Getting it Right is a new plan launched by the Wales Assembly government to support children in having their voices heard.

Ford is developing inflatable seat belts for back seat passengers (especially children) which will be an option on the 2011 Explorer.

Brightmind Labs is about to release their first video game, but it isn’t just any ordinary game. Targeted at kids aged 6 to 12 who suffer from depression, anxiety or post traumatic stress disorder, this computer game will fuse together immersive gaming principles with cognitive behavioural therapy.

Image Credit: Getty Images, Maureen Light Photography/Flickr
The growing problem of childhood obesity just got more complicated as a new study from the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine links screen time with high blood pressure.  This research goes beyond previous studies and examines the specific behavior of being in front of a television or computer rather than simply sedentary activity. 

According to the study, regardless of body size, the act of sitting and watching a screen raises a child’s blood pressure.  Obesity can be linked easily to high blood pressure and sedentary lifestyles lead to obesity, but this study presents [...]

With old playground standards like slides, swing sets and seesaws losing their appeal to children of the Internet generation, equipment manufacturers have had to get more creative with their offerings. Add in rising childhood obesity rates and the need to lure kids back to the parks to behave like well, kids, becomes even more important.
Enter KOMPAN, a Dutch company that takes the idea of play seriously, with its innovative line of playground equipment that incorporates elements of modern art, sustainability and childhood development into the overall design. And to these guiding principles, the company now adds a level of digital [...]

Where The Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze tested the scare-factor of each character’s mask on children.  The video below was posted on Jonze’s blog We Love You So.

[via Pedestrian TV

We’ve noticed a few Kumon Centers popping up around the city lately and been intrigued by the strangely ambivalent smiley face. The centers provide an educational system for learning math and reading skills. And while they’re new to New York, the company itself has been around for 50 years.
Whether kids use the programs for remedial help or enrichment, the system remains the same: they start with the basics and use practice worksheets to learn new concepts. Students don’t advance until they’ve mastered the material, demonstrating both speed and accuracy. In the math program, for example, there are over 1,000 worksheets [...]

Competition? Mergers? Supply and demand? Find our what’s cooking at the Food Court. These are the kind of directions you’ll find as you make your way through the Saturday Morning Cartoons style website You Are Here, created by the Federal Trade Commission to teach kids how marketing and advertising are influencing the way they shop.
On the site, excuse me, “in the mall”, kids can create their own ads for shoes, hear directly from the cartoon doctor who endorses the vitamins at a nutritional emporium, and find out what happens when small retailers get bought up by bigger corporations. What’s most [...]

The Telegraph reports that British children are given their first mobile phone around 8 years old. Doug Aamoth with CrunchGear makes a good point that the survey conducted was in an affluent area, which could slant the results, but nonetheless it’s worth noting that children are actively using mobile phones a great deal more than in previous years. Who are these kids calling? Mainly their parents, although the survey highlights that having a cell phone is more about having cool ringtones and games among friends, rather than serving as a solid communicating platform.
On another note, Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety [...]

Toys tend to move as much as their masters – and that’s why the smartly designed Fastronaut toys harness all that kinetic energy from throws, rolls and bounces to power themselves. LEDs on the toy-cars and action figures display how much power has been generated (great for teaching the kids about conservation), and each has a button when pressed plays design specific noises and sounds. One of the cooler toys attaches to the handlebar of a bicycle, charging a headlamp with its tethered-wheel-powered generator, after which can be removed from the bike and used in the living room.
Like the concept? [...]

Hot on the heels of a 2008 ban on television programs for kids under 3, France is getting strict with new rules which will limit children’s usage and access to mobile phones. New laws prohibit advertising aimed at children under the age of 12 and bans the sale of cell phones designed for kids under 6. New limits on the allowable amount of radiation emitted from phones, and laws mandating bundled headphones with every phone will be put in place as well. Although this ban is unique in Europe, France joins a growing number of countries including Canada, Russia and [...]