{"id":82,"date":"2014-11-20T04:30:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T04:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?page_id=82"},"modified":"2026-06-02T15:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T22:30:25","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 55%; padding: 0 33pt 0 0; float: left;\">\n<h1 style=\"font-size: 1.2em; text-align: center;\"><strong>Welcome to YouthFacts<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> We Are Debunkers<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div style=\"background-color: #ebebec;\">\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-66 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/OccupyOakland222Oct11s.png\" alt=\"OccupyOakland222Oct11s\" width=\"302\" height=\"269\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">YouthFacts is dedicated to providing factual information on youth issues \u2013- crime, violence, sex, drugs, drinking, social behaviors, education, civic engagement, attitudes, media, whatever teen terror du jour arises. Since we emphasize demonstrable fact over teen-bashing emotionalism and interest-driven propaganda, the information you find here will be dramatically different than in the major media and political forums.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_160966\" style=\"width: 385px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/gun-fatality-chart.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-160966\" class=\"wp-image-160966\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/gun-fatality-chart-300x143.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/gun-fatality-chart-300x143.png 300w, https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/gun-fatality-chart.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-160966\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sources: CDC (2022), World Population Review (2022).<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\"><strong>Example: The truth about school shootings no one talks about<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">Here are the unvarnished facts about United States school shootings leaders, interest groups, and\u00a0major media on all sides refuse to engage, because they demolish everyone\u2019s arguments:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">1. Even in the worst year for school shootings \u2013 even with the Uvalde, Sandy Hook,\u00a0Parkland, etc. school massacres \u2013 a student in an American primary or secondary (K-12)\u00a0school is safer from being shot than a person in Germany.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">2. One 64-year-old shot more people in Las Vegas in 15 minutes than are shot in all 131,000\u00a0American schools in four years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">3. A student would have to attend school every school day for 400 years to risk having any\u00a0kind of shooting (homicide, accident, fatal, non-fatal) anywhere in their school, and for\u00a0over 200,000 years before risking being fatally shot in or on the grounds of a school.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">4. We should be far more frightened when a student leaves school, especially if they are\u00a0going home, where they are many times more likely to be shot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">5. Why are schools so uniquely safe from gun violence? Because (a) they are heavily\u00a0occupied by young populations singularly unlikely to shoot themselves or others, and (b)\u00a0nearly all are gun-free.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\">6. Why do interest groups on all sides demonize schools as bullet-riddled places students\u00a0should be terrified to enter? Because all sides choose exploit fears of youth to advance\u00a0their agendas even at the expense of making schools more dangerous. The rampant\u00a0hysteria gun-control lobbies create about schools fuels the crazed impetus by gun-rights\u00a0groups to arm school personnel and officers -a reckless policy that has already caused\u00a0more school shootings.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 5pt 10pt 0 15pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=160964\">The YouthFacts study<\/a> uses standard Centers for Disease Control, FBI, Education Department, and demographic data to compare the worst recent year for school shootings\u00a0with gun violence risks elsewhere in American society and other nations, adjusted for the\u00a0time youths and adults actually spend in those places. Its conclusions are straightforward and\u00a0factual \u2013 and therefore startling and challenging to America\u2019s grossly deceptive gun debate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a class=\"story__title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2024\/1\/30\/2220368\/-As-teen-crime-plunges-juvenile-justice-interests-resurrect-crude-19th-century-racism\">As teen crime plunges, \u201cjuvenile justice\u201d interests resurrect crude 19th- <\/a><\/strong><strong><a class=\"story__title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2024\/1\/30\/2220368\/-As-teen-crime-plunges-juvenile-justice-interests-resurrect-crude-19th-century-racism\">century racism<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/CA-crime-curve.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-161071 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/CA-crime-curve-300x139.