PM there's "not enough time" before the election (date still unknown) to organise things. Sorry, folks. The referendumb's off. Try again next year.
Gosh, it's not something important like rushing legislation through under Urgency to validate illegal election spending. Printing a whole lot of referendum ballot papers is hard work. And we just know we can't do it in time - even though we don't know how much time we've got. Besides, voting for things just confuses people. The Prime Minister said so. In Parliament - you've got one of those, haven't you? Of course you have. And she did. She said in Parliament people would get "confused" if they had to vote for two things instead of one. Their brains would get sore. And that would be awful, Bob. Awful! It wouldn't be fair to the voters who're not ... umm, terribly bright. But you'd know that, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Oddly enough, great dictator, we used to have two votes every election. On liquor. Separate papers and everything. "I vote for Prohibition, a Continuance or State control."...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=72&objectid=10518539&pnum=0

Regular family meals boost GCSE exam results (UK) 
Telegraph (UK) 26 June 2008
Children perform better at school if parents impose traditional values in the home, Government research suggests. They are more likely to get five good GCSEs when parents insist on sharing family meals every night - and set regular evening curfews, figures show. Irrespective of social class, family "togetherness" was seen as one of the biggest bearings on success in the classroom. It comes as the Government targets parents in an attempt to boost school standards. Last week, Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said mothers and fathers contributed to poor behaviour at England's toughest schools because they refuse to punish their children. He insisted more parents should "play their part", and outlined plans for a new system of on-line reporting so they can be instantly informed if their children step out of line.

Research published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families yesterday showed 16-year-olds were much more likely to stay on at school if they "get on" with parents. "There is a strong relationship between regularity of having a family evening meal and GCSE attainment," it said.

Researchers analysed the findings of two major reports tracking the progress of 19,000 schoolchildren. At the age of 14, pupils were asked how often they sat down for an evening meal with their family. According to the report, 50 per cent of those eating with mothers, fathers and siblings six or seven times a week gained eight or more A* to C grades, compared to 31 per cent of teenagers who never ate with families. At the same time, pupils reported whether or not parents set a curfew on a school night. Sixty per cent of those who said they were not allowed out late during the week were awarded eight good GCSEs, against 36 per cent who said parents "sometimes" set curfews.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/education/2200170/Regular-family-meals-boost-GCSE-exam-results.html

Drive to protect kids from sexy television music clips
Herald Sun (Australia) June 27, 2008
SEXY music videos could be banned from Saturday morning TV under a Senate committee proposal to protect children from inappropriate material. A Senate inquiry into sexualisation of children by the media yesterday called for a review of music video classifications and for the introduction of free-to-air TV channels for children. Warning labels could also be placed on teen magazines with sexually explicit content.

But parents' groups accused the committee of being too soft on the advertising industry. The inquiry heard evidence that children were regularly exposed to inappropriate sexual material through TV, magazines and advertising. Witnesses were particularly concerned by sexually suggestive lyrics and choreography in video clips by artists such as 50 Cent and the Pussy Cat Dolls and sexual material in magazines read by pre-teens. In its report, the committee said that preventing the premature sexualisation of children was a significant cultural challenge.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23928866-662,00.html

Nats won't change child-discipline law, says Key
The Press 26 June 2008
National Party leader John Key has ruled out overturning the controversial child-discipline law if he becomes Prime Minister, despite championing a referendum on the issue. In Parliament yesterday, he accused Prime Minister Helen Clark of "ignoring the will of the New Zealand people" and urged a referendum be held on the so-called "anti-smacking" legislation at election time. His call came after Clark announced the Government had accepted official advice that it was too late to hold a referendum this year.

Asked by The Press afterwards if a National government would consider revoking the law as a result of a referendum, Key said: "No. The position as it has essentially always been since we signed a compromise (with Labour) is that if we see good parents being criminalised for lightly smacking their children then we will actively seek to change the law," he said. "But at this point, as the police report pointed out earlier this week, we haven't seen that at all. "The test we have is a pretty simple one. If the law doesn't work then we'll change it."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4596934a24035.html

Girl, 12 sends 300 sex photos
The Dominion Post 26 June 2008
Parents are being reminded to be vigilant over computer use after a 12-year-old girl sent 300 sexually explicit photos of herself in exchange for points on an American Internet gaming site. Customs investigations manager Terry Brown said the New Zealand girl's account was hacked, which resulted in the loss of her game credits. The hacker then offered to restore the girl's credits - if she sent sexually explicit photographs of herself. Mr Brown said the girl's parents were stunned when told about the incident.

Her actions came to light in March after a tipoff from American authorities. United States and Canadian authorities are now investigating information from New Zealand Customs officials. The case follows a warning from Interpol online child abuse investigator Mick Moran that officials are seeing a huge increase in "self-taken child pornography". Mr Brown said online games provided an easy means for children to be groomed by sexual offenders. Lee Chisholm, from Internet safety group NetSafe, said parents needed to be vigilant as soon as their children showed an interest in the Internet.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4596958a6479.html

Smack referendum next year, says Clark
NZ Herald June 26, 2008
Prime Minister Helen Clark says a postal ballot in 2009 is the best course for a potential referendum on the anti-smacking law because having it on election day would cause voter confusion and slow down the vote count. Helen Clark yesterday said the Government had accepted advice for a postal ballot in 2009 from chief electoral officer Rob Peden, who said holding it in the 2008 election "will inevitably lead to voter confusion, congestion in polling places and put at risk the timing of the parliamentary count." The decision has disappointed petition organiser Larry Baldock, who has threatened to re-ignite the issue and organise protest marches if it is not done on election day. "Hiding behind Ministry of Justice advice is cowardly. She should tell the truth and admit that it is her intention to do all she can to avoid this referendum at the election for her own political reasons."

National Party leader John Key said Helen Clark was "arrogantly out of touch" and "running scared" on the issue. "Her government does not like the New Zealand public being able to express their view on democracy. They are about to be stopped from being able to exercise their democratic view through a referendum on the anti-smacking legislation at the election ... Why does the Prime Minister not just admit she finds the voters of New Zealand an annoyance?" He said it was bad use of taxpayers' money to hold a stand-alone referendum when it could be done with an election.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10518391

Anti-smacking law fails to reduce serious child abuse
The Timaru Herald 25 June 2008
Police statistics show parents have not been criminalised unnecessarily under the new smacking law, but Family First NZ disagrees. Family First said a police report shows an almost 300 per cent jump in the number of parents being investigated for minor acts of physical discipline since the law was passed. Ten child assault cases involving minor acts of physical discipline have been reported in the Timaru district in the last six months, with at least one of those resulting in prosecution. Nationwide, 69 of the 288 child assault incidents attended by police from September 29, 2007 to April 4, 2008 involved minor acts of physical discipline, according to police statistics. Four of those incidents resulted in prosecution.

Murray Edridge, chief executive of Barnardos New Zealand, said the statistics show police are exercising the discretion available under the law. "As we have said before, the law is working well and parents are not being unduly targeted by police. The police have said there is no substantial change in the volumes of these incidents reported to them. So where is the so-called 'clear evidence of good parents being prosecuted' cited by Family First and other opponents of the law change?"

Bob McCoskrie, national director of Family First, said police were trying to paint a positive spin on the law change by conducting so many reviews. "What this particular review shows is that police resources are being wasted on attending and investigating smacking and minor acts of physical discipline, yet fewer than 5 per cent are serious enough to warrant prosecution. The worst aspect is that the number of actual child assaults are now at almost the same rate as before the law change. In other words, the anti-smacking law has failed to stem the tide of child abuse, but has targeted many good parents and grandparents with the trauma and fear of police investigation and CYF involvement." Family First wants a law that targets actual child abusers, tackles the real causes of child abuse and leaves good parents alone to raise their children.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/timaruherald/4595658a6010.html

John Armstrong: Election needn't delay smacking referendum
NZ Herald June 25, 2008
Unless the Prime Minister is planning to go to the country much earlier than everyone expects, her assertion that it is not possible to hold the anticipated citizens-initiated referendum on the anti-smacking law on election day simply does not stack up. Helen Clark claims there is not enough time for the referendum to run alongside the general election "just in terms of sheer organisation". The real reason, of course, is Labour does not want its election campaign sullied by periodic discussion of the smacking law whose "nanny-state" connotations have proved to be so damaging to her and her party. Better to take some flak now for delaying the referendum than see the debate resurrected over the amended section 59 of the Crimes Act which removes the defence of reasonable force for parents who physically discipline their children.

