Photo Credit: Bill Tijerina, Nationwide Children's
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – According to a study published in JAMAPediatrics, the average amount of time U.S. teenagers spent on social media nearly doubled over the course of the pandemic. Unfortunately, this increase places youth at a higher risk for unsafe online connections. For this reason, The Center for Family Safety and Healing (TCFSH) partnered with Black Girl Rising, Inc. to host teens at Nationwide Children’s Hospital for an all-day Best Friends Conference to educate the community and raise awareness about digital dating abuse.
“Research shows that while digital dating abuse is an issue for all teenagers, Black teen girls also experience ‘adultification bias,’ meaning that people see them as older or more sexualized than their white peers, and others are therefore more likely to cross safe boundaries online,” explained Caitlin Tully, a community educator with TCFSH. “Black teen girls often experience adultification bias when reporting digital dating abuse to adults, as well.”
Last year, The Center for Family Safety and Healing partnered with Black Girl Rising, Inc. to develop a program called Healthy Relationships in a Digital World: Empowerment and Resiliency through a $200,000 grant from the Allstate Foundation. This initiative is an educational program to prevent digital dating abuse among youth.
“The purpose of the grant was to create culturally responsive, healthy relationship education,” said Tully. “To that end, the grant has funded the creation of three separate initiatives under Healthy Relationships in a Digital World: a curriculum for teens in schools, training for parents and educators and the Best Friends Conference.”
At the conference, attendees were empowered to make new friends while learning about safe digital connections through featured speakers and session facilitators from local and national organizations such as Love is Respect, Ruling Our Experiences (ROX), I Am Light Recovery & Wellness and IMPACT Safety’s We are Worth Defending: Empowerment Self Defense program.
“This conference focused on honoring the resiliency that Black girls hold within themselves and in their communities while holding adults accountable for how they respond to Black girls,” said Tully.
In addition to the Best Friends Conference, Healthy Relationships in a Digital World has tested its six-session curriculum at several summer camps this year and plans to implement it in local schools in the future. The program will also continue to hold training for parents and educators through the end of this year.
Supporting Healthy Digital Boundaries Wednesday, November 8 | 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information, click here.
Supporting Healthy Teen Relationships Wednesday, November 15 | 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information, click here.
Building Resiliency With Youth Thursday, December 7 | 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information, click here.