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Librarian/Educator Resources

Teen Health & Wellness offers an extensive array of resources to help librarians and educators get the most out of their database subscription. From program ideas and promotional materials to curriculum correlations and training tools, you will find all the tools you need to support your teen users here.

NEW!!! Scientific American: Resource Articles
Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. These high-interest articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and provide additional and unique content regarding Teen Health & Wellness topics to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.
 

NEW!!! Accessibility Features
Teen Health & Wellness has added AccessiBe, an accessibility tool that helps make our site friendlier for users with disabilities. Users can adjust AccessiBe’s settings to clear flashes, enhance visuals, reduce distractions, increase focus, and optimize for screen readers, among other features. For users with screen readers, the tool is enabled automatically. AccessiBe aims to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. You can check all the features by clicking on the icon in the lower right corner of the screen on any page. From there, you can explore all the tools that are available.
 

Case Studies

Case Studies

Case studies offer concrete examples and success stories of how librarians and educators have used Teen Health & Wellness to support teens both in libraries and classrooms.

Read the case studies below to:

  • See how our public library partners like Brooklyn (NY) and Schaumburg (IL) use Teen Health & Wellness to support their goal of creating healthy communities.
  • Learn how public school districts like San Diego (CA) and Appleton (WI) were able to stretch their budgets to offer safe, credible, and authoritative information and self-help support to their students.
  • Hear from students in Naperville (IL) Central High School, who found the information in Teen Health & Wellness helpful, easily accessible, and said they would use the resource again.

Complete case studies here:
Appleton (WI) School District
Brooklyn (NY) Public Library
Nashville (TN) Limitless Libraries
San Diego (CA) School District
Schaumburg (IL) Public Library
St. Joseph (MO) School District


Customizable Hotlines

Customizable Hotlines

You can add your own local resources to the customizable Hotlines page on Teen Health & Wellness.

Your local resources will appear on the Hotlines page for all users who log into the database via your library. The local content appears below the box with emergency and 911 information and above the resources provided by Teen Health & Wellness. You can also turn off the resources provided by Teen Health & Wellness so that only your local resources will appear.

To customize your hotlines, log in with your administrative username and password. Once logged in, click the link near the bottom of the left column to “update hotline information.”

If you need your administrative username/password or have questions, please contact customer service via email or phone at (800) 237-9932.


“It’s Your Cause” Video Challenge

“It’s Your Cause” Video Challenge

Step 1 - Choose an issue
Step 2 - Create a PSA
Step 3 - Send us your video

From depression to dating to green living, spread the word about any Teen Health & Wellness topic you feel passionate about by creating a video PSA (public service announcement). Videos that meet submission requirements and editorial policies will be published on Teen Health & Wellness.

Check out this example created by students at Ankeny High School:

 
Created by Maria B., Kelsy G., Jeydon H., Nick M., Senida R., Dominic S., Spencer S., and Gabby W.

Browse other examples of student-created videos in the video gallery.

Note for Educators:

Download the It’s Your Voice PSA lesson plan for tips on implementing this project with your students. Created by Ruth Thoreson, Information Literacy Specialist/Teacher Librarian at Johnston High School; Johnston, Iowa.

How to Enter:

  1. Read the official rules and guidelines.

  2. Shoot a short video (about two minutes or less). Design it like a PSA (public service announcement) you might see on your favorite TV channel.

  3. If you need music for your PSA, you can download a royalty-free music track from our Soundzabound Music Library.

  4. Submit your video to Teen Health & Wellness.

All participants must submit a signed Video Release Form. This includes team members, narrators, and students who appear on camera (on film or in photographs). If you are under 18, the form must be signed by a parent or guardian. You can return your release form by email or fax. Videos with missing or incomplete release forms cannot be accepted for publication on Teen Health & Wellness.

PDFDownload the Video Release Form (PDF)

If your video is published on Teen Health & Wellness, you’ll receive a digital certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing, which can be added to a digital portfolio for job, internship, and college applications.