....In case the Prime Minister has forgotten, the 1984 snap election was called by Sir Robert Muldoon just four weeks before polling day. Somehow, electoral officials coped. In fact, the law covering citizens-initiated referendums specifically allows Parliament to shift the date of a referendum to the day of a snap election. That suggests there is sufficient time and it is not a problem.

....In 1999, the-then National Government took only a week to determine Norm Withers' petition for a referendum on violent crime would be held on election day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10518214

Smacking petition runs out of time
NZ Herald June 24, 2008
Prime Minister Helen Clark has virtually ruled out a referendum on smacking at this year's election, saying there will not be time to organise one. Campaigners trying to overturn the anti-smacking law yesterday handed in their second attempt to gather the numbers required to force a referendum. But the Prime Minister indicated that any referendum was likely to be later, rather than sooner. Asked why it could not be held at the same time as the election, which must be held by November 15, she replied: "Just in terms of sheer organisation, I do not think that is possible". Helen Clark said Parliament had spoken on the issue with a near "unanimous mind", and the most dire predictions about the changes had not come true.

Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock handed over more than 390,000 signatures backing the call for a referendum on the question: "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?" Another attempt this year failed when too many signatures were ruled invalid. The Office of the Clerk of the House will now have two months to check that the petition has been signed by 10 per cent of registered voters, or about 290,000 valid signatures. If it is, the Government will have one month to name a date for a referendum. But it can delay any vote on the issue for up to a year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517989

New petition seeks to overturn smacking law
NZ Herald June 23, 2008
Family First presented 60,000 new signatures to Parliament today in an attempt to force a referendum on the anti-smacking law. The group's petition failed in April as it needed 280,275 signatures to force a referendum but fell short after about 18,000 were excluded because they were either illegible, the signatory's date of birth could not be confirmed, or involved people signing multiple times. Today's petition comes just over a year since Sue Bradford's controversial legislation was passed.

National director of Family First Bob McCoskrie said the extra "stack' of signatures on the petition opposing the anti-smacking law had confirmed politicians failed to listen to the voice of the people. "If the purpose of the law was not to ban smacking, as promised by the Prime Minister before the last election then the law should explicitly state this," he said. "It should not be left open to potential persecution of parents through complaints by schools, members of public and children, and investigations by police and CYFS." Green MP Sue Bradford called on political parties and the voting public to reject calls to turn back the clock.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517872

Pamper parties for pre-teens
NZ Herald June 22, 2008
Girls as young as 6 are getting facials and fake tans at special pamper parties. At least two New Zealand companies are following worldwide trends by arranging beauty bashes for pre-teens. Tracey Lowe, who runs Enchanted Mobile Hairdressing in Christchurch, offers mini manicures and pedicures, mini facials and mini massages. She started offering the parties _ which start at $30 a girl _ after reading about their popularity overseas. "I haven't even fully advertised them, but I have had a lot of interest from local schools and even mothers at Plunket groups," she said... But she said children didn't need as much makeup as women _ "just a little bit of lip gloss and eye shadow, and they think it's the real deal".

Pampered on Location, another party-planning company, also offers "pre-teen princess pamper parties". Aimed at those who want to host "the best girls' birthday party on the block", the website says under-13s can "sit back and relax while our therapists pamper the girls from head to toe". The firm offers mini manicures, mini pedicures, nail gems _ "gorgeous coloured diamantes for fingers and toes" _ mini massages and an airbrush tan on the face, neck and shoulders. Prices range from $20 for one treatment to $45 for all four.

...A child-only hair and beauty salon in London offers clients as young as 6 dolls to play with and DVDs to watch. Budding fashionistas can flick through a copy of Vogue while they are waiting for newly trimmed nails to dry. In the US, children as young as 2 are reported to have been receiving the occasional beauty treatment in Los Angeles and New York.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517725

Parents banned from snapping kids at sport
Herlad Sun (Australia) June 22, 2008
PARENTS are furious after being banned from taking photographs of their children at weekend sporting events. They say the Bill Henson affair has made sports clubs paranoid about allowing them to photograph their children. Henson was cleared after police seized naked photographs of a 13- year-old girl from an art gallery. Netball, basketball, rugby league, AFL, cricket, soccer and baseball clubs have imposed rules to prevent photos of young players being taken without the consent of all parents and coaches. NSW's Macarthur junior baseball league president Maud Goldfinch said parents had to sign a form confirming they would not take photographs without permission.

Ms Goldfinch said that as a parent, she did not agree with the policy, which deprived children of happy sporting memories. "A lot of parents don't agree with what's going on. They're quite upset by not being able to take photos of their children - they see it as an invasion of their privacy. The Bill Henson (saga) brought it to a head. It's made people more aware ... and it brings debate around the topic." Parents also need to give permission before photographs are uploaded to the club's website. One father said he was made to feel like a pedophile while photographing his eight-year-old daughter on the netball court.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23899983-662,00.html

Kids binge drink? Might be your fault
AAP 20 June 2008
The drinking habits of mums and dads, rather than advertising or peers, have the most impact on a child's future alcohol consumption. That is message of a new Australian campaign, which has the lofty goal of making the next generation believe it is uncool to get drunk... DrinkWise chief executive Mike MacAvoy said multiple studies locally and abroad show the way parents drink has a strong link to their children's alcohol habits.

"Studies have found that parental role modelling has a strong influence on adolescent drinking patterns and that adolescents whose parents are heavy drinkers are more likely to start drinking alcohol at an early age," he said. Mr MacAvoy said children form their attitudes well before they have had their first sip of alcohol. "Parents, as well as grandparents, older siblings and other people they are close to are the No 1 influence on their children," he said. "So, the message of our campaign is: 'kids absorb your drinking'."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4590854a19716.html

Dad grounds daughter, but court ungrounds her
World Net Daily June 18, 2008
Parents beware. You may be losing the right to discipline your children. A father in Canada had grounded his daughter from going on a school trip because she disobeyed his orders to stay off the Internet. But a court has now overturned the punishment. According to Agence France-Presse, Justice Suzanne Tessier in Quebec Superior Court ordered the grounding for the 12-year-old girl lifted, prompting the father's lawyer, Kim Beaudoin, to warn, "Parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on."

The father had ordered the daughter, who was not identified by the report, to remain off the Internet. She didn't, chatting on websites her father had tried to block and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's Internet portal. As punishment, the father refused to let her go on a scheduled school trip, so the 12-year-old went to Canada's judicial system to get her way.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67479

Family First Comment: CAN'T HAPPEN IN NZ?? - ALREADY HAS!

READ MORE of "Kids Out of Control" NZ Truth June 12 2008

'Let parents choose babies' sex'
NZ Herald June 19, 2008
Parents should have the right to choose the sex of their unborn babies, the Government will be told today. The Bioethics Council, a ministerial advisory committee, will give it a report which says individuals are in the best position to make decisions about sex selection. The report - titled Who Gets Born? - concludes that the sex of embryos created outside the mother's body under programmes such as IVF (in vitro fertilisation) should be chosen by parents. That would mean mothers and fathers would be able to gender-balance their families - something critics have attacked as "designer babies". The Government is working on guidelines to govern the growing availability and consequences of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis - the testing of embryos created outside the womb. Under current laws, introduced in 2004, sex selection is banned except to treat a genetic disorder or disease. Penalties for breaches are jail terms of up to five years or a fine of up to $200,000.

