The International Olympic Committee have created a new digital social campaign aimed at young people. Called ‘The Best of Us’, the IOC aims to build youth engagement with the Olympic Movement.

Although there have been plenty of reports linking cellphone usage to such things as brain tumors, a recent Australian study found a different kind of hazard related to mobile phone use in children.
The Mobile Radiofrequency Phone Exposed Users Study (MoRPhEUS) analyzed the cognitive capabilities and mobile phone use of 317 children ages 11-14. The young people who used their phones more often- with the setting that completed words automatically (predictive texting), completed tests quicker, but with a larger number of mistakes.
Epidemiologist Michael Abramson, who performed the tests for Monash University in Australia, told ABC Science that the results showed predictive [...]

While many have written off MySpace as an ailing behemoth of social networks past, the site is hoping to reanimate their users by defining the site as a new platform for venting creativity. Echoing their early days as a community of young bands, MySpace wants to reposition itself as a place for young creatives, rather than a disorganized collection of companies, bands and individuals all spamming one another.
Creating a tighter demographic will certainly put a direction on the site, but it remains to be seen if it can compete with the readily updated features on Facebook.  Anastasia from Ypulse predicts [...]

When we were on Valencia in San Francisco a couple of weeks back, PSFK popped into Dave Eggers’ Pirate Supply Store and picked up a copy of Essentially Odd. This book is a catalog of all the fantastic products that have been created to aid education programs at the 826 National Stores across the US
Essentially Odd offers a behind-the-scenes look at the innovative design that takes place at our chapters across the country and features more than 150 pages of color photos of each 826 chapter’s storefronts and products, along with notes and commentary from the product designers.
We rifled through [...]

ContentNext has drafted a list of the top 10 young tech entrepreneurs, focusing on “earlier-stage” individuals, as opposed to the Zuckerbergs out there. The list contains innovators as young as 15 years old, some of whom are already pulling in millions of dollars from their nascent endeavors.
1. Ashley Qualls, Whateverlife.com

2. Kayvon Beykpour, MobilEdu

3. Ben Gulak, Uno

Here’s a quick screen grab from the GIS NYC site of the services being offered and sought by creative professionals and entrepreneurs respectively. By the look of it, there should be some great opportunities to collaborate between the communities.
Tickets: internetweek.eventbrite.com

Inhabitat points us to the Early Rider – a bike designed by Andy Loveland who set out to design a stabilizer-free bike that he would admire and his son would love. Loveland says his company Early Rider combines British innovation with West Coast style and world leading manufacturing. The brand also sells fashion to wear with their ‘Classic’ bike.

Early Rider

Coming up June 1st and 2nd, is Ypulse’s latest Youth Marketing Mashup conference in San Francisco. The gathering brings together participants from the marketing, media, education and non-profit worlds to share research, best practices and the latest strategies on marketing to youth with technology. Check out the full lineup here. PSFK readers can use the code READER to get 30 percent the price of admission.
PSFK talked with Anastasia Goodstein, founder of Ypulse to see what’s happening in the youth market:
What is the thing you are most excited for this year at Y-Pulse?
There are so many aspects of this year’s event [...]

When it comes to utilizing design or creative thinking to shape our society, few avenues are more direct or have more potential than reaching out and fostering a commitment to social responsibility within our schools and our children. An interesting newcomer to this form of education is Design Ignites Change, an initiative created by Worldstudio Projects and Adobe’s Youth Voices, which promotes and encourages high school students to use design thinking to solve real world problems. Fostered through a mentoring program which pairs creative professionals or university organizations with area high schools, the projects address a range of issues from [...]

This past January, PSFK held a Good Ideas Salon in London bringing together the most forward-thinking tastemakers, innovators, and experts from around the world to discuss key areas steering innovation and opportunity.  Moderated by PSFK’s own Jeff Squires, the Good Ideas and Youth panel discussed trends in British youth culture and how companies and organizations can create authentic, respectful relationships with young people.  Panelist include Jenny Owen (Ruby Pseudo), Paul Graham (Anomaly UK), Terry Guy (Monorex / Secret Wars), and Brett Booth (MTV).
Questioning whether or not youth can always be seen as a barometer for what is to come, the [...]

There’s some gentle buzz about the film-adaptation of the children’s book Where The Wild Things Are. Directed by Spike Jonze and the screen play was co-written by the director and Dave Eggers. It comes out in the US on October 16 2009.
Cy will eat this up!
Where The Wild Things Are

Frantz Lasome is working on an augmented reality toy concept that takes make-believe and lays it out in front of your eyes. His project lets kids use their old toys as game pieces and controls in an virtual world. Players battle it out, assigning weapon functions to their real world toys, and can watch the virtual action through special glasses. Though it seems like a fantastic toy, you have to wonder how immersion in an augmented world will effect kid’s developing minds.
Augmented Reality Toys (Work in progress) from Frantz Lasorne on Vimeo.
Like the “is Google making us stupid argument”, [...]

Living out in the wilds of Idaho, I have to wait ‘till mid-day to get my hard copy fix of the New York Times… Yeah, I know I can get most of it online hours before, and I usually do. But shit, that’s not the same as spilling your breakfast beer over the print edition and making the ink soak into the tablecloth, so your wife can give you a huge bollocking to start her day on a high note… Anyway, I digress. I look forward to the Sunday edition. Yes, it is boat anchor sized. But also, it has [...]

David Horvath’s Uglydolls have taken the leap from fuzzy stuffed animal-type-thing to full on collectible action figure. The colorful plastic toys stand 3 inches tall and come in 12 different characters per series. While dolls are sold separately for $8 a piece, cases (sold for $96) include one of each, and a special one in four sets includes a rarer, red-toothed Wedgehead figure. You can order your action Uglydoll at the official shop of Uglydoll online before it hits toy stores around the U.S.
[via JoshSpear]

So you might remember our post we wrote before, about the 44 ‘music related’ brands that came to mind in 6 minutes in one UK focus group… Ouch. Following up from a kind hint from AdAge, we [Team Ruby Pseudo from the UK] thought we ought to see what brands occupied front of mind with the American youth… So we asked 19 US kids off the hip and they came up with 95 brands. The results can basically be split in to four different categories:

Genuine music-aligned brands [like guitar companies, for example].
Music-involved Brands, like Converse.
Music-associated Brands, like Coca Cola.
and then simply [...]