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"345\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/CA-crime-curve-300x139.png 300w, https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/CA-crime-curve.png 550w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 345px) 100vw, 345px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The juvenile system\u2019s crisis can be summed up in <a title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/cde.ucr.cjis.gov\/LATEST\/webapp\/#\/pages\/explorer\/crime\/arrest\">FBI tabulations of arrests<\/a> of persons under age 18 for criminal offenses:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1995: \u00a02,343,000<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>2022: \u00a0 \u00a0 408,000<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Today, far fewer youths than middle-agers in their 50s are being arrested \u2013 a mule-kick to the gut of fossilized notions of crime. Adjustments for FBI crime coverage and youth population growth enhance the astounding teenage crime plunge still more.<\/p>\n<p>No one ever imagined that as America\u2019s teenage population grew and went from heavily White to majority of Color (Latinx, Black, Asian, Native, and other Nonwhite), crime and violence would plummet as never before. In fact, experts had predicted the opposite: a generation of Clockwork-Orange-like\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themarshallproject.org\/2020\/11\/20\/superpredator-the-media-myth-that-demonized-a-generation-of-black-youth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cteenage super-predators\u201d marauding cities<\/a>\u00a0and countryside alike.<\/p>\n<p>Never have experts been so wrong. Now, the 25-year crash in teenage crime \u2013 down an astounding 87% in just one generation \u2013 is an existential threat to hordes of academics, officers, corporations, agencies, and advocates dependent on masses of youths shooting, robbing, and stealing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 align=\"center\">Youth Facts Contributors<\/h2>\n<div style=\"background-color: #e7f9f8;\">\n<p><strong>Professor Anthony Bernier<\/strong> teaches youth services at the nation\u2019s largest library school (San Jose State University\u2019s School of Information) and is Project Director for and blogs at YouthFacts.org. He lives in Eugene, Oregon, and rides a Vespa P200E and a BMW C650GT.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mike Males <\/strong>is senior researcher for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, San Francisco; formerly taught sociology, psychology, and epidemiology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Irvine; and has authored four books and scores of journal articles and op-eds on youth and social topics. He lives in Auburn, California, and writes weird futuristic fiction.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Males&#8217; carefully documented Substack posts confront myths about teens and social media, including the shocking fact that Centers for Disease Control surveys show access to social media actually prevents suicide attempts and serious injury among both younger and older teens by connecting them to others. See recent posts <a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wendy Schaetzel Lesko<\/strong>&#8216;s experiences as a community organizer and journalist are\u00a0woven into several of her books including <i>Youth! The 26% Solution. <\/i>After two decades with the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/youthactivismproject.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/youthactivismproject.org\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1671073129435000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0YR4b8njyaMsyv9f4a240c\">Youth Activism Project<\/a>, <\/em>now Wendy leads<em><a href=\"https:\/\/youthinfusion.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/youthinfusion.org\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1671073129435000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2d1h3uwafcgck47uJTC3jf\">Youth Infusion <\/a><\/em>which focuses on adult-run nonprofits and government agencies that engage teens as co-strategists in many organizational operations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tori Puente<\/strong> is an MLIS student at San Jose State University, focusing on archives and digital curation.\u00a0 She is a current member of the American Library Association (ALA) and Society of American Archivists (SAA) student chapters. Tori lives in Los Angeles with her cat and dog.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 40%; padding: 0.33pt 0 0; float: left; background-color: #f2f2f2;\">\n<p style=\"font-size: 1.2em; text-align: center;\"><strong>New Blog Posts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-161116 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screen-Shot-2024-06-23-at-6.51.10-PM-300x37.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screen-Shot-2024-06-23-at-6.51.10-PM-300x37.png 300w, https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screen-Shot-2024-06-23-at-6.51.10-PM.png 362w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161352\"><strong>The New Precarity of Teen Librarianship <\/strong><\/a> <em>Young adult (YA) librarianship emerged as an act of defiance \u2013 unapologetically asserting that professional service required distinct skills and focus. In 1978, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), founded in response to prevailing dismissive attitudes about teenagers and librarianship, advocated how the field offered important insights and contributions.<\/em>\u00a0<em style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><strong>By Anthony Bernier, June 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"post-title published title-X77sOw\" dir=\"auto\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161350\">\u201cThe land of the free\u201d? An appalling new study finds most American parents confine children to house arrest <\/a><\/strong><em style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Generation Z is right \u2014 Americans, stop having kids. That issue is raised by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/\">Institute for Family Studies<\/a>\u00a0damning new report, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/report-brief\/high-tech-low-play-the-life-of-american-children\">High Tech, Low Play: The Life of American Children<\/a>.