The Bioethics Council's programme leader, John Pennington, said the report would advise a change. "We are finding ... that individuals are the people who have to have the ultimate responsibility in making decisions on such personal, sensitive things as sex selection."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10517194

Rising abortion rate sparks calls for change
NZ Herald June 18, 2008
Last year, 2118 abortions were for women who had two or more previous abortions, a figure which has risen annually for more than 15 years. The abortion rate has continued its steady rise, sparking calls for change from both sides of the contentious issue. The number of abortions rose last year to 18,382, according to figures released yesterday by Statistics New Zealand. This was slightly up on the preceding year and within 200 of the record high in 2003. In 1991 there were 11,613 abortions. New Zealand's general abortion rate of 20.1 per 1000 women aged 15-44 remains comparable to slightly earlier figures from the US (19.4) and Australia (19.3) - but far ahead of other countries like Germany (7.3) and the Netherlands (8.6).

"The abortion rate is too high but women still need access to this service," Auckland Women's Health Council co-ordinator Lynda Williams said. Family First national director Bob McCoskrie said the new figures "continue to paint a terrible picture for teenagers and families". They confirmed the "failure" of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, which was highlighted by the High Court last week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10516887

NZ's Taleban on the march
FROM THE LEFT - CHRIS TROTTER The Dominion Post 13 June 2008
It was exactly 30 years ago, in 1978, that the women of New Zealand finally won the right to a safe, legal abortion. It had taken many years of bitter political struggle to overcome the resistance of those who saw motherhood as a woman's destiny, rather than a woman's choice. To the young, confident woman of 21st-century New Zealand, that slogan, "A woman's right to choose", probably seems as antique as the militant suffragettes' cry of "Votes for Women". Nothing more than a quaint relic of a less enlightened age; something from the past. But the young, confident woman of the 21st century would be wrong. The social forces that mobilised to prevent the decriminalisation of abortion back in the 1970s have not gone away.

...The Ken Orrs of Right to Life New Zealand and the Bob McCoskries of Family First have caught the whiff of a massive right-wing victory in November. They fervently believe that, after nine long years, their hour is at hand. Five months out from the election, they're certainly not saying, "Oh bother, New Zealand is about to elect a socially conservative millionaire prime minister and a right-wing majority to the House of Representatives, there goes all hope of getting any of our cherished religious principles recognised by an MMP parliament." All that stands between them, and the anti-abortionists' long- delayed revenge, are the young, confident women of 21st-century New Zealand – and their brothers – who still believe in a woman's right to choose.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4582677a1861.html
Family First Comment: Chris Trotter obviously feels very threatened by the existence and voice of Family First!! Previous comments by Mr Trotter include
Sunday Star Times 6 January 2008
One only has to recall &the enormous assistance supplied by organisations and individuals such as Family First and John Boscawen, to appreciate how integral National’s extra-parliamentary allies have been to its success. Indeed, a close study of the poll date released over past 12 months shows these groups playing an indispensable role in pumping up the Opposition’s numbers.
&. I don’t know how I could have failed to predict the furore over Sue Bradford’s anti-smacking legislation – but I did.
http://stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4345628a25945.html

Virginity pledges help some delay sex: study
Yahoo News June 10 2008
Taking a pledge to remain a virgin until married may help some teens and young adults in delaying the start of sexual activity, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. A study by the Rand Corporation research institute found that 34 percent of youths who took such pledges as teens had had sexual intercourse within three years compared to 42 percent of similar teens who did not make virginity pledges. The Rand team said they had taken into account differences such as religious beliefs, parenting and friendship characteristics.

There has been conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of such pledges, which were started in the United States in 1993 by the Southern Baptist Convention. Hundreds of churches, schools and colleges around the world now promote them. "Making a pledge to remain a virgin until married may provide extra motivation to adolescents who want to delay becoming sexually active," said Steven Martino, a psychologist at Rand who led the study. The act of pledging may create some social pressure or social support that helps them to follow through with their clearly stated public intention."

...Some researchers had speculated that teens might substitute other sexual activities such as oral sex for intercourse. But the Rand study found that those who pledged were no more likely to engage in sexual behaviors that fall short of full intercourse than other comparable youth -- findings that fit in with a study by the non-profit Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York last month. "Waiting until you are older to have sex is good for teens from a health standpoint," Martino said in a statement. "There are lots of reasons for more kids to wait until they are older." Martino and colleagues surveyed 1,461 adolescent virgins aged 12 to 17 in 2001. About a quarter said they had taken a virginity pledge. The researchers interviewed them again one and three years later.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080610/us_nm/virginity_pledge_dc_2&printer=1;_ylt=AkwDqKkfSVFTsTVJOE0LfrIXIr0F

Anti-smackers lose their cool
Rodney Times 12 June 2008
Anti-smacking supporters got violent at a gathering of signatures for the Citizens Initiated Referendum campaign last Saturday. Whangaparaoa resident Arna Mountain was gathering signatures for the petition when two women, on separate occasions, started abusing her. She says many people were eager to sign the two petitions, which ask ‘should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?’ and ‘should the government give urgent priority to understanding and addressing the wider causes of family breakdown, family violence and child abuse?’ She says she was shocked by what she sees as violent, anti-democratic behaviour. "These petitions are asking for the democratic right to vote on what has been a contentious issue, but these two women seemed determined to intimidate the public and those collecting the signatures."

She says the first woman took offence to the gathering of the signatures and started yelling. How dare we smack our children, she shouted. Mrs Mountain says she then started telling bystanders to "roll up and sign the petition that allows you to abuse your children and then kill them, yes murder them, come on sign up." Later she was approached by another woman who asked if this was the petition to sign, then grabbed it, tore off the signed part and ripped it into pieces. "The woman then took the clipboard which had other completed forms underneath and took off. I called her to give back the clipboard and the legal document she had torn. She threw it across the entrance-way and yelled about how smacking children was wrong," she says.

Mrs Mountain says that while she is shocked at the intensity of the behaviour, there are obviously a few people who are mistaken about what the petition is about. "There are a few people who are completely unaware of the statistics that show that abuse and parental correction are completely different issues. No one in their right mind wants to abuse children. She says the vast majority of people are still against this law." They received 144 signatures in a two-and-a-half hour period in Whangaparaoa. Petition forms can be downloaded from thekiwiparty.org.nz under ‘referendum’ or from Orewa and Whangaparaoa libraries. The last date for signing is June 15.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/northland/4581394a23016.html

Study: Teens Heed Parents Warnings against Drugs and Alcohol But Indulge When Left Unguided
LifeSiteNews.com June 10, 2008 
A new survey released by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the MetLife Foundation has found that parental guidance and example has a profound affect on their children's use of alcohol and drugs, especially at such "coming-of-age" events as prom and graduation parties. The survey indicates that when parents engage their children in discussions about alcohol and drug abuse the teens take their parents' message to heart. "Only 16 percent of teens whose parents set a zero tolerance policy reported their individual likelihood of using drugs or alcohol, whereas 45 percent of teens whose parents didn't set such boundaries reported they were likely to drink or use drugs at prom or graduation parties this year," the report states.

The survey also reveals that parents who had abused alcohol and drugs as teenagers were less likely to instruct their children about the negative effects of this behavior and to set a zero tolerance policy for their teens. "Parents who drank or used drugs at their own proms or graduation were likely to be more permissive with their kids than those parents who did not. Among parents who drank or used drugs on these occasions, 66 percent set a 'zero tolerance policy' for their teens. Among parents who did not drink or use drugs, that number jumps up to 87 percent of parents who set hard rules about drinking and drugs for their kids."
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/printerfriendly.html?articleid=08061005

Social factor key in abortion
The Age (Australia) June 12, 2008
MORE than 40% of women who sought information about having an abortion during an audit at the Royal Women's Hospital last year already had at least one child. The figure, researchers say, contradicts the belief that only young women who find themselves pregnant for the first time and are not in a stable relationship have an abortion. The audit of more than 3000 women who called the hospital's pregnancy advisory service last year — of which more than 2000 went on to have an abortion at the hospital or elsewhere — suggests that some of the women who choose to terminate a pregnancy are older and married, with social and economic circumstances making it difficult for them to have more children.

