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Time spent in blue spaces benefits children in later life, says study

SOURCE LINK THE GUARDIAN

Exposure to spaces such as beaches and rivers leads to greater value being placed in natural settings, study finds

Childhood days on the beach or messing around in rivers can have significant lasting benefits for our wellbeing in adulthood, according to a study.

It found that exposure to blue spaces – such as coasts, rivers and lakes – as a child made revisiting blue spaces in adulthood more likely, as these adults showed greater familiarity with and placed greater value in natural settings.

More than 15,000 participants in 18 different countries were surveyed for the study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology by researchers at the University of Exeter.

“Learning to swim and appreciate the dangers in terms of rip currents, cold temperatures etc is of course primary,” says Mathew White, a senior scientist at the University of Vienna and co-author of the study, “but the message we are trying to get across is that to only teach children about the dangers of water settings may make them overly afraid of, and ill-equipped to benefit from, places that can also be hugely beneficial to their health and wellbeing as they grow up.

“The vast majority of blue space visits both for adults and children do not involve getting wet – so there are also many advantages from spending time near water, not just in it.”

There has been a growing body of research over the last decade about the specific beneficial effects of blue space on mental health.

A review published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health in 2011 suggested visits to blue space could increase people’s physical activity levels and lower stress and anxiety, while boosting their mood and psychological wellbeing.

Another review published by the Environmental Agency in 2020, found that blue spaces were associated with improvement of mood and feelings of restoration to a greater degree than green spaces.

The study’s lead author, Valeria Vitale, a PhD candidate at Sapienza University of Rome, said via email: “We recognise that both green and blue spaces have a positive impact on people’s mental and physical health. Also, prior studies examining childhood nature exposure and adulthood outcomes have largely focused on green space, or natural spaces in general. However, as we highlighted in our paper blue spaces have unique sensory qualities (light reflections, wave motion, sounds, etc) and facilitate a distinct range of leisure activities (swimming, fishing, water sports).”

She added: “We believe our findings are particularly relevant to practitioners and policymakers because of the nationally representative nature of the samples. First, our findings reinforce the need to protect and invest in natural spaces in order to optimise the potential benefits to subjective wellbeing. Second, our research suggests that policies and initiatives encouraging greater contact with blue spaces during childhood may support better mental health in later life.”

Our recent project in Cornwall: Project Point of View

Working in partnership with Elemental UK
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North Meets South – 1:1 mentoring service

Youth Unity is pleased to announce that we are the new selected provider to deliver a 2 year Mentoring program for vulnerable young people, working in some of the most deprived areas of London supporting the local communities, working in the areas of Barking & Dagenham and Havering.

The new service will offer a referral pathway that will allow us to provide direct 121 and contextual case support to some of the most complex cases working with Schools, Social Care and Metropolitan Police.

We have been developing our model and building an evidence base for the past 12 months following success in other areas, this funding will improve outcomes for our young people around CCE & associated vulnerability strands as we get the opportunity to network with key partners across the Borough of Barking & Dagenham we wanted to acknowledge all the people & organisations that have supported us on getting there.

Please get in touch if you’re reading this and would like any further information on our service, and how we may be able to support young people in your community.

The ages covered are between 7-18 associated or at risk of exploitation, gangs, or associated vulnerability (if they fall outside the eligible age range, they will be considered on a case-by-case basis) 

  • at significant risk of harm from exploitation, (such as violence or criminal groups, a risk to themselves, or pose a risk of harm to others motivated to change to involvement (if applicable) and are willing to work with the service 
  • working with social services, youth offending or safeguarding team

Individual and group mentoring will provide tailored activities for YP in need of further and more specialised support. This will have an impact on a wider range of outcomes than the lower-level support initially offered to them, as it will consist of regular and sustained mentoring, addressing a variety of issues and risk factors that affect the young people.

The 1-1 support will aim to improve relationships with trusted adults, focus on their attainment and attitude to education and work on achieving personal development goals.

The group mentoring will focus more on improving mental health and wellbeing by developing positive peer relationships and engaging in fun and meaningful activities. The YP will design and participate in activities tailored to their goals, improving self-efficacy and resilience.

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A third of children have adult social media accounts – Ofcom

SOURCE LINK

One in three children lie about their age to access adult content on social media, according to research commissioned by the regulator, Ofcom.

Many social media sites, such as Instagram, do not permit under-13s to sign up, while accounts for under-18s have limited functionality.

But researchers found children were faking their ages to skirt the rules.

Ofcom says this increases the risk of children seeing content which may be inappropriate or harmful.

Anna-Sophie Harling, from Ofcom, told BBC News the way social media platforms categorised users by age had a “huge impact” on the content they were shown.

She cited the recent Molly Russell inquest: “That was a very specific case of harmful content that had very detrimental impacts and tragic outcomes on a family in the UK.

“When we talk about potentially harmful content to under-18s, it’s content that might have more significant negative consequences for under-18s because they’re still developing.

“When children are repeatedly exposed to images and videos that contain certain images, they’re then essentially led to act in different ways or to think differently about themselves or their friends.”

Children using social media

The Ofcom-commissioned research found 32% of children have an account intended for adults, while 47% of children aged eight to 15 have a user age of 16 and over.

And 60% of children under the age of 13 who use social media accounts have their own profiles, despite not being old enough.

Ms Harling said the age categorizations were meant to be “one of the main ways” in which platforms protected the safety of their users.

“If we want to get serious about protecting children online, we need to make sure that platforms have a way to find out exactly how old those users are,” she said.

“We need to work both with parents and young people, but also platforms, to make sure that the ages at which those accounts are set are done in an accurate way.”

YouTube says it has made investments to protect children, such as launching a dedicated children’s app and introducing new data practices for children’s content.

The BBC also approached Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, for comment. A spokesperson referred to the latest work from Meta on verifying the ages of younger users, such as allowing people to “ask others to vouch for their age” or using technology which analyses videos people take of themselves.

Twitter and TikTok have also been approached for comment.