Do Texts Lead to Sex?
Teens who text or use social networks a lot are more likely to drink, have sex, get into fights or take illegal drugs, according to a new study by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The study focused on so-called hyper-texters, classified as youth who send more than 120 texts a day, and hyper-networkers, who spend more than three hours a day on social networking sites. Research found that hyper-texters were 3.5 times more likely to have had sex than their less text-centric peers, while hyper-networkers were more likely to fight, drink or use drugs. Researchers add that they don’t believe the fault inherently lies with texting or networking. Rather, these things are symptoms of a bigger problem: lack of parental oversight. “If parents are monitoring their kids’ texting and social networking, they’re probably monitoring other activities, as well,” lead author Dr. Scott Frank, an associate professor at Case Western, told the Associated Press. (Time, AP)

Parents Can’t Hide Stress from Kids
We live in stressful times, and it’s natural that adults would take on some of that stress. While most parents try to keep their pressure from affecting their children, kids have a message for them: It’s not working. According to a report released by the American Psychological Association, 91 percent of children between the ages of 8 and 17 say they know when they’re parents are under pressure. Most of the time, they notice because of the way their parents act while under stress: More than a third of kids say their moms and dads yell, and 30 percent say they argue more with family members. “[Parents are] trying to protect their children from stress,” says Norman Anderson, CEO of the American Psychological Association. “The message from the survey, unfortunately, is that children are able to see through that.” (USAToday)
 
Unhappy Meal
San Francisco’s board of supervisors recently voted 8-3 to forbid restaurants from giving away toys in meals that exceed the city’s guidelines for calories, sugar or fat—essentially depriving the Happy Meal and other fast-food kids’ meals of one of their most popular selling points. Predictably, the ruling has ticked off a lot of folks, including some who’d love to encourage youth to eat healthier. “One of the reasons why the eat-healthy lobby still meets with such resistance is that it is seen as a conspiracy of killjoys and nanny-statists trying to force us to give up everything fun and delicious and to eat wet dishcloths instead,” said Henry Dimbleby, who runs a chain of healthy eateries in Britain. “Now they want to steal our children’s toys, too?” (Time)

Muggles Take to Quidditch
In J.K. Rowling’s magical world of Harry Potter, the popular sport of quidditch is played at a breakneck speed on flying broomsticks. While today’s real-world quidditch players are strictly earthbound, that hasn’t dampened the sport’s popularity. Quidditch is now played on more than 200 college campuses across the country, and more than 60 of those teams gathered in New York City Nov. 13-14, 2010, to take part in the first “Quidditch World Cup.” Some aficionados are even pushing the NCAA to recognize it as an official sport. Still, it’s obvious that quidditch loses something in the translation: In the Harry Potter books and movies, the snitch is a swift, self-animate ball that zips through the air at incredible speeds—so incredible that any team to snag the snitch is handsomely rewarded. In the Muggle version of quidditch, the snitch is typically a tennis ball affixed to the shorts of someone who periodically dashes across the field of play. “Everything sort of clicks when the snitch is running and the seeker is chasing him. Such an adrenaline rush,” said quidditch player Alex Benepe. (ABC News)