"It is often married women in their 30s with several children, and we know that no contraception is infallible," said Maggie Kirkman, research fellow at the Key Centre for Women's Health in Society. Dr Kirkman said it was usually the combination of several factors that led to the decision, including the readiness to be a mother for the first time or taking into account the needs of their children. For instance, it might not be possible for them to take care of two children.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/social-factor-key-in-abortion-20080611-2p54.html

'Living in sin' now standard practice
NZPA 11 June 2008
People shacking up together in "non-marital cohabitation" have become a dominant part of the cultural landscape in New Zealand and some other Western nations, according to a global study published in the United States. The National Marriage Project study, spearheaded by the Rutgers the state university of New Jersey, said New Zealand had made the biggest jump among the 12 nations it surveyed in terms of "cohabitors" as a percentage of all couples, rising from 14.9 percent in 1996 to 23.7 percent in 2006. "There have been sharp percentage increases between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s in the number of couples that are cohabiting," the study reported on the university's website said. These increases included rises ranging from 23 percent in Italy, 26 percent in France, 37 percent in German, 48 percent in Australia, "to a surprising 59.1 percent in New Zealand".

Across the 13 nations, marriages per 1000 unmarried women had decreased over time, with New Zealand slumping the most, by 41 percent from 42.7 in 1991 to 24.8 in 2006. The USA fell by 19.9 percent from 1995 to 2005, down to 40.7 per 1000, but marriages in Australia declined by only 4.3 percent to 32 per 1000 unmarried women over 15. University of Texas-Austin, sociologist Kelly Raley, told USA Today newspaper: "We often think of cohabitation as a phenomenon of young adulthood before people start having kids, but ... as marriage is being delayed to later and later ages, more children are born before marriage, and many of the couples are cohabiting before the birth." She suggested living together was not a marriage alternative, but an option to address issues of economic or relationship uncertainty. Children from such relationships often had emotional problems, or were vulnerable to alcoholism and drug abuse, but Prof Raley said researchers could not say if these negative outcomes were due to the cohabitation or to the economic uncertainty or even the relationship uncertainty.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4579385a19716.html

Domestic abuse: Police to be given new powers
NZ Herald June 11, 2008
Police will be able to issue immediate orders forcing potentially abusive partners to leave their homes for cool-down periods of up to 72 hours under changes to domestic violence laws unveiled yesterday. Justice Minister Annette King announced the step as part of a wider raft of changes to the Domestic Violence Act that followed a major review and consultation last year. A recommendation for such short-term orders was widely supported in that review and Ms King said it provided families with greater immediate protection. "It is a big change and something that will be widely applauded."

The idea was broached in 2006 by Assistant Police Commissioner Roger Carson after similar measures were introduced in Australian states in 2004 and 2005. It was picked up by National Party leader John Key as party policy in November last year. Police are called to about 71,000 domestic violence cases a year. They currently have few tools to deal with potentially dangerous situations beyond advising families to leave the home themselves and seek help from family or Women's Refuge. The new orders would also allow time for victims to apply for longer-term protection orders where necessary.z
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10515625

It was too easy - mother
The Press 11 June 2008
Christchurch mother Tracey Hill believes it is too easy to have an abortion. The mother of two had an abortion four years ago. "They do it wrong," she said. "I got one doctor to sign it, and he asked, `Do you want counselling?' And I said `no', and that was it." Hill, 34, said the decision on whether to abort often had to be made quickly. "I think it's too quick," she said. "Some teenagers don't find out until 10 weeks, so they have two weeks to make up their mind. "That's a lot of pressure." She said she would like to see more effort put into educating women, particularly young girls, about what was happening once they became pregnant.

Hill said it was ludicrous that women were able to have four or more abortions. "How easy is it? There're women out there who use it like contraception," she said. Hill is now five months pregnant, but she and her husband have decided to have this baby and adopt it out. She said that when she had her abortion she was not told that adoption was an option. "This time around, we're creating a life for someone."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4579524a6530.html

Judge questions legality of abortions
NZ Herald June 10, 2008
A High Court judge has ruled that the abortion law is being used more liberally than Parliament intended. In a review of the workings of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, initiated by Right To Life New Zealand, Justice Forrest Miller said there was a reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions. Jusice Miller was delivering his judgment following a hearing at the High Court at Wellington in April. Right to Life had claimed the Abortion Supervisory Committee had failed to properly interpret the Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion Act, so "full regard is given to the rights of unborn children". It sought to find the committee had failed its statutory duty to review the procedure for abortions and enquire into the circumstances in which consultants authorised abortions on mental health grounds. It said the committee had failed to seek proper information on the mental health grounds from consultants. It also sought to find the committee had failed in its duty to ensure adequate counselling facilities were available.

....Right To Life and Family First today welcomed the decision. "It is the most important development in abortion law in New Zealand in the last 30 years," Right to Life spokesman Ken Orr told Radio New Zealand. He said the court acknowledged that "we have abortion on demand in New Zealand". Mr Orr said Parliament needed to give legal recognition to the unborn child - as a human being with human rights. "We would like to see greater protection to the rights of unborn children." He said if the judgment was upheld then there would be a "substantial reduction of abortions in New Zealand". Family First national director Bob McCoskrie said the Abortion Supervisory Committee's "lack of supervision and inaction" had led to abortion on demand. "As a result, approximately 18,000 abortions are performed every year, and since 1991, the number of 11 to 14-year-olds having an abortion has increased by 144 per cent. "The number of abortions for 15 to 19-year-olds has increased by 74 per cent." Mr McCoskrie said each week, almost 80 teenagers had an abortion.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10515414&pnum=2

Doctors face sack over abortions
A judge has suggested the Abortion Supervisory Committee could dismiss doctors who are too liberal in permitting women to have abortions. Justice Forrest Miller, of the High Court at Wellington, said that although the committee had this power it had never used it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10515639

A happy marriage helps you sleep
UK Telegraph 09 June 2008
Scientists have discovered that women in happy unions are more likely to have a better night's sleep that their less content counterparts. Evidence presented at Sleep 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), in Baltimore, showed that women who were happy in their marriage were less likely to have difficulty falling or staying asleep. They were also less likely to wake too early in the morning. The study, by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, looked at 1,938 married women with an average age of 46 years.

The scientists asked the women about their marital happiness, the quality of their sleep and whether they had any problems nodding off. According to the results, happily married women were less likely than unhappy ones to have problems sleeping.

..."Divorced individuals tend to have more sleep problems than those who are married; however, among the married, we know very little about how differences in marital quality may be linked with sleep," said Dr. Wendy Troxel. "The results show that happily married women have fewer sleep problems than unhappily married women." The researchers believe that doctors should look at the quality of a patient's relationship when they treat their sleep problems.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2100543/A-happy-marriage-helps-you-sleep.html

Parental-leave payrise comes under attack
The Southland Times 09 June 2008
New Zealand's paid parental leave payments will increase on July 1 but southern parents, welfare agencies, and support services believe extra money is not the only thing needed to make the system work.
Labour Minister Trevor Mallard announced last week that the maximum parental leave payment would increase from $391.28 to $407.36 a week from July 1. Also increasing would be the minimum parental leave payment for self-employed people, which would rise from $112.50 to $120 a week. "Paid parental leave assists new parents at a critical time. It's important for new parents to have the time and financial support to care for a new baby, and paid parental leave allows them to do that while protecting their jobs," Mr Mallard said. However, the announcement has come under fire from some parents, support agencies, and welfare groups who say the increase is not enough to meet the needs of most families, and the length of time the payments are made is also not long enough.

..."It is great for those that are able to get it but I think there's a section of the population of mothers that missed out because they are not working enough hours each week to qualify," she said. Included in that group were women who were working part-time, or the likes of teachers who, like her, worked on a casual or relief basis, rather than in permanent full-time positions, she said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/southlandtimes/4576861a6568.html

'Pack' girls in school bullying
The Press 07 June 2008
Violent assaults among secondary school students appear to be increasing, and girls are adopting a similar "pack mentality" to boy bullies, says the Children's Commissioner. Cindy Kiro said yesterday that her office was seeing an escalating pattern of bullying, intimidation and peer harassment in schools, much of which went unreported. ....Kiro said it appeared young women were "acting in a way in which we only expected boys to act before, and increasingly with a pack mentality".