Official Rules and Guidelines:

  • Participants must be between 13 and 19 years old. You may work individually or in a team.
  • All video content must be original.
  • Your video cannot include:
    • copyrighted or watermarked images, music, or artwork
    • profanity or hateful language
    • inappropriate, disturbing, or offensive images or audio
    • brand names, slogans, logos, or copyrighted characters
  • It’s OK to address serious issues such as self-harm, drug use, or suicide in your PSA, but do not include images that explicitly show these behaviors.
  • If your video includes credits, please list student participants as first name, last initial.
  • Be sure to fix any picture or sound issues before submitting your PSA.
  • You may enter as many videos as you like, you’ll need to provide signed video release forms for each entry.

 

Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans

Teachers can use Teen Health & Wellness lesson plans to support their programs on health, science, physical education, and language arts. Integrate the database into your classroom and motivate students to learn. All entries are correlated to state, national, and provincial curriculum standards.

  • Birth Control/Contraception: Students can research a method of contraception to prepare and present an eight-slide PowerPoint on the topic.
  • Body Systems: Students can research a body system and then create an oral presentation, written presentation, and Wiki on that system.
  • Budgeting and Money Management: Students can create a sample monthly budget that includes their income, fixed costs, discretionary spending, and more.
  • Driver Education: Students can research a topic related to driver education to reflect upon, and then write a paper summarizing the article and their personal reflections.
  • Editing and Writing for Publication: By participating in our Personal Story Project, students can learn how to write and edit material for publication, based on specific submission requirements. They can then submit their essays to Teen Health & Wellness for publication on our site and receive a certificate of achievement if their story is accepted for publication.
  • Fad Diets: Students can research a fad diet along with principles of general nutrition to create a PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of ten slides.
  • Financial Literacy: A five-day lesson plan that covers the basics of budgeting and money management; budgeting at home, school, and work; and financial myths and facts.
  • Health and Wellness: Students can research a health/wellness topic of your choice and then use their material to create a brochure for a doctor's office.
  • Hotlines and Resources for Teens: Students can research hotlines and resources to support teens in crisis on a topic of their choosing and then create a poster to hang in the school library or hallway.
  • It’s Your Voice PSA: Students can create a PSA that gives information, provides a solution, or brings awareness to a social issue faced by teens. They can then submit their PSAs to Teen Health and Wellness for publication on our site. Created by Ruth Thoreson, Information Literacy Specialist/Teacher Librarian at Johnston High School; Johnston, Iowa.
  • Sample Lesson Plan: Sexual Health (Illinois State Standards): This comprehensive, five-day lesson plan covers puberty, the male and female reproductive systems, reproduction and pregnancy, and making smart sexual choices for students in grades 9 through 12.

Mobile Apps

Mobile Apps

Teen Hotlines lists hotlines, help lines, and web sites organized by subject. From school violence and depression to eating disorders and suicide, these national organizations can also refer teens to state, provincial, and local services in their community.

Users can also store a username and password allowing them to access Teen Health & Wellness with just one click.

Teen Health and Wellness: Teen Hotlines

Now available for iPad, Android tablets, and Chromebooks!


Personal Story Project

Personal Story Project

Share Your Story and Connect with Other Teens

Teen Health & Wellness offers teens an opportunity to share their personal stories for online publication.

Sharing stories is a powerful way to connect with other people. By sharing their own personal stories, teens can connect with others who are dealing with the same challenges that they are. Rosen’s team of editors will select a collection of personal stories and publish them on Teen Health & Wellness. All published authors will also receive a certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing, which can be added to a digital portfolio to use in your job, internship, and college applications.

Getting Started

See real examples of teen personal stories in the menu to the left. You can view all stories on our archive page.

What have you had to deal with or overcome? Write from your personal experiences. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Identify a situation or challenge that changed your life.
  • What was it like and how did it make you feel?
  • How did you deal with the problem or find a way to live with it?
  • What did you learn about yourself and those around you?
  • What advice do you have for another teen going through the same thing?

