{"id":84803,"date":"2015-08-15T16:35:27","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T16:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?page_id=84803"},"modified":"2015-08-15T17:04:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T17:04:08","slug":"childrens-health","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?page_id=84803","title":{"rendered":"Children’s health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bad\u00a0joke: Americans really\u00a0think\u00a0sexting and internet predators are among the biggest threats to the young<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2013, more than 1,500 children and teenagers were murdered (half by violence, half by fatal neglect), 200,000 were physically and sexually abused and raped, and 60,000 were criminally bullied in substantiated victimizations<\/a> by parents and caretakers in their own homes. Eight hundred children and teens are killed, and 80,000 injured, every year by adult \u201coverage\u201d drunken drivers<\/a>, and hundreds die and hundreds of thousands suffer health effects every year from the secondhand effects of their parents\u2019 cigarette smoking<\/a>. Sixteen million children and youth live in poverty<\/a>, with six million suffering utter destitution, harsh conditions that underlie virtually every youth problem: murder, assault, rape, gun violence, sexual issues, violent deaths, traffic deaths, disease, HIV infection, school dropout, and obesity, and many others.<\/p>\n

So, what do many more Americans think are bigger problems, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health<\/a>? Internet safety, school violence, and peer bullying, to name three, with sexting barely edged out by child abuse and neglect. Childhood hunger ranked far below the splashy stuff. Child and youth poverty didn\u2019t even make the rankings. Nor did parents\u2019 and household adults\u2019 alcohol, drug, and tobacco abuse, criminality, instability, and abandonment.<\/p>\n

Throughout the poll, respondents flocked to the easy, fun \u201cthreats\u201d that blamed the personal behaviors of young people, such as drugs, drinking, smoking, bullying, internet behaviors, and school violence. Meanwhile, they exempted the much, much bigger, more disturbing dangers imposed by older generations\u2019 abuses, addictions, mental instability, and selfishness. Put together, internet predators<\/a>, sexting and bullying<\/a>, and violence at school<\/a> might, in a bad year, be linked to 40\u00a0documentable fatalities (including all murders, suicides, and accidents) \u2013 all tragedies, but nothing approaching the massive toll caused by poverty, parents\u2019 troubles, and abuse.<\/p>\n

Kudos to the fraction of grownups who saw through politicians\u2019 and interest groups\u2019 moralistic media splashes and identified genuine problems. Unfortunately, the refusal of\u00a0top American authorities, including health and medical groups, and most\u00a0adults to take children\u2019s and youths\u2019 health seriously remains a national shame. (Mike Males)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bad\u00a0joke: Americans really\u00a0think\u00a0sexting and internet predators are among the biggest threats to the young In 2013, more than 1,500 children and teenagers were murdered (half by violence, half by fatal neglect), 200,000 were physically and sexually abused and raped, and 60,000 were criminally bullied in substantiated victimizations by parents and caretakers in their own homes. […]<\/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-84803","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84803","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=84803"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84831,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84803\/revisions\/84831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}