She said bullying had become a persistent problem that young people rated as one of their top concerns. As many as 75 per cent of schoolchildren reported incidents of bullying at school, although only about 10% of cases were categorised as serious bullying.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4575948a6009.html

Prostitution law 'leads to sex slavery'
The Dominion Post 06 June 2008
A United States Government report on modern slavery has accused New Zealand of being a destination country for the trafficking of women from Malaysia, Hong Kong and China for sex. The US State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons makes grim reading on a global scale. New Zealand gets off relatively lightly. The report is critical of legalised prostitution and says sentences for those convicted of exploiting minors remain relatively light – including home detention in one case. Among foreign women in New Zealand's commercial sex trade, some may be trafficking victims, though estimates of international trafficking victims are modest, the State Department says.

The report says the Government is doing nothing to reduce demand for the legalised adult commercial sex industry. The US Government opposes legalised prostitution, and the report describes prostitution as "inherently harmful and dehumanising". It calls on the Government to set up an anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed at clients of the sex trade and urges it to continue efforts to identify trafficking victims in the trade and among vulnerable groups such as migrant labourers. A police spokesman said the force was "not aware of any cases involving 'trafficking' in New Zealand". Prime Minister Helen Clark and Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove declined to comment. Labour Department acting policy group manager Stephen Dunstan said there was no proof that New Zealand was a destination country for the trafficking of women for sex.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4574016a6479.html

'Children happier under care of grandparents'
Telegraph (UK) 03/06/2008
Children grow up happier if their grandparents are involved in their upbringing, researchers have said. Academics at Oxford University and the Institute of Education, London, found that grandparents can help young children because they often have more time to spend with them than working parents. They are good at solving their problems as well as discussing their future plans. The survey of more than 1,500 children also discovered that grandparents could help keep them calm during crises such as divorce. Researchers found that one grandmother in three regularly looked after a grandchild, while 40 per cent helped out occasionally.

...Prof Ann Buchanan, the director of the Centre for Research into Parenting and Children in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at Oxford University, said: "What was especially interesting was the link between involved grandparents and adolescent well-being. Closeness was not enough: only grandparents who got stuck in had this positive impact on their grandchildren."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2071290/%27Children-happier-under-care-of-grandparents%27.html

Caregivers say smacking ineffective
NZ Herald June 04, 2008
Parents who smack their children don't necessarily think it is an effective form of discipline, a survey has found. Less than a third of primary caregivers who physically punished a child in the four weeks before responding to the latest New Zealand Health Survey considered it to be an effective punishment. The study found physical punishment was one of the least used forms of discipline in the period, with 10 per cent of children aged from 0 to 14 years having had it in that time.
Maori and Pacific boys and 2 to 4-year-olds were the most likely to be physically punished. About 5 per cent of all primary caregivers surveyed considered physical punishment to be an effective form of discipline. The findings follow last year's law change outlawing the use of parental force against children for purposes of correction.
Ms Bradford said the 17,000 sample size meant the study was more robust and scientific than those commissioned by lobby groups, such as Family First, which she dubbed "highly inaccurate".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10514229
Family First Comment: the survey released today by the Ministry of Health reveals just how desparate the government is to give a positive 'spin' on the anti-smacking law. The report on smacking starts by saying " Parental use of physical punishment is associated with negative developmental outcomes such as antisocial behaviour, poor intellectual development, poor parent-child relationships and mental health problems ." Not according to the NZ research we've read. It also highlights its own shortcomings by saying
"It is important to note that this (survey number) will undercount the use of physical punishment in the past four weeks because:
• only the actions of the primary caregiver are counted, excluding the other adults that look after the child • the primary caregiver may have forgotten
• the primary caregiver may fail to define some acts as physical punishment
• there may be social desirability bias or feelings of guilt."
And Sue Bradford calls our research dodgy???????

Value of parents praised
The Press 03 June 2008
Parents are just as good as teachers when it comes to educating toddlers, an early-childhood educator says. Dr Sarah Farquhar, who presented her findings at the New Zealand Playcentre Federation's Diamond Jubilee conference in Auckland at the weekend, said teacher-led early-education services had little added value to a child's development compared with parent-led services. Farquhar said the impact of family was consistently greater on a child's achievements than Early Childhood Education and government policies needed to recognise the value of involving parents in children's early education.

"If we want to make more of an effective difference for our young children, we should be valuing programmes that involve parents learning much more than they are currently being valued," she said. The Government funded and promoted teacher-led services with the free-20-hours scheme and told parents they should leave their children in the care of others, she said. "These are services that don't involve parents and limit the choices for the parents," Farquhar said. "Evidence shows family factors make such a big difference in the lives of children and their development, and we should create a more equal or level playing field in terms of what government policy is promoting and funding."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4569193a24035.html

Fathers praised for going to child's birth 
Telegraph (UK) 02 June 2008
A survey showed yesterday that 94 per cent of fathers-to-be were present in the delivery room. The study, which compared many aspects of 21st-century child care with parental attitudes in the Sixties and Seventies, has detected "a sea change" in family life and the way we bring up our children. Dr Stoppard, who has sold 20 million copies of her parenting books worldwide, says fathers have escaped "a straitjacket" imposed on them by society. She said the survey proved that, while fathers' natural paternal instincts were stifled 40 years ago, "today, dad is free to be the father he always wanted to be".

The survey was conducted by Dorling Kindersley, the family reference book publishers, Practical Parenting magazine, and the website saga.co.uk. It showed that 94 per cent of fathers chose to be present in the delivery room. In the 1960s, that figure was 27 per cent. Nearly three quarters of mothers (72 per cent) communicate with their unborn baby, compared with 49 per cent in the Seventies, a trend that may be attributed to women now being able to "see" their babies during antenatal scans. The survey also found that attitudes had changed towards other parenting issues, such as smacking – 72 per cent of grandmothers admitting that they smacked their children, while today only four in 10 mothers said that they did the same.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/2062792/Fathers-praised-for-going-to-child%27s-birth.html

Rampage blamed on game obsession
The Dominion Post 01 June 2008
Like a character from Grand Theft Auto, the game he played compulsively, Tim Reid went on a rampage, stole a police car, and left a policeman unconscious and bleeding on the roadside. Yesterday, his lawyer Chris Nicholls said Reid was remorseful for what happened to Sergeant Kevin Wellington in New Plymouth on December 29 last year, but he was a product of his upbringing. He committed violent offences and compulsively played Grand Theft Auto. Mr Nicholls said a video game that showed violence toward police was a public safety concern, with the game promoting the behaviour.

Tim Henare James Junior Reid, 25, of Mt Victoria, Wellington pleaded guilty to aggravated wounding, escaping custody, reckless driving, dangerous driving, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and two charges of failing to stop, breach of supervision orders and being an unlicensed driver....Wellington District Court judge Denys Barry jailed Reid for five years and ordered him to complete a minimum non-parole period lasting two thirds of the sentence. He also disqualified him from driving for two years. He said Reid was hardwired for violence and anti-social behaviour and programmed by his recreational pursuits.

...Judge Barry's concerns were backed by Family First national director Bob McCoskrie, who said violent video games were of far greater concern than violent television programmes or films. "Rather than observing the law breaker you take on the role of the lawbreaker ...we think it desensitises certain people."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4566395a6000.html

Spare the rod, say some
Economist.com May 29th 2008
In rich countries at least, parents and teachers are steadily losing the right to discipline children by force. “AS PART of their daily lives, children across Europe and the world continue to be spanked, slapped, hit, smacked, shaken, kicked, pinched, punched, caned, flogged, belted, beaten and battered in the name of discipline, mainly by adults whom they depend on.” But in some places, it happens less than before, and there is a chance to stop it altogether. That is how the Council of Europe, a 47-country body that is supposed to promote civil liberties from Dublin to Vladivostok, explains its campaign to abolish physical punishment—to be launched in Croatia in mid-June with a flurry of debates, puppet shows, television spots, pamphlets in many languages and stirring calls to “raise your hand against smacking”.

..Just over a year ago New Zealand became the first English-speaking country to ban smacking. A lobby group, Family First, is agitating to reverse that change, saying at least half the population supports the right to smack. But few people expect the ban to be overturned. The police were reassured when they won the right to apply the law with discretion, and there have been no silly prosecutions. Some of New Zealand's pro-smackers lost support because their religious rhetoric—talk of loving corrections, followed by prayers—sounded weird.

