Japanese girls display kids' mobile phones.

How much children focus on having the latest gadgets and designer gear may have more to do with their self-esteem than peer pressure, targeted marketing or bad parenting, researchers said.
In two studies reported in the Journal of Consumer Research, they found that materialism spikes in early adolescence and declines by the end of high school, mirroring the years children are most prone to teen angst.
Between the ages of 12 and 13 children try to compensate for low self-esteem through material goods that they think will make themselves feel better, or that they think will raise their status among their peers.
“While peers and marketing can certainly influence teens, materialism is directly connected to self-esteem,“ said Professor Deborah Roedder John of the University of Minnesota, reported Reuters.
“As parents, if we understand that, it helps us cope with the frustrating experience of having a 12, 13 or 14 year-old who is always asking us to buy them expensive clothes, and expensive computer equipment,“ she added in a media interview.
John and co-researcher Lan Nguyen Chaplin also showed that giving children positive signals from their peers can boost their self-esteem and lower levels of materialism.
They brought the children together in a summer camp setting and asked them to write down positive adjectives about their peers, such as “smart“ or “fun.“ When the 12 and 13 year-olds read the pleasing descriptions of themselves, it drastically reduced the high levels of materialism.
John and Chaplin measured self-esteem by asking the children to rank to what extent they felt phrases such as “I feel good about myself,“ or “I’m just as good as anyone else“ applied to them.
To find out how materialistic a child was, the researchers asked them to make up a collage to answer the question “What makes me happy.“
The children that chose more material goods such as money or brand names over sentiments such as being with friends or no homework were seen as having higher levels of materialism.

Violence depicted in the media, particularly in television, films and video games, increases aggressive behavior in both children and adults, a new US study has found.
The scientists reviewed more than 50 years of research on the impact of violence in the media and found that violence shown by media not only increases aggressive behavior in both children and adults, it could have a particularly detrimental effect on the well-being of youngsters, reported Earthtimes.org.
Researchers at the University of Michigan say exposure to violence via electronic media has more of an effect than other media.
Many US children spend an average of three hours watching television each day and more than 60 percent of TV programs contain some violence, while 40 percent show extreme violence, the researchers said.
Video game units are now present in 83 percent of homes with children in US. They end up spending large amounts of time playing video games, most of which contain violence.
Earlier research had found that children who watch violent television shows and who identify with the characters are more likely to be aggressive as adults and this is true for both men and women.
Scientists said though not every child exposed to violence in the media will become aggressive, parents and society need to exercise greater control on what children are exposed to through films, video games and television programs.

The number of children without access to education has fallen by a quarter, says UNESCO--as it reports on a global drive for universal primary schooling. But there are still 72 million children going without--many concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. This interim report on the UN’s 2015 target of universal primary education says 87 percent of children currently benefit.
It was 83 percent in 1999. More rapid growth is being driven by factors such as increased aid and the removal of fees. Other factors include higher expenditure on education and the fact that it has been made compulsory in some countries, BBC reported.
Although calling for an acceleration in investment, the UNESCO report is cautiously optimistic about meeting the target.
“At this midway point, our assessment leans towards the positive but much more remains to be done if the goals are to be met,“ said the director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Nicholas Burnett.
However its report says that if current trends are continued, 58 out of 86 countries without universal primary education will miss the 2015 target.
There will also need to be 18 million more primary school teachers recruited and an additional investment of $11 billion to achieve the goal, says the report.
The report from the UN’s cultural and educational agency shows that enrolment in primary school has risen in some of the poorest countries --up by 36 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and 22 percent in south and west Asia compared to 1999.
Girls are still disproportionately likely to miss out on schooling, particularly in Arab and south Asian countries, says the report.

Disgrace
In two thirds of countries there is not parity between boys and girls in access to primary and secondary education.
It also highlights the “global disgrace“ of adult illiteracy--in which 774 million adults cannot read or write.
The greatest problem exists in eight countries which account for three-quarters of the world’s illiterate adults--Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Findings
The report provides an international chart showing how countries around the world are measured against four criteria: universal primary education, adult literacy, the quality of education and gender parity.
The most successful 10 against this measure are Norway, followed by the UK, Slovenia, Sweden, South Korea, Italy, Kazakhstan, Iceland, France and Denmark.
The 10 countries at the bottom of this education table are Pakistan, Eritrea, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Benin, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and finally Chad.