Guidelines

  • Suggested story length: 250–1,000 words.
  • You must be 13–19 years old to be published. Authors will be identified by first name only—unless you request anonymity.
  • Choose your words wisely. We can’t publish slurs or profanity.
  • We can’t return submissions, so keep a copy for yourself.
  • We need parent/guardian permission if you’re under 18. We’ll send you a form to include with your submission if it’s accepted. Just fill it out and send it back, even if you get published anonymously or under a pseudonym.
  • Include the following originality statement at the end of each submission: “This will certify that the above work is completely original,” followed by your full name to affirm this is your work.
  • Request anonymity. If you don’t want your name published, due to the personal nature of a piece, we will of course respect your request, but you still must include name and address information.
  • Writing may be edited, and we reserve the right to publish our edited version without your prior approval.
  • All works submitted become the property of Rosen Publishing and all copyrights are assigned to Rosen Publishing. We retain the non-exclusive rights to publish all such works in any format.

Download the Personal Story Project Guidelines flyer here.

Submissions

Submit a personal story here. Selected personal stories are added to Teen Health & Wellness on an ongoing basis. Teens can send us a personal story at any time.

If an essay is selected for the database, teen writers will receive a certificate of achievement from Rosen Publishing.

Please contact us if you have questions or want additional details about the Personal Story Project.

Promotion and Programming Ideas for Educators/Librarians

  • Promote the Personal Story Project via email or on your school or library website by linking to the Share Your Story page.
  • Share this Personal Story Project Flyer with your teens, which includes complete details of the program, guidelines, and submission instructions.
  • Apply this lesson plan on Editing and Writing for Publication to our Personal Story Project, so students can learn how to write and edit material for publication, based on specific submission requirements.
  • Use the Personal Story Project to support a variety of teen programming activities such as:
    • journaling exercises
    • empowerment workshops
    • preparation for college application essays

A Note for Educators

There may be times when we believe it is advisable to follow up on a student who may be at risk of harming themselves or others. In these rare cases, a member of the Teen Health & Wellness team will reach out to the student’s teacher or librarian so they can provide support or intervention.



Program Ideas

Program Ideas

From gaming to teen cuisine to online safety, these proven Program Ideas can help you introduce your teen patrons to Teen Health & Wellness and better integrate the database into your teen programming.

Download the PowerPoint Beyond the Basics: Tips to Maximize Usage and share with your colleagues. This presentation is filled with usage ideas and suggestions to integrate Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom.

Promotional Materials

Promotional Materials

Choose from a variety of promotional tools to help you connect your colleagues and teen users to Teen Health & Wellness. Simply click a file below to download it.



Scientific American: Resource Articles

Scientific American: Resource Articles

Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States and continues to be a trusted source for the latest information and happenings in science around the world. Scientific American magazine articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and added to appropriate sections. These high-interest articles provide additional and unique content to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.

Visit the Scientific American: Resource Articles archive to review and select the added content for individual, group, or classroom instruction.



Soundzabound Royalty Free Music Library

Soundzabound Royalty Free Music Library

Download a royalty free music track for your video PSA. Be sure to read the rules and guidelines before submitting your video. You can browse other examples of student videos in the video gallery.