..But diehard American spankers may take comfort from defying the latest piece of Utopian dottiness from the UN: a campaign to end the corporal punishment of children, all over the world, by 2009. Whatever the merits of a ban on smacking, this wildly unrealistic goal is hardly the top priority for an organisation that has failed to crack down on far worse forms of abuse by its own blue-helmeted soldiers.
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11455006

Energy drinks linked to risky behavior among teenagers
International Herald Tribune May 27, 2008
Health researchers have identified a surprising new predictor for risky behavior among teenagers and young adults: the energy drink. Super-caffeinated energy drinks, with names like Red Bull, Monster, Full Throttle and Amp, have surged in popularity in the past decade. About a third of 12- to 24-year-olds say they regularly down energy drinks, which account for more than $3 billion in annual sales in the United States.

New research suggests the drinks are associated with a health issue far more worrisome than the jittery effects of caffeine — risk taking. In March, The Journal of American College Health published a report on the link between energy drinks, athletics and risky behavior. The study's author, Kathleen Miller, an addiction researcher at the University of Buffalo, says it suggests that high consumption of energy drinks is associated with "toxic jock" behavior, a constellation of risky and aggressive behaviors including unprotected sex, substance abuse and violence.

The finding doesn't mean the drinks cause bad behavior. But the data suggest that regular consumption of energy drinks may be a red flag for parents that their children are more likely to take risks with their health and safety. "It appears the kids who are heavily into drinking energy drinks are more likely to be the ones who are inclined toward taking risks," Miller said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/27/healthscience/27well.php

Reported assaults on kids nearly double
Rotorua Daily Post 28 February 2008
Reported assaults on children in Rotorua have nearly doubled in the last two years. Police say it's because of greater awareness about family violence. Figures supplied to the Daily Post by Rotorua police show there were 26 arrests in 2006 for assault on a child. That jumped to 45 last year and already this year there have been 29. The figures come as a new survey shows almost half of parents with children under 12 have smacked them in the past year, despite a new anti-smacking law coming into effect in June last year. The survey, commissioned by Family First, has prompted the lobby group to call for the new law to be dumped.

..No one in Rotorua has been arrested for smacking their children but Rotorua Detective Sergeant George Staunton, who leads the Rotorua police Child Abuse Team, says the new law is another tool to emphasise that violence against children is not okay. Mr Staunton said people were only arrested if the smacking was excessive and the police had the power to use their discretion. He said there had been a noticeable rise in Rotorua in the number of people reporting abuse against children. "It goes hand in hand with family violence and how topical it is now to say no to family violence ... It's not tolerated and people are ringing us more." He said no matter how small the complaint was, people should still ring the police. "It might add to something else that we have got. We also talk to Child, Youth and Family. Our only focus is to make sure the children are safe."
http://www.dailypost.co.nz/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3773900&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

Court clears way for 12yo's sex change (Aust)
Evening Standard 26 May 08
A huge ethical row has erupted over a judge's decision to allow a 12- year-old girl to have a sex change that will turn her into a teenage boy. The child's father, who is separated from her mother, is outraged at the prospect but despite his objections the taxpayer-funded sex swap has already got under way. His daughter, who cannot be named because of her age, is already having hormone treatment in Australia in what is one of the first such cases involving a child so young. The girl has also been given permission to apply for a new birth certificate, passport and medical card in a boy's name.

Last night, a relative of the child claimed the girl had been 'vindictively brainwashed' by her mother into making the decision to have the change. A cousin who stayed with the girl's family for two and a half years said yesterday that after a bitter break-up the mother had used the child to 'get back' at the father. 'She's been brainwashed from an early age,' said the cousin, who has to remain anonymous to protect the Victorian girl's identity.

...News of the judge's decision to grant the sex-change treatment has sparked furious debate. Medical ethicist Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini described the ruling as 'astounding'. He added: 'I fail to see how it can be in the interests of a young girl to undergo treatment that will change her for the rest of her life.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23487460-details/Family%27s+fury+as+girl%2C+12%2C+allowed+to+have+sex-change+operation+without+against+father%27s+wishes/article.do
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/2028694/Australia-Judge-gives-girl%2C-12%2C-go-ahead-to-change-sex.html

Prostitution reform has little effect
NZ Herald May 26, 2008
The number of sex workers in New Zealand does not appear to have increased since legislation decriminalising prostitution became law, according to a new report. The Prostitution Law Review Committee was set up to report on the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 three to five years after the act came into force. Its report, just published, was based on work carried out by the Christchurch School of Medicine and Victoria University's Crime and Justice Research Centre. The committee, chaired by former Police Assistant Commissioner Paul Fitzharris, said an accurate count of the number of sex workers was difficult.

However, a comparison between the number of sex workers in Christchurch in 1999, before decriminalisation, and 2006 - after the act was passed - showed the total had stayed about the same. A 2007 estimate in five centres - Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hawkes Bay and Nelson - found a total of 2332 sex workers, the committee said. Numbers of sex workers should continue to be monitored, it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10512446
READ Family First Media Release Prostitution Report Ignores Community and Police Concerns

Poll reveals we're still smacking our children
NZ Herald May 26, 2008
Almost half of parents with children under 12 have smacked them in the past year, a survey has found. The Family First lobby group commissioned a market research company to poll New Zealanders on their attitudes to parental discipline since the anti-smacking law came into effect in June last year. It found that 48 per cent of respondents with children under 12 had smacked their child after the law change. The changes to the Crimes Act outlawed the use of parental force against children for purposes of correction. The issue polarised New Zealanders. The law change was led by Green MP Sue Bradford, whose private member's bill removed from the Crimes Act the statutory defence of reasonable force to correct a child. But it was passed only after last-minute changes, approved by a large majority in Parliament, which directed the police not to prosecute inconsequential offences.

Family First's national director, Bob McCoskrie, said he was surprised the polling found so many parents admitting they had flouted the law. He said 51 per cent of mothers had admitted continuing to smack. "For a new law to be ignored by so many people who are willing to risk a police or [Child, Youth and Family] investigation indicates just how out of step with reality this law is."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10512495&pnum=0

READ Family First Media Release Smacking Poll – NZ’ers Don’t Want to ‘Move On’

READ Family First Media Release Bradford Gets It Wrong on Smacking - Again
Family First Comment: The Greens misinterpret the research, and then misrepresent it to the public!!

Girls' violence in schools on the rise
NZ Herald May 24, 2008
Reality TV and text messaging are being blamed for a big increase in girls' violence in the school playground. Education Ministry figures show a 41 per cent increase in girls being stood down, suspended or kicked out of school for assaults between 2002 and 2006, The Dominion Post reported today. But the way violence was meted out appeared to be changing.

Secondary Principals' Association president Peter Gall told the paper schools were seeing not only more overt physical violence by girls, but a big increase in cyber-bullying - sending nasty text messages and emails, or putting humiliating images or words on the internet. Reality TV shows based on "shaming and bullying" were also encouraging girls in particular to respond aggressively to threats or playground relationship problems. "They prioritise all the sorts of behaviours we are desperately trying to prevent."

Social anthropologist Donna Swift, who runs a girls' violence intervention programme, said teenage girls often used "covert" violence and aggression, such as calling others "sluts" and "hos" in group text messages sent to hundreds of others. The "Barbie Bitches" syndrome had compounded violence among girls, as they tried balancing desires to be attractive with being tough and mean.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10512245
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4558605a11.html

Pedophiles use kids' fashion ads for kicks
Herald Sun (Australia) May 23, 2008
PEDOPHILES have admitted using children's fashion ads to get their kicks, Victoria's Child Safety Commissioner Bernie Geary has warned. Mr Geary has also raised concerns about the premature sexualisation of children in a submission to the Senate inquiry into the sexualisation of children in the media. He said the situation was "a significant concern,", and singled out "sexy" children's clothing. "What benefit or satisfaction adults would obtain from purchasing children's clothing with slogans such as 'Ms Floozy', 'Mr Well-hung', 'Mr Pim', 'Mr A--hole' . . . 'Naughty butt nice', 'Bite this', '$$$ Worth it' and 'I only look innocent', is difficult to comprehend," Mr Geary said. "The fact that adults purchase this sort of clothing for their children illustrates that, unfortunately, not all parents and adults make appropriate choices for children.

