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In many U.S. states, teenagers who send “sext” messages to each other can be prosecuted as child pornographers — and that should end, researchers argue. Many states have recently passed laws that specifically address teen sexting — exempting it, to varying degrees, from longstanding child pornography statutes. But in 23 states, those outdated laws still apply to teenagers who willingly send sexual messages to each other. The penalty is up to 20 years in prison and a lifetime as a registered sex offender, according to Dr. Victor Strasburger, of the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque. Writing in the May issue of the journal Pediatrics, he and his colleagues contend that it’s time for all states to revisit their child pornography laws. Consensual teen-to-teen sexting should be addressed by parents, schools and health providers — not the criminal justice system, they said. “I absolutely agree,” said Elizabeth Englander, a professor of psychology at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts. “This needs to be treated as a developmental and educational issue.” Englander, who also directs the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater, studies kids’ technology use — including issues like sexting and cyberbullying. It’s no secret that teenagers today are attached to their devices. In the United States, 95% of teens own or have access to a smartphone, according to Strasburger’s team. So, it’s also no surprise… read on >

Mindlessly switching from your smartphone to other media devices and back again might lead to added pounds, scientists say. A small, new study found that heavy-duty media multitaskers also tended to be heavier, weight-wise. It’s possible that these devices are actually changing the brain, theorized lead author Richard Lopez, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Rice University in Houston. In terms of weight, that could mean less self-control when fattening foods are at hand. For their study, Lopez and his colleagues had 132 students, aged 18 to 23, answer questions about how much they multitasked and how distractible they were. Certain questions — such as, do you feel the urge to check your phone while you’re talking to someone else? — were designed to detect compulsive or inappropriate cellphone use. The researchers found that study participants with higher scores on the questionnaire tended to weigh more than those with lower scores, suggesting a possible link between the two. Next, Lopez’s team had 72 of the students undergo an MRI brain scan while they were shown a serious of pictures. Images of delicious, fattening foods were mixed in with the images. When the food images were viewed, activity increased in the part of the brain linked to food temptation, the findings showed. These participants, who also tended to have more body fat, spent more time at… read on >

The risks of using voice-based technology in your car may be greater than you think. Many consider this technology safer than using their hands to operate devices while driving, but it’s not risk-free, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety warns. Mental distractions can last as long as 27 seconds after drivers use voice-assisted technology to dial, change music or send a text message. At 25 mph, a car travels the length of nearly three football fields during this short time. “Just because your eyes are on the road and hands are on the wheel, does not mean you are focused on driving,” David Yang, the foundation’s executive director, said in a AAA news release. “Research from the AAA Foundation shows that mental distractions resulting from talking, texting, or programming navigation can last longer than you think and lead to crashes,” he cautioned. The risk of a crash is up to four times higher for drivers who talk on a cellphone, and up to eight times higher for those who text behind the wheel, the researchers said. Even so, nearly half of drivers report talking on a handheld phone while driving recently, and about one-third have sent a text or email, according to the foundation. The risky behavior persists even though nearly 58% of drivers say talking on a cellphone behind the wheel is a very… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Aspirin can prevent heart attacks and strokes by lowering the clotting action of the blood’s platelets. However, preventing blood from clotting can also cause stomach or brain bleeding, kidney failure and other kinds of strokes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says. The decision to start daily aspirin therapy is safest when made in consultation with a physician, says the FDA. People who are already using a blood-thinning medication should talk to a doctor before using aspirin.

More U.S. veterans are at increased risk for heart disease, a looming public health problem, researchers say. They analyzed data from more than 153,000 people who took part in the National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Vets between the ages of 35 and 70 reported significantly more heart conditions than non-veterans, the data showed. After age 70, non-veterans reported more, but the study’s author suspects that might be because fewer vets survived into old age due to heart disease. “I think it’s sort of the first indication of a coming public health crisis for veterans,” said study author Ramon Hinojosa, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida. “Because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have a relatively large, new younger generation of veterans who are going to survive for 30 or 40 years after their war experience,” he said in a university news release. The study suggests that what’s known as the “healthy soldier effect” is no longer guaranteed. That’s the tendency for members of the military to be more fit and less overweight than same-age civilians. Hinojosa said the change could be due the nature of modern warfare, changes in diet, leisure and exercise, more obesity among younger vets, and higher rates of drinking, smoking… read on >

Maybe you rush around with work and activities during the day, then settle in for a large, relaxing meal in the evening. But new research says the later in the day you eat, the more weight you’re likely to pack on. That’s the takeaway from a week-long study involving 31 overweight and obese patients, mostly women. “We evaluated meal and sleep timing in patients with overweight/obesity at the beginning of a weight loss trial, before participants started the intervention,” said lead author Dr. Adnin Zaman, an endocrinology fellow at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Her team found that “eating later into the day was associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) and greater body fat.” BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. For the study, participants were enrolled in a weight-loss trial comparing daily calorie limits to time-restricted feeding. In other words, once the trial launched, they could only eat during certain hours of the day. Ninety percent of the participants were women. Their average age was 36. A week before the study, they were outfitted with electronic devices to monitor their activity and sleep. They also were asked to snap cellphone photos of everything they ate. The photos were time-stamped using an app called MealLogger. Zaman and colleagues did not define which hours would amount to… read on >

Video games provide unlimited entertainment, and interactive ones can even help you burn off calories. But you may not know that playing games — either in person or through shared online networks — can unite family members from many generations in meaningful ways. Researchers at Concordia University in Montreal found that playing social network games, through Facebook for instance, offers family members a fun, common topic of conversation, and creates shared experiences, even though there’s often no direct communication. That’s just one of dozens of studies that have explored the benefits of family gaming. One study done at the University of California, Davis, found that the more often family members play video games together, the greater their feelings of family satisfaction and closeness. What’s more, because those with poor inter-family communication benefited more than those who already had good communication, video gaming can be a bridge to better relationships. Family gaming can easily extend beyond those living in a single household. With more grandparents and other older relatives now using social media to get news about relatives, playing word games and other family-friendly choices can keep the generations better connected because these activities transcend age barriers. Playing can also help connect you to faraway relatives you may not have the chance to get to know in traditional ways. The Concordia researchers also found that people… read on >

Gun-related deaths among school-age children in the United States are increasing at alarming rates, researchers report. In 2017, gun violence claimed more 5- to 18-year-olds than police officers or active-duty members of the U.S. military, according to a chilling new study led by investigators from Florida Atlantic University. “It is sobering that in 2017, there were 144 police officers who died in the line of duty and about 1,000 active duty military throughout the world who died, whereas 2,462 school-age children were killed by firearms,” study senior author Dr. Charles Hennekens said in a FAU news release. He’s a professor of medicine at the university’s Schmidt College of Medicine. The nationwide study found nearly 39,000 gun-related deaths among 5-to-18-year-olds between 1999 and 2017. That included almost 6,500 deaths among kids between 5 and 14 years of age, and more than 32,400 among older teens. Significant increases began in 2009, with a wave of shootings among 5- to 14-year-olds, followed by a similar wave among teens starting in 2014. Both waves — which researchers described as epidemics — continued through 2017, the most recent year for which data are available. Gun-related deaths over the period accounted for 5.6 percent of deaths in the younger group and nearly 20 percent among older kids. Researchers also found statistically significant increases in gun-related deaths among black children aged 5-14,… read on >