Advertising in general often works by making you, the consumer, feel deficient in some way. Your laundry isn’t clean enough; buy our detergent instead. Your body isn’t thin enough; try our gym instead. Your dog isn’t organic enough; buy this food instead. But getting super granular and hitting teenagers — kids — specifically when they’re down is something else. [More]
teenagers
Teen Sentenced For 2 To 6 Years For Mugging Man For 7 Cents
By 8.31.11
A New York judge got tough with a 15-year-old boy convicted of mugging a 73-year-old man, sentencing him for 2 to 6 years in juvenile detention. The judge said he would have given the boy the same 1 to 4 year state prison sentence as a youthful offender that he gave his accomplice if he had taken responsibility for the crime rather than taking back his initial confession. Because the boy with the 2 to 6 year sentence was not convicted as a youthful offender, his crime — unlike that of his accomplice — will stay on his record after he serves his time. [More]
Be Sure To Confirm Age Requirements Before Buying Airline Tickets For Kids
By 8.30.10
A man in California ended up fighting with Expedia over compensation after his kids, ages 12 and 16, were left stranded overnight in a Virginia airport, because the airline wouldn’t let them board the connecting flight without being accompanied by someone 18 or older. The man told Expedia the kids’ ages before buying the tickets but the company’s system didn’t send up any red flags, so he thought the trip would be fine. [More]
Researchers: Violent Games Make Some Teens More Hostile
By 6.8.10
If your teenager is quick to anger and depression, disagreeable and likes to break rules, video games may not just be letting him blow off steam, but may actually accentuate his dark tendencies, a study by professors from Villanova and Rutgers concluded. [More]
Walmart Racist PA System Prank Culprit Arrested
By 3.20.10
The police in Washington Township, N.J. have tracked down and arrested the alleged perpetrator of last weekend’s unauthorized PA announcement of “Attention Walmart customers: All black people leave the store now.” It will surprise absolutely no one that the suspect is a 16-year-old boy. [More]
This Chuck E. Cheese Restaurant Really Knows How To Party
By 10.27.09
Police had to respond to three separate incidents in one day this past Saturday at the Chuck E. Cheese in Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania, according The Patriot-News. We hope the police got some free slices or skee-ball tickets on that last call. Well maybe just free skee-ball tickets.
16-Year-Old Unwittingly Stars In Homemade Abercrombie & Fitch Dressing Room Video
By 9.10.09
A teenager is suing Abercrombie & Fitch and one of its former employees after she caught someone filming her in one of the store’s dressing rooms.
Wild Teenagers To Inherit America's SUVs
By 8.4.09
Move over soccer moms and drug runners. Now that SUVs are heading for junk piles, the latest face of the SUV driver is the American teenager. As Abram Sauer reports at TheAwl, this is not good:
How Do You Tell Your Kid That The Sales Clerk Is A Big Phoney?
By 7.31.09
There’s a great post over on WiseBread by someone called the Frugal Duchess, about how her 10-year-old kid was schmoozed a little too successfully by a sales clerk at a tween clothing store in the mall.
Watch Out For The Five Worst Teen Jobs Of 2009
By 6.30.09
Because we took a lot of seasonal jobs/were easily bored, we had quite a few jobs as a teenager. But although our workplaces exposed us to hazards like deli slicers and Christmas Eve mall shoppers, we’re relieved to learn we never had one of the National Consumer League’s Five Worst Teen Jobs.
By 6.3.09
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Should you co-sign for your teenager’s credit card? The CARD act makes it more difficult for credit card companies to extend credit to people under 21 who don’t have their own independent income. Should you co-sign so that your kid can get a card anyway? Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post says, “No.” [Washington Post via Public Citizen] (Photo:foundphotoslj)
Out-Of-Work Adults Try To Nab Summer Lifeguard Positions
By 5.8.09
Some adults who are out of work are now going after classic teen jobs, says ABC News. In Florida, which has the fourth-highest unemployment rate of the nation, men in their 30s and 40s “have pulled on swim trunks in hopes of beating out the teenagers for a few choice positions as $9.37 an hour lifeguards.” The report also says adults are trying out for jobs at places like Six Flags. All of this reminds us a little of this Kids In The Hall Sketch (see below) where a young boy finds a stray businessman and brings him home.
Teenager Tries To Bankrupt Family By Sending $4,756.25 In Text Messages
By 4.9.09
Here’s an idea, don’t use your phone to send 300 texts a day at school. Not only will your parents not get a bill for $4,756.25, you won’t go from As and Bs to Fs and you also won’t get your phone smashed with a hammer.
Judge Orders F.D.A. To Make Plan B Available To 17-Year-Olds
By 3.28.09
Great news, 17-year-olds! A federal judge has ruled that you can now avoid accidental babies by partaking in the emergency contraceptive wonder that is Plan B. Back in 2006, the Food and Drug Administration limited the contraceptive to women 18 and over, and ordered pharmacists to hide the drug behind their counters away from other common contraceptives. Judge Edward Korman ruled this week that the agency’s decision was based on politics not science, and that it constituted an unacceptable public health buzzkill.
The Annoying Sound Stores Use To Drive Youngins Away
By 2.26.09
Here’s an example of that annoying noise that’s supposedly being used to drive teenagers away from stores and other places where they tend to gather and formulate their plans for world domination. It has also been used in commercials. Supposedly, only people under 25 can hear the noise. For the record, our staff can hear it and we think it sounds like that ringing in your ears that happens when people are “talking about you.” Annoying. [Teenager Audio Test via BuzzFeed] (Photo: Karl O’Brien)
Judges Sent Hundreds Of Teens To Private Detention Centers In Exchange For Millions
By 2.14.09
Two Pennsylvania judges were sued in federal court this past week for allegedly taking $2.6 million in kickbacks from private juvenile detention facilities. In exchange, they sentenced hundreds of youths to the centers over the past 5 years. One of the judges, Mark Ciavarella, sent 1 out of 4 defendants to the centers, compared to a statewide rate of 1 in 10.
Fund Your Teen's Roth IRA
By 12.13.07
Kiplinger’s idea of a good Christmas present for a teenager is helping them start a retirement account. We kind of think the average teen is going to have a hard time understanding why that’s a “better” gift than, say, a game system, but the underlying idea is sound. As long as your teen worked at some point in 2007—even babysitting counts—he can open a Roth IRA. But other people (that means you) can fund it, up to the amount the kid earned in wages.
Great Finance Books For All Ages
By 12.7.07
J.D. at GetRichSlowly was asked by a reader for suggestions on good presonal finance books to give as a gift this year. He points out that giving such a gift is a sensitive matter, since it can be received poorly if the recipient isn’t in the right frame of mind. On the other hand, he writes, “It was because a friend gave me a copy of Your Money or Your Life that I finally turned my finances around.” Here are his suggestions for books geared toward children, teenagers, young adults, and “old folks.”
