Mom, relax please

Is there a relation between stressed moms and bullied kids? Apparently there is according to a study developed by a group of psychologists from Warwick University. Now, there is a long run between a stressed mother and a bullied kid, so we need to take a look to the relation that those scientists are making.

According to the study, mothers who suffer stressful situations such as violence, economic difficulties, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. produce great amounts of neurohormones that are sent to the woman’s blood stream and consequently affect directly to the development of the fetus’ stress response system. Thus, this future child will be more likely to handle stressful situations in a clumsy way, which will probably assure him/her being bullied by its pairs.

Reactions such as crying, running away or clear manifestations of anxiety are features that are triggered by a poor stress response system: kids who behave this way are almost always bullies favorite’s victims, and in adulthood they are psychologists and psychiatrist’s regular patients. Indeed, many adults who were bullied in their childhood present mental health issues, which make this situation circular because probably those adults are going to model for their children awkward reactions to stressful situations 

Considering this study, we ought to think if there is in any way considered by society a mother’s mental health during pregnancy, and how her circumstances affect the developing child.

New application on Facebook would keep your private photos private

Do you know that even your more private photos on Facebook can be seen by others? Yes, only one of your friends needs to be tagged on a photo you appear, and it can be seen by your friend’s friends too. But, McAfee has developed a security app that asks the owner to tell the specific friends he/she want to see his/her photos. And for everybody else, the pictures will appear fuzzy, even if the photo is shared or downloaded, so they cannot be even printed. And it works on smart phones too. This application is still in its beta phase, and it can be downloaded for free, and used in the most famous internet browsers.

I am one of the millions of users of Facebook, and reading this article has made realize that there is no privacy on it. Not only because people can download your pictures to their computers, but also it makes you share things that you may want to keep to yourself. I participated in an investigation conducted by one of my professors in the university, and I was showed a talk about how internet users can see the sites you visit, your personal information, and use it to sell it to companies in order to sell you products of your interest, provided that they know your likes and dislikes from what you post on Facebook and other social networking sites. In my opinion, the internet and its great development over the years has contributed a lot to having more access to valuable information, but when it is about your personal information it becomes negative and hazardous. So I am glad McAfee created this app to have more control over who can see, and who cannot see your pictures. People being able to save them and do whatever they want with them; it only contributes to possible misuse of your image, and it can lead to being a victim of bullying or something like that. Just recently I saw on the news how people can impersonate another person on social networking sites and say whatever they want to pretending to be that person. Of course, it is also your responsibility to be wary about this issue, so I’m definitely downloading this new app.

Facebook: A doubled-edge sword for kids

 Facebook, founded in 2004 by M. Zuckerberg, was initially directed to Harvard’s students only; however, nowadays everyone has access to it. We all know what this website is about, how it works, how to use it and most of us have a Facebook account.

  Facebook states that kids under the age of 13 are not allowed to have an account, but is not so difficult to lie about age on the website. Moreover, parents do not always allow their children to have FB accounts, yet kids can dive into FB on their own.

 The benefits of using the site seem to be not few compared to the adverse consequences of it: it improves children’s social skills by allowing them to have contact with other people, it gives them the chance to express themselves, it provides them online social media skills, it helps them to communicate with their classmates and discuss school work.

 The disadvantages, on the other hand refer to bullying, addiction to the website, an opened door to other websites not appropriate for teens or kids, and fake accounts with pedophiles behind them. Teenagers do not always know to differentiate right from wrong and kids under 13, or even 14, are exposed to great dangers they don’t even imagine. I think it’s not FB the problem, but an “age” one: FB is not necessary a bad thing, but it is when it's used by kids who have no idea what they are doing.

 So, if you had a child under 13, would you let him/her have a FB account?