Song Title Genre Duration Credit Download
Across Town Electronica/Urban 1:18
Across Town/Harry Woodum/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
All That Remains Ambient 3:38
All That Remains/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Avalanche Electronica 1:08
Avalanche/Arkadii Kaplan/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Broken Hearted Pop/Soft Rock 2:58
Broken Hearted/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Bukan Salah Keadaan World/Folk 3:40
Bukan Salah Keadaan/Inframe Project/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Cool Summer Electronica 3:44
Cool Summer/Atarilogic/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Dark Times Electronica/Rock 4:09
Dark Times/Martin Voglino Project/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Die Ablenhung Classical/Electronica 3:44
Die Ablenhung/Havok/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Dirty Jeans Pop/Soft Rock 1:45
Dirty Jeans/Gary Arnold//Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Dream Ambient/Electronica 3:10
Dream/Claire Baum/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Ethereal Ambient/Electronica 4:16
Ethereal/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Fairground Pop/Soft Rock 3:20
Fairground/Indie Go Blue/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Funky Kitchen Pop/Soft Rock 1:55
Funky Kitchen/Gary Arnold//Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Goodbye California Pop/Folk 4:13
Goodbye California/Frankly Speaking/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Kill Zone Ambient/Electronica 1:32
Kill Zone/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Looking Back Pop/Soft Rock 2:44
Looking Back/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Metalhearts Electronica/Urban 2:46
Metalhearts/Atarilogic/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Missing Pieces Electronica/Rock 2:22
Missing Pieces/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Nameless Ambient/Electronica 3:06
Nameless/Claire Baum/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Passing Over Ambient/Electronica 3:06
Passing Over/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Pink Garbage Pop/Soft Rock 3:47
Pink Garbage/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Teen Dream Pop/Soft Rock 2:30
Teen Dream/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
The Strategy Classical/Electronica 1:45
The Strategy/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
The Summit Electronica/Urban 7:10
The Summit/Ultraphonics/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Valley of Kings Rock 3:25
Valley of Kings/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 
Walking Away Pop/Soft Rock 2:22
Walking Away/Gary Arnold/Soundzabound Royalty Free Music, www.soundzabound.com.
 

Training Tools

Training Tools

To download any of the below materials, right-click the link and select Save As.

  • THW Tips and Tools flyer: This one-page flyer has everything you need to get started with your subscription including: logging in, checking usage statistics, tips on integrating the database into your library or classroom, promoting it to your teens, and more.
  • THW Tutorial: An in-depth review of the database features, functionality, and content.
  • Educator How-To’s: Ruth Kuzmanic—a HS health educator for over 30 years in Naperville, IL, technology guru, and longtime customer—provides a quick, approachable tutorial on THW and how to get your students hands-on with it.
  • Beyond the Basics: Tips to Maximize Usage: A collection of ideas and suggestions to make integrating Teen Health & Wellness into your library or classroom easy.
  • User’s Guide: A comprehensive overview of the database features and functionality as well as helpful tips for using the database most effectively. Feel free to download and distribute to your colleagues and teen users via print or email.


Usage Statistics

Usage Statistics

Log in to view your account information and usage statistics.

You will need your administrative username and password to access this area of Teen Health & Wellness. If you need assistance, please contact customer service via email or phone at 1-877-381-6649.


User’s Guide

User’s Guide

The Teen Health & Wellness User’s Guide can help you make the most of your subscription. It offers a comprehensive overview of the database features and functionality, as well as helpful tips for using the database most effectively.

You can download the User’s Guide and share it with your colleagues or teen users via print or email.


Web Buttons and Widgets

Web Buttons and Widgets

Get the most out of Teen Health & Wellness by making sure your teens know where to find trusted, credible health information 24/7. Promote Teen Health & Wellness on your library Web site with Web buttons that link directly to the Teen Health & Wellness homepage.

Buttons are available in two colors and three sizes. (See examples.) Right click on the links below to download a button:

promo_button promo_button


Widgets


Our handy search widget lets users search the contents of Teen Health & Wellness from anywhere on your site. Simply copy and paste the search widget code onto your site, or ask your Web administrator for help.


What’s New

What’s New

Check out the latest additions to Teen Health & Wellness!

Scientific American: Resource Articles

Teen Health & Wellness has partnered with Scientific American magazine to offer reviewed content about important research, health, technology, science, the environment, and society. These high-interest articles have been reviewed and selected by Rosen’s team of editors and provide additional and unique content regarding Teen Health & Wellness topics to further support health and science inquiry and instruction.

