TUNING IN — Most youth workers are concerned about the distractions in their young charges lives—and there’s arguably no distraction as powerful as the television set. Now we learn, courtesy the Nielsen Company (the organization that studies television like no one else), children are spending more time in front of the TV these days than they have in eight years. Children ages 2-5 watch a whopping 32 hours of television a week, and kids ages 6-11 tune in for an average of 28 hours. Most of that time—78 percent—is spent viewing television the old-fashioned way … watching shows “live.” The other 22 percent is split among DVDs, videogame consoles and watching pre-recorded shows. (MediaDailyNews)

A “D” KIDS WANT TO GET — The health of youth in youth ministry is, naturally, of great concern to those who watch them during church-based get-togethers. Now, word is many children aren’t getting enough vitamin D. The vitamin, according to nutritionists, helps build healthy bones and may even help protect us from colds and winter eczema. Moreover, it doesn’t require massive changes in diet: Our bodies naturally produce the vitamin when we frolic out in the sun. But children are spending less time outside these days, and that, according to experts, is leading to dangerously low levels of D—particularly in African-American and Hispanic children. Millions of kids, they say, may be deficient in the vitamin. “If our associations are correct, this is a big problem,” says Dr Jonathan Mansback, lead author of a new vitamin D-related study published in the November issue of Pediatrics. (TIME)

“WHERE WAS I GOING TO GO?” — We often don’t think of child prostitution as a big problem in the United States, and it’s certainly not an issue most youth workers would think affects members of their congregations. Yet when it comes to teens who run away from home, many find themselves making decisions that, otherwise, would be unthinkable. About 1.6 million children run away from home every year. Most return within a week. But of those who don’t, an estimated third sell their bodies for food, drugs or a place to stay, according to several studies. Nicole Clark puts a face with the statistics. The girl ran away when she was 14 years old. But when she couldn’t find a new place to stay, she accepted the offer to live at an older man’s home. The two began having sex and, later, the man demanded that she start sleeping with his friends for money. She agreed. “Where else was I going to go?” Nicole said. She wound up becoming a prostitute for 14 months, pimped out by a man who kept her locked in his garage for days, before finally escaping. (The New York Times)

CROSS PURPOSES — A T-shirt meant to foster school spirit at Penn State has some critics believing the school’s promoting the Holy Spirit, instead. The white shirt features blue lettering that says “Penn State White Out” on the front, and “Don’t be intimidated … it’s just me and 110,000 of my friends,” on the back. The kicker: The words on the front cross a vertical blue line, forming the shape of a cross. The Philadelphia branch of the Anti-Defamation League complained, and the Penn State student newspaper (The Daily Collegian) has received several letters regarding the shirt. About 30,000 students have purchased the shirts. (Fox News)