Youths are involved in numerous activities. Adolescents especially from the age of 12 and 19 are more hyperactive as compared to individuals in other age brackets. Hyperactivity, though seeming good from the surface, poses adolescents into hazards, injuries and accidents. Such accidents and injuries may be caused by concussions from sports, dog bites, insect bites, waterborne infections and youth violence in fights. With adolescence being the stage where an individual is faced by identity crisis, some of the accidents and injuries can be blamed on bad peer influence. School going adolescents are prone to make bad decisions due to influence from their school mates. Most adolescents in school face dating and intimacy violence, drug overdose and abuse and road accidents (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Safety measures should be put in place so as to minimize these injuries. Safety measures should start from parentage as parents have a huge responsibility in ensuring safety for their children, no matter at what age. Social pleasures such as access to mobile and computer devices and driving of motor vehicles should be monitored, if not deprived.
Motor-Vehicle Accidents’ Safety Measures
Motor-vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among American teenagers (Allen, 2008). Most of these accidents happen when a teenage driver is accompanied by peer passengers. Adolescents are more likely to engage in deviant and risky driving behaviour when with their peers aiming to please their peers (Allen, 2008). Unlike older drivers, teens lack experience in coping with difficult situations they face in traffic. Panic and nervousness may lead to accidents by teens. Moreover, many teenagers are not concerned with the sobriety of their drivers. Teens, probably due to shyness, lack courage to first establish whether the driver ferrying them is sober or not.
Teens are also prone to reckless driving. The notion that ‘this happened to somebody else but won’t happen to me’ is misguiding our youth that they are not vulnerable to accidents. Most youths over speed, make wrong turns and ignore red lights and other traffic symbols. Moreover, most teenage drivers are intoxicated and active alcohol and drug abusers. Reckless driving can only be followed by an accident.
Parents should ensure that when they award their kids with cars, they are able to monitor them. For this won’t be taken easily by adolescents, who are likely to feel that their freedom and privacy is compromised, adults should move an extra mile in educating their children on the consequences of risky driving. Parents should moreover check on their children’s companions. Adults should accompany their teenage sons and daughters until their children develop mature driving discipline. Car tracking devices should be installed in the teenager’s vehicles.
Electronic devices’ Safety Measures
In 2004, The National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control stipulated that male teens were less likely to wear seat belts as compared to female teens. However, these statistics did not address the issue of teenage drivers using their mobile phones while driving because many youths had no access to mobile phones by 2004. In 2018, many teenage accidents are caused by use of mobile phones while driving. Many youths are obsessed in chatting and having calls from their boyfriends and girlfriends. Excitement, surprises or bad news from their lovers may shock adolescents and make them lose focus; which would certainly cause an accident.
A recent study by Centres for Disease Control and Prevention showed that most of these accidents are caused by technological devices. Mobile phones and computer devices are reportedly causing many health hazards on teens. Video games, for instance, is a major cause of eye problems on our youths. As most of our teenagers spend long hours playing video games, harmful glare and light emitted by computer monitors may cause eye problems onto the players. Moreover long exposure onto computers and TV screens while watching movies causes problems of vision to our vulnerable teenagers. In a research done by Bausch and Lomb, 20% of American children suffer from an eye problems. If you visit any high school in America, one of the four students you are likely to meet is likely to be in eye spectacles (Teenage Eyes, 2018).
Parents should restrain their children from addiction on electronic devices. Parents should restrict and minimize the hours their children spend playing video games and watching television. Anti-glare software should also be installed for computer devices. Parents should also educate their children on dangers of misusing their mobile phones as the devices are responsible for many accidents and crimes in USA. Mobile phone tracking is also recommended for parents (Czeskis, et al. 2009)
Conclusion
In conclusion, safety measures on our teens should not only be left to their parents. Almost everybody is a stakeholder in maintaining safety for our youth; including teenage peer friends. Loss of a teenager from car crash or crime instigated by mobile phones is more than sad news to us. Moreover, young adolescents, as they are growing individuals, should avoid the risks underlying. They should remember that as new adults, they are supposed to be responsible and every decision they make is followed by a deservedly consequence.
References
Allen, J. P. (2009). Adolescents, peers, and motor vehicles-The perfect storm? Retrieved on 8th August, 2018 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2546489/doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2008.06.017
Czeskis, A. et al. (2009). Parenting from the pocket: Value tensions and technicaldirections for secure and private Private-Teen mobile safety. Retrieved on 8th August, 2018 from http://www.homes.cs.washington.edu/borning/papers/czeskis-soups2010.pdf
Teenager eyes- Bausch & Lomb. Retrieved on 8thb August, 2018 from http://www.bausch.com/vision-and-age/teenager-eyes
Teen dating violence- Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (2017). Retrieved on 8th August, 2018 from http://www.cdc.govc/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/teen_dating_violence.html