Accessibility Features

Teen Health & Wellness has added AccessiBe, an accessibility tool that helps make our site friendlier for users with disabilities. Users can adjust AccessiBe’s settings to clear flashes, enhance visuals, reduce distractions, increase focus, and optimize for screen readers, among other features. For users with screen readers, the tool is enabled automatically. AccessiBe aims to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. You can check all the features by clicking on the icon in the lower right corner of the screen on any page. From there, you can explore all the tools that are available.

New Articles

  • Social Media Anxiety addresses information overload, FOMO (fear of missing out), self-esteem, and other mental health consequences of excessive use of social media.

 

Notable Article Updates

  • As noted in Food Allergies and Sensitivities, in February 2024 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first medication that can help protect against multiple severe food allergies, including milk, eggs, and nuts. The drug, called Xolair, is not taken during an allergic reaction. Instead, it is taken at regular intervals, such as every few weeks, to help reduce the risk of allergic reactions over time. Xolair is not a cure, so people taking the drug must continue to avoid foods they are allergic to.

  • Also in February 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new findings on why teens might experiment with drugs and alcohol. The CDC’s study, the first of its kind, expanded on limited research previously done on why teens use substances. CDC researchers surveyed teens who were receiving treatment for substance abuse. We cover this and other recent surveys in an entire article dedicated to the links between Drugs, Alcohol, and Emotional Health.

  • Dengue fever is endemic in most tropical regions and is a constant threat to people’s health. Brazil is currently experiencing an enormous outbreak of dengue fever, and public health experts predict a surge in cases in the Americas, including Puerto Rico. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2024 says a single-dose vaccine called Butantan-Dengue is highly effective at preventing dengue fever, even after just one dose. We cover the news as well as explain the nature of dengue and other tropical infectious diseases in Dengue Fever, Zika, and Chikungunya.

  • The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear oral argument beginning on March 26, 2024, over access to the drug mifepristone, which is used in combination with another drug to produce a medical abortion. Mifepristone is used in over half of all abortions performed in the United States, but in April 2023 a federal judge in Texas suspended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug. We cover the case in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling in our article on Reproductive Rights.

  • In January 2024, the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media released results of its “The State of Kids and Families in America” survey. It found that girls are more likely than boys to rank mental health challenges as most important. The majority of teens rate the mental health of youth in their community as just fair or poor. When asked about causes of the youth mental health crisis, teens cite social media and bullying/discrimination as major contributing factors. We keep our Depression and Mood Disorders article up-to-date with the most recent findings on the mental health challenges young people face today.

  • The low cost of energy drinks comes at a high medical price. Our article on Sodas, Sports Drinks, and Bottled Water cites numerous reports that have demonstrated the short- and long-term health effects of sugary beverages. Raise the price of those drinks and consumption drops. According to a January 2024 report published in the medical journal JAMA Health Forum, after Boulder, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle placed taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, purchases of these drinks declined by 33 percent.

  • In January 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared measles a “growing global threat,” with twenty-three new measles cases appearing in the U.S. in the previous month. Most of the cases were in unvaccinated children and teens. We’ve updated our Measles and Rubella article to reflect increasing concern among global health authorities about declining vaccination rates against these otherwise preventable diseases.

  • Our Diet Drugs article reports that in January 2024, a study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found that almost one in ten teens had used ineffective and potentially harmful nonprescription weight-loss products like laxatives, diet pills, supplements, and diuretics. These types of products are promoted heavily on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, but they typically haven’t been tested for safety or proven to produce meaningful weight loss. The study found that girls were more likely to seek out weight-loss products than boys, but boys were also at risk from using pre-workout products that are marketed as stimulants.

  • Since a December 2023 autopsy of the late actor Matthew Perry revealed that he had died due to “acute effects of ketamine,” the powerful anesthetic has come under increased scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Once a popular party drug in the 1990s, ketamine has increasingly been used to treat depression and other mental health disorders, but its dangers are real. Our Ketamine article contains the latest clinical research about the drug.