Sitting cross-legged on the cement floor of a school for HIV-Positive children, 4-year-old Swati--one of the many Indian children infected with the deadly HIV virus--laughed excitedly, clicking the beads on an abacus.
In a first of its kind initiative, in the entire country and perhaps across the world, a school exclusively established to cater to the special requirements of HIV-positive children has opened it doors for this much-ignored section of young India, Indiaedunews.net.
The school catering exclusively to HIV-positive children is located in Karunalayam, 20 km away from Warangal city in Andhra Pradesh and roughly 125 km from the state capital--Hyderabad.
Presently, the school is home to 41 children, most of them orphans, who have demonstrated that they are no less intelligent and sharp than any of their counterparts elsewhere.
The school with its mission has put a question mark on the so-called mainstream schools’ refusal to admit HIV-positive children.
Prior to this exclusive conclave-cum learning centre, the school administration sadly informed that seven of its students felt disappointed as they were not granted admission into the so-called main-stream schools in the last academic year.
Many of these children had to study in a library room in their previous schools since parents of other children objected to their presence.
Slowly and steadily, the school is progressing and gaining popularity in the region for its unique and noble efforts.
The school not only takes extra care regarding the timings for the classes but also provides vitamins, antibiotics and other necessary medical care as and when required by kids.

Kids participate in a ceremony to promote the Cooperative Police Scheme in IranÕs Qom province. According to the scheme, children will remind their parents about driving and traffic rules.

Thousands of Iraqi asylum-seekers who were denied education as a result of the turmoil in their own country will now have a chance to finish their studies: Jordan’s government has decided to launch new education projects for asylum seekers, according to officials and activists.
“The Ministry of Education has prepared all legal documents to allow thousands of Iraqis who cannot study in regular schools to do home schooling that can be officially recognized,“ said Mohammad Ekour, director of students’ affairs at the Ministry of Education, IRIN reported.
According to the program, to be officially announced in the coming few weeks, students will be able to study in their homes and sit for final examinations in public schools.
“Any student, including Iraqis, can study at home until they sit the high school examination,“ said Ekour, noting that the project will be implemented in early 2008.
A second project will target some 3,000 school dropouts, including Jordanians, who will be given the chance to attend evening classes taught by trained professionals. Ekour said at least 20 centers have been prepared for this purpose, mainly in Amman, Zarqa and Irbid. Officials hope the first batch of evening students will be registered in a few months.
Since 2003, when Jordan witnessed an influx of Iraqi asylum seekers, the Jordanian government has barred Iraqis from studying in public schools. This forced many to abandon their studies since they could not afford the fees for private schools.
However, in a sign of changing attitudes, the government recently allowed 50,000 Iraqis asylum seekers to enter public schools. Only children who have not studied for two years or less can benefit from the program.
The school dropout project is being implemented with the help of the international charity Quest Scope Foundation, well-known for its social development projects in the Middle East. It has already helped thousands of Jordanian school dropouts gain another chance to finish their studies.
Officials from Quest Scope hope some 1,500 Iraqi students will be able to benefit from the project.
Students are enrolled in a two-year class in which they learn reading, writing and communication skills, said Wessam Zaatar, education coordinator at Quest Scope.
After completing the program, students are given a diploma that allows them further home schooling and a chance to enroll in vocational education programs. Target children are aged 10-18 for boys and up to 22 for girls.

Teenagers surf the web at an Internet cafe.

The German government launched a secure Internet search engine to allow children to surf the web without any risk of them finding violent or sexual content.
The www.FragFinn.de site offers a mix of games, information and links to approved, children-friendly websites and is being promoted as a first in Europe, AFP reported.
The site was offering a guide to the Bundestag lower house of parliament as it went into operation.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said the site “doesn’t just fine-comb the Internet“, it would allow children to enter the online world in complete safety.
The government is financing the site to the tune of 1.5 million euros (2.2 million dollars) and has developed the project in conjunction with big names from the Internet world such as AOL, Microsoft, Google, Lycos, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom.

The majority of relationships between parents and their adult children improve as parents transition to old age, a US Purdue University researcher has found.
Karen Fingerman, an associate professor of developmental and family studies in the College of Consumer and Family Sciences, examined relationships adults 70 and older have with at least one of their adult offspring. The parents in the study also suffered either vision or hearing loss or were seeking help with general health care from one of their children, reported ScienceDaily.
Fingerman said the study, showed that a majority of parents and children mentioned positive changes in their relationship, even as parents experienced declines in health.
“Both parents and children reported significantly less ambivalence than we originally expected,“ Fingerman said. “Generally, there was a feeling on both sides that this was as good as the relationship had been, and both sides felt appreciated and nurtured.“
Many of the parents talked about continuity in the relationship and, rather than resentment, expressed appreciation for increased help from children.
For the parents, their children’s increasing roles in their lives served as proof of maturity and their own successful parenting.
Fingerman said almost half of participants reported changes in the relationship, often related to tense interactions involving parental health.
“We must realize that parents don’t go from being middle-aged to old and helpless,“ Fingerman said. “Parents and children are adjusting relatively well to the fact that parents are just not capable in the ways they once were.“