\u201d It is inciting the usual moronic anti-youth media distortions divorced from what it really shows. <\/em><b style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><\/b><strong style=\"font-style: italic;\">By Mike Males, <em><strong>May 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"post-title published title-X77sOw\" dir=\"auto\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161348\">Everything we\u2019re told about \u201cteenage suicide\u201d and \u201cbullying\u201d is wrong (part 2) <\/a><\/strong><em style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The teenage \u201cbullying\u201d discussion is so disgusting it\u2019s hard to write about. It reveals how depraved, cruel, uncaring \u2013 and yes, bullying \u2013 today\u2019s authorities are in indulging smug hate speech toward young people to cover up their own derelictions. <\/em><strong style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><em>By Mike Males, May 2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"post-title published title-X77sOw\" dir=\"auto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161346\"><strong>Everything we\u2019re told about \u201cteenage suicide\u201d and \u201cbullying\u201d is wrong (part 1) <\/strong><\/a><em>Let\u2019s begin with \u201cteenage suicide,\u201d which I\u2019ve written about before, with some new information on how derelict authorities are on this life-or-death issue.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The first lie:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medicine.yale.edu\/news-article\/youth-suicide-is-on-the-rise-yale-aims-to-save-lives\/\">suicide rates among teens are skyrocketing<\/a>\u00a0along with social media use,\u00a0every\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/0000018c-f460-d397-affe-fe63fe190000-123\">news article<\/a> and every quotable \u201cexpert\u201d trumpets.\u00a0<\/em><em style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><strong>By Mike Males, May 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"post-title published title-X77sOw\" dir=\"auto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161337\"><strong>Parents\u2019 abuses and adversities loom so large in teenagers\u2019 mental health that obsessing over social media is pointless, a new analysis of our top health survey shows.<\/strong><\/a><em>\u00a0Let\u2019s begin with what I hope is broad agreement: every child\/teenager deserves to grow up in homes 100% free of abusive, violent, addicted, severely troubled, and\/or criminal parents and grownups. That is, the perfect Father Knows Best family (the TV version, not the actors\u2019 real lives) today\u2019s authorities pretend all teens live in. <\/em><em><strong>By Mike Males, May 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"post-title published title-X77sOw\" dir=\"auto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161335\"><strong>\u201cProtect children\u201d crusaders\u2019 zeal to punish teenagers and social media now openly endangers young people <\/strong><\/a>The awkward Jungianism \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Enantiodromia\">enantiodromia<\/a>\u201d describes the bizarre progression of ideological movements into their polar opposites just as their success is peaking.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently, my argument that the global movement to \u201cprotect children\u201d by banning teenagers under age 16 (soon to be 18, then 21) from social media spearheaded by psychologists\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanhaidt.com\/social-media\/#:~:text=This%20essay%20gives%20a%20narrative%20overview%20of%20the,point%2C%20drawing%20on%20the%20two%20collaborative%20reviews%20below.\">Jonathan Haidt<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.generationtechblog.com\/\">Jean Twenge<\/a>, and allies actually endangers young people by distracting policy makers from real dangers while denying youths access to vital online connections, was largely over what scientific information shows.<em style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"> <strong>By Mike Males, April 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Top Posts From Mike&#8217;s Substack<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div id=\"substack-feed-embed\"><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  window.SubstackFeedWidget = {\n    substackUrl: \"mikemales.substack.com\",\n    posts: 3,\n    filter: \"top\"\n  };\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/substackapi.com\/embeds\/feed.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/h2>\n<div style=\"width: 40%; padding: 0.33pt 0 0; float: left; background-color: #f2f2f2;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to YouthFacts We Are Debunkers YouthFacts is dedicated to providing factual information on youth issues \u2013- crime, violence, sex, drugs, drinking, social behaviors, education, civic engagement, attitudes, media, whatever teen terror du jour arises. Since we emphasize demonstrable fact over teen-bashing emotionalism and interest-driven propaganda, the information you find here will be dramatically different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-82","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":286,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161358,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82\/revisions\/161358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}