In his submission, Mr Geary said that professionals working with offenders had told of clients' "interest in, and use of, sexualised images of children within advertising and marketing". He quoted Royal Children's Hospital Gatehouse Centre co-ordinator Karen Hogan, who said staff working with children and young people who engaged in sexually abusive behaviour had noticed "a marked increase in perpetrators using underwear advertising magazines for stimulation that are delivered to homes". "Males tell us that they are particularly interested in the children's section and that they can use these magazines without detection as it is so commonplace to have this material delivered to their homes," Ms Hogan said. Victoria Police Forensic Interviewing of Sexual Offenders manager Patrick Tidmarsh is also quoted as saying such images encourage pedophiles. "What sexualised/eroticised child images in advertising obviously do is provide validation for those considering further exploitation of children and sex, as part of a pernicious descending spiral," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23742863-662,00.html

Trial paints picture of dysfunctional parents
The Dominion Post 23 May 2008
There were no fancy children's toys in their nursery - just a sofa, heater to keep the room warm and a cot Chris and Cru Kahui shared with simple paper name tags hanging above their heads. It was the twins' sanctuary. Outside their room regular drug and alcohol-fuelled parties raged, funded by the $2000 benefits the twins' parents and extended family were bringing in. Later, their mother, Macsyna King, would confess to using the methamphetamine drug P during this time.

Amid this chaos someone entered the twins' sanctuary in their Mangere home on June 12, 2006, and brutalised them so severely no medical intervention could save them. The twins had been battered almost from the time they were discharged from Middlemore's neo-natal unit. When baby Cru stopped breathing on that night, his mother Macsyna was nowhere to be seen. As his lips turned blue and his eyes rolled backwards, his father Chris turned to his dad Banjo, sister Mona and her partner Stuart for their collective medical knowledge. They declared him "OK". No ambulance was called, no rushing him to the accident and emergency department, no call to a 24-hour helpline for advice.

Instead, Chris sent his father to look for Macsyna, who had stormed out of the house earlier in the day demanding time out.When Banjo reached her sister Emily King's home he was told the two woman had gone out drinking. When Macsyna eventually arrived back at Emily's house, she crashed on the couch and fell into such a deep sleep that when her sister tried to wake her a short time later to tell her one of her babies stopped breathing, Macsyna could not be roused. When told again the following morning, Macsyna offered to drive Emily to work and mind her child for the day. Eventually she went home and ripped into Chris, demanding to know "what the hell happened".

Two hours later they strapped the babies into their car seats and drove to McDonald's for breakfast before going to the doctor. Their GP ordered them to take the babies to hospital immediately but the parents bundled their babies back into their car then went shopping, stopping at a supermarket for baby supplies. They then returned home to fetch the babies' Plunket books, but Chris stormed off down the road to walk off his rage.

Finally, 17 hours after Cru stopped breathing, Macsyna arrived at the hospital. Struggling to carry first one, then the other baby into the emergency department alone, she calmly waited in line to be seen. When she phoned Chris to tell him the twins were critical and would probably die, he told her "whatever" and he continued playing on his PlayStation. The police were called and a lengthy investigation followed.

Early on they decided Macsyna could not have inflicted the injuries because she has an alibi: she was with her sister all night. That left Chris as their prime suspect. But during the trial it was revealed for the first time that Emily received a call in Mangere at 7.54pm on June 12, an hour before Cru stopped breathing and at a time both women were supposed to have been visiting a friend in West Auckland. This, the defence said, was when Macsyna returned to the house while Chris was dropping Mona at hospital. In a fit of rage over his absence she "does something terrible to her twins".
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4557073a24035.html

Fathers aren't needed say MPs: Commons decides IVF babies can do without a male role model
Evening Standard 21 May 08   
Fathers were last night effectively declared an irrelevance in modern Britain. The requirement for fertility doctors to consider a child's need for a male role model before giving women IVF treatment was scrapped by MPs. In a free vote, they swept away the rule despite impassioned pleas that the Government plan would "drive another nail into the coffin of the traditional family". Labour rebels said it would send entirely the wrong signal to society as Britain faces a crisis in responsible parenting.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, had warned it would remove the father from the heart of the family. He accused the Government of putting the interests of "consumers" who want to become parents before the welfare of children. But in the Commons, ministers won support for the legislation.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23485937-details/Fathers+aren%27t+needed+say+MPs%3A+Commons+decides+IVF+babies+can+do+without+a+male+role+model/article.do

MPs reject need for father in IVF (UK)
BBC News 20 May 2008
MPs have voted to scrap laws forcing clinics to consider the need for a "father and mother" before allowing women to seek IVF treatment. Iain Duncan Smith led the cross-party bid, saying the absence of a father had a "detrimental effect" on a child. His plan was defeated by 292 votes to 217. Currently, IVF clinics have to consider the "welfare" of any child created, including the need for a father. But the government wants the focus instead on "supportive parenting". MPs also opposed a further bid to ensure there is a "father or a male role model" before fertility treatment, by 290 votes to 222. The issue of the role of fathers in IVF comes in the second day of committee stage debate of the controversial Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, aimed at updating laws from 1990.

 ...On Monday, MPs voted down a cross-party attempt to ban hybrid human animal embryos. Roman Catholic cabinet ministers Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy voted for a ban, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron both opposed it. A bid to ban "saviour siblings" - babies selected to provide genetic material for seriously ill relatives -was also voted down.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7410934.stm

'Father' to go from birth certificates (Aust)
Sydney Morning Herald May 18, 2008
A CONTROVERSIAL new bill that will remove the word "father" from birth certificates to recognise lesbian couples who have children through IVF will be put before NSW Parliament. Fifty laws across NSW covering the Local Government Act, Industrial Relations Act and the constitution will be amended to include new parental presumption protection for female same-sex couples. The bill equates the position of a lesbian partner of a woman who has a child after becoming pregnant by a fertilisation procedure, other than sexual intercourse, with the position of a married woman's husband. Lesbian parents will see expressions such as "birth mother" replace "mother" and "both parents" to replace "the father and the mother" on birth certificates.

Lesbian parents will also be given protection for their children under workers' compensation, inheritance law and parent-teacher nights at school. Schools will also be forced to recognise both partners in a lesbian couple as "parents". The conservative Australian Family Association is campaigning against the change. Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby spokeswoman Emily Gray said the changes would give children added emotional and financial stability.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/parenting/father-to-go-from-birth-certificates/2008/05/17/1210765258007.html

Sex in the city makes Mt Vic residents see red
The Dominion Post 21 May 2008
Irate neighbours of a Mt Victoria brothel have called for commercial sex to be kept out of Wellington's residential suburbs. The Lovely Lilly opened in Pirie St about 18 months ago and did business below the radar of residents for months. It gained Wellington City Council approval last year to increase its number of working girls, outraging some local people. Residents say the brothel's busiest time is between 11am and 3pm on weekdays, ruining the family feel of the suburb.

Lilly co-owners Li Dan and Li Zhong Cheng have been served a trespass notice after one neighbour called police as tensions mounted. The issue has erupted as the city council prepares to hear submissions on its commercial sex premises bylaws tomorrow.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4554947a10.html

Married Kiwis happiest and healthiest
The Press 20 May 2008
Married people are the happiest and healthiest Kiwis, while the unhappiest are divorced, widowed or separated men, a survey of sport and leisure shows. The survey was done by Massey University researchers as part of the International Social Survey Programme. Marketing professor Phil Gendall led the survey, which asked 2250 people older than 18 about sport and leisure activities, and asked them to gauge their health and happiness.