  • In 2023, Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of new treatment for teens with severe alopecia areata (hair loss). The drug, called Litfulo, inhibits the pathway in the immune system that attacks the body’s hair follicles. It helps to lower inflammation at the hair follicle and has shown significant hair regrowth—including scalp hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes—in patients who participated in clinical trials. It is the first FDA-approved treatment for kids and teens twelve and up. Our article on Alopecia Areata contains the latest information.

  • In December 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two new treatments for sickle cell disease, including one that uses CRISPR gene-editing technology. The FDA has approved these therapies for anyone twelve and older suffering from the most severe form of sickle cell disease. Scientists will study the patients who receive the treatments over time, but for now they say this represents an important advance in treating this life-threatening disease. Keep up with the latest groundbreaking developments in our Sickle Cell Disease article.

  • Canada has a new Suicide Crisis Helpline, a 24/7 service that gives everyone in Canada immediate, real-time support by calling or texting 988. Support is available in English and French, and teens and Indigenous people can choose to access services specifically geared to them. The United States has its own 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, also available 24/7 by calling or texting 988. There are also many free, anonymous, and confidential helplines that provide counseling and support. You can find more ways to get help on our Hotlines page.

  • Skin cancer is the second-most common form of cancer among teens and young adults. In October 2023, fourteen-year-old Heman Bekele of Fairfax, Virginia, won the title of America’s Top Young Scientist for his groundbreaking idea presented at the 3M Young Scientist Challenge: a soap designed to combat skin cancer at an affordable cost. Our Skin Cancer article explains what teens can do to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer.

  • Climate change is causing mosquitoes to roam beyond their current habitats, which has allowed a number of once-obscure infectious diseases to spread to other parts of the world, including North America. Scientists are racing to stay ahead of the increased risk. In November 2023, the FDA approved the first vaccine to prevent the disease caused by the Chikungunya virus. Our article on Dengue Fever, Zika, and Chikungunya explains these fast-spreading diseases and the threats they pose to our health.

  • Teen anxiety increases during the college application season. While the admissions process is stressful, so too is the looming challenge of paying for college once you get in. We’ve updated our Paying for College article with the latest available statistics on the rise in college costs and student debt. But we’ve also updated our data on the good news: despite all the financial challenges, a college education still pays for itself in the long run.

  • With teens nearly constantly online, it’s never a bad time to remind them about the importance of secure passwords. Every year, according to cybersecurity experts, the most frequently used password is 123456. Cybercriminals will attack vulnerable individuals, not just major institutions, with phishing attacks, identity theft, sextortion, and ransomware, among other crimes. In our Social Networking Online article, we’ve updated our advice about protecting oneself online to reflect the most recent advice from the experts.

  • The 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Professor Claudia Goldin for her work in understanding women’s roles in the labor market. We’ve recently updated our Women in the Workplace article to address issues Professor Goldin has studied, including an updated historical account of women in the U.S. economy as well as recent data about the gender pay gap, gender stereotypes, workplace harassment, and other challenges women face in the workplace.

  • The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian-American biochemist, and Drew Weissman, an American physician, for their work on mRNA vaccines—work that led directly to the development of highly successful vaccines against COVID-19. Our Vaccines and Vaccinations article explains how vaccines work in general, and includes a history of vaccines (and opposition to them), updated to include the development of the COVID-19 vaccines.

  • The most recent Pew Research Center survey of teen social media use should surprise no one: 58 percent of teens visit TikTok daily, followed by Snapchat (51 percent) and Instagram (50 percent). But teens are not just passive users of social media: they are content creators as well. We’ve updated Creating Content Online to keep pace with the ever-changing world of teen social media use to guide them through the pleasures and pitfalls of creating their own online content.

  • Given the rapid rise of ChatGPT beginning in December 2022, we’ve added guidance to students on how (and how not) to use ChatGPT in Finding Credible Information Online and Online Basic and Advanced Search Skills, from explaining how ChatGPT works to describing its limitations as a search tool.