It found people to be generally happy. Most wanted more leisure time, however, and 70 per cent said lack of cash stopped them pursuing preferred activities. The most popular leisure activities were watching television, listening to music, playing sport, getting together with friends, shopping, spending time on the Internet and reading books.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4554689a19716.html

Time Out - A year after the anti-smacking bill
The Aucklander 14 May 2008
CLICK HERE to read article

California lifts gay marriage ban 
BBC News 15 May 2008
California's top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional. The state's Supreme Court said the "right to form a family relationship" applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality. The ban was approved by voters in 2000 but challenged by gay rights activists and the city of San Francisco. The state legislature twice passed laws to legalise gay marriage, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed them. He said California's court system should rule on the matter.

The seven-judge panel voted 4-3 in favour of the plaintiffs who argued that the 2000 law was discriminatory. "Limiting the designation of marriage to a union 'between a man and a woman' is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute," California Chief Justice Ron George said in the written opinion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7403547.stm

Family First Comment: ProtectMarriage.com is a coalition of grassroots organizations, churches and voters, formed in order to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2008 ballot. The Supreme Court’s ruling coincides with the submission of 1.1 million signatures to California’s 58 counties. Known as the California Marriage Protection Act, the initiative’s signatures are now undergoing a review for validation. Based on the current projection of valid signatures, it appears the initiative will qualify for the ballot.
What would happen if a court decided H2O no longer has the exclusive right to be water? Watch an insightful video from CitizenLink.com http://www.citizenlink.org/videofeatures/A000007448.cfm
California court may not have the last word on marriage http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/california_court_may_not_have_the_last_word_on_marriage/

Lana pulls plug on TV for kids
Sunday Star Times 18 May 2008
Lying in the grass and finding cloud pictures has beaten 49 other activities in a new poll as the best thing to do with children. Everything on the top 10 list is free or cheap, doesn't involve PlayStation, and isn't advertised on TV. Nearly 30,000 votes were taken from kids and parents in a March survey through a website and print media.

The survey, carried out by a major soap company, rated activities involving mud at numbers eight and 10. Fourteen people who voted said that every kid under 10 should be allowed to go out in public dressed up as a superhero. The results were released last week alongside an international study of 1500 mothers which found 92% of New Zealand participants felt their children were growing up too fast, compared with a 76% global average. Just over 80% of Kiwi mothers said their children "often" played outdoors, compared to 60% globally, including in Great Britain, France and the United States, Thailand and Turkey. New Zealand had the lowest proportion of mothers concerned about their children getting hurt or being unsafe of all countries surveyed, and less than 1% said they worried about their kids getting dirty.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/4552213a6442.html
VISIT the Persil Top 10 List http://www.persiltop10.co.nz/top-ten.aspx 

Paradise Lost
Sunday Star Times "Sunday" Magazine 18 May 2008
Bob McCoskrie's cellphone plays Don't Worry, Be Happy while you wait for him to pick up. In reality, however, the national director of Auckland-based lobby group Family First is worried about many things. Most obviously, he is worried that the recent changes to the Crimes Act took away parents' right to whack their children. But McCoskrie is also worried about the climbing rates of divorce and abortion, about unmarried or same-sex couples raising children, about childcare subsidies encouraging women to go out to work instead of staying home and nurturing their children.

He's worried about violent and sexually explicit magazines and TV shows, about brothels setting up in his neighbourhood, about "sexualised" T-shirts for children and "inappropriate" advertising stunts, such as a Hell Pizza campaign where a "meat lover's" pizza was promoted via free condoms. He objected to a 2004 episode of The Simpsons in which the little yellow family used the words "ass" and "w**ker", though his complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority was not upheld.

Reading the Family First website, you might be excused for thinking that New Zealand was hurtling down the highway to Hell, morally speaking. But McCoskrie himself is calm, considered, and not at all shrill in conversation, couching his more controversial opinions in genial generalities and nimbly side-stepping opportunities to appear too much of a wowser.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4551109a19799.html

Video games cause violence, most children admit to Ofcom (UK)
UK Telegraph 16 May 2008
Most children believe that playing violent computer games does lead to aggressive behaviour, according to a survey by the broadcasting regulator. Two thirds of those aged between 12 and 15 said that violence in games had more of an impact on behaviour than violence in television or films, the study by Ofcom found. The findings come only weeks after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, a computer game in which the main character robs and murders his way through the criminal underworld. Although given an 18-certificate, parenting groups have expressed concern that the game, which has smashed all previous entertainment sales records, will fall into the hands of younger children.

Ofcom questioned more than 2,000 parents and their children to find out how the use of technology was changing. It found that children’s bedrooms were increasingly becoming “multi-media centres”, with those aged 12 to 15 having at least six media devices in their rooms, including the internet, MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. Those aged eight to 11 had, on average, four devices in their rooms. But despite concerns over children accessing the web unsupervised, a rising number of parents said they had not installed blocking software to stop their sons and daughters watching unsuitable content.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1967794/Video-games-cause-violence%2C-most-children-admit-to-Ofcom.html

Why no child is safe from the sinister cult of emo
Daily Mail (UK) 15th May 2008
Hannah was a happy 13-year-old until she became an 'emo' - part of a sinister teenage craze that romanticises death. Three months later she hanged herself. In the unending bleakness of the weeks that have followed, the couple have fought to make sense of what happened. Why on earth did their daughter — a popular, intelligent and attractive girl — do such a thing?

They could find only one clue: Hannah was what is known as an "emo". Some describe it as a cult or a sect, but in reality the term — derived from the word "emotional" — encapsulates a trend that is becoming hugely popular among Britain's schoolchildren. A trans-Atlantic import, its followers dress in black, favouring tight jeans, T-shirts, studded belts and sneakers or skater shoes. Hair is all-important: often dyed black and straightened, it is worn in a long fringe brushed to one side of the face.

Music also plays a critical role. Emos like guitar-based rock with emotional lyrics. American bands such as My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte and Blink 182 are particular favourites.

No doubt many adults would ask: "So what?" On the surface, it all sounds typically teenage — angst-ridden, over-dramatic and tribal.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=566481&in_page_id=1879

Children growing up too fast - experts
NZPA 15 May 2008
Children today are growing up too fast and acting like adults at a very early age, child health experts say. With television and the internet playing an increasing role in their lives, children are often exposed to ideas and issues they cannot comprehend fully. They are coming under influences that were kept away from them in the past , and sometimes their parents are to blame. Parents who want to give the best edge to their kids in a competitive world put a lot of emphasis on excellence, early childhood educator Kimberly Powell said. The effect is to put pressure on children to grow up early in a consumerist society.

"In the process, children are being robbed of their childhoods and innocence," said Dr Powell, a professor at Massey University in Palmerston North. Younger teens did not have the maturity to deal with ideas that were once first encountered by adolescents.

Dr Powell and other child health experts were worried teenagers were becoming sexually active much earlier than they should, and experimenting with drugs. New Zealand teens are showing the world the way, with the third-highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. Figures for 2006 showed 28.4 births per 1000 girls aged 15-19, up from a 10-year low of 25.6 in 2001. Factors often blamed for the rise of "teen-adults" included television, the internet, absentee and lenient parents, ugly divorces, terminal illnesses, sexual and social abuse and peer pressure. "It is a world-wide trend and parents are often only taking minimal responsibility for proper care of their children," Dr Powell said. "They easily blame it all on work, financial commitments and contemporary lifestyles." Parents said they were unable to cope with today's teen responsibilities and commitments as they had changed so much from previous generations.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4549496a19716.html

Food firms serve fewer unhealthy ads for kids
NZ Herald May 16, 2008
Food manufacturers have sharply reduced their television advertising of unhealthy foods during the "children's" viewing times, in anticipation of a new voluntary code coming into effect in July. The Television Broadcasters Council yesterday released further details of the anti-obesity code that aims to restrict ads for unhealthy foods and drinks for up to three hours and five minutes a day during what TV stations call the school-age children's programming times. These time slots - on TV2, TV3 and Maori Television - are narrower than the periods during which many children actually watch TV.

...Obesity Action Coalition director Leigh Sturgiss said it would do only half the job because so many children watched TV outside the hours in which the restrictions would apply. "Over 30 per cent of children are still watching TV at 8.30 at night ... Kids' favourite TV shows are The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants, Shortland Street and Home and Away. Only Spongebob Squarepants is shown during the recognised children's viewing time."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=105104