{"id":282,"date":"2016-09-11T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.amaze.org\/?page_id=266"},"modified":"2018-04-06T16:14:38","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T16:14:38","slug":"porqueescogeramaze","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/amaze.org\/es\/porqueescogeramaze\/","title":{"rendered":"ES – Why Amaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe years between ages 10 and 14 are a pivotal period in the transition from childhood to adolescence. During these years of rapid development, important health and social knowledge is gained, behaviors are established, beliefs and attitudes are shaped, and the foundation is laid for adulthood.\u201d *<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

Take 10 minutes and pretend you are a 10-year-old looking for information online about your body, sex or relationships. Would you check social media? YouTube? Google? What do you think you might find?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Goal<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

AMAZE aims to produce animated videos to provide honest and engaging information to normalize sexual development and help very young adolescents (ages 10 to 14) develop the health promoting attitudes, knowledge and behaviors needed to navigate the critical transition between childhood and older adolescence. Through short, animated videos, we strive to gain the interest and trust of very young adolescents (VYAs) and to counter misinformation about puberty, sex and sexuality. These short videos and other materials will provide accurate information about puberty, body image, healthy relationships and sexual health that is both age\u00ad appropriate and medically \u00adaccurate.<\/p>\n

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AMAZE is also a resource for parents and educators to build their comfort, knowledge and skill to more effectively engage young adolescents with the age\u00ad-appropriate, fact\u00ad-based information they need at this critical time in their development. Young adolescents see parents as a primary source of information and support, but parents can feel ill equipped to address issues related to puberty, reproduction, sexual health and gender roles. Further, school\u00ad and community\u00ad-based sexuality education often starts later, if at all, and there are few up\u00ad-to-\u00addate resources to engage early adolescents in understanding sexual development.<\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Young people between the ages of 10 and 14 make up half of the 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide. Globally, a few organizations have begun to invest in programs to promote sexual and reproductive health among this age group. Most interventions, though, continue to focus on older adolescents, especially in the U.S. Since early adolescence marks a critical transition between childhood and older adolescence and adulthood, programs and campaigns targeted at very young adolescents are imperative to help set the stage for future health\u00ad-related attitudes and behaviors. Parents, schools and community organizations play a crucial role in influencing young people\u2019s behaviors and relationships. However, these individuals and institutions often face barriers, including politics, gender and cultural norms, that may impede their potential positive influence. Further, according to the Guttmacher Institute, more than half (55 percent) of adolescents report searching the internet for sexual health information. Yet, there is a large amount of inappropriate or inaccurate information as well as pornography online. In fact, Guttmacher reports in a recent study of 177 websites that 46 percent of the sites addressing contraception included inaccurate information. Further, according to a 2011 study by UNICEF, around 11 percent of girls and 6 percent of boys age 15 to 19 report having sex before turning 15.<\/p>\n

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Given rapidly expanding global access among young adolescents to internet and social media, there is potential to reach a global audience of young people through media programs that reinforce positive messages. Various observational studies have demonstrated that videos can be powerful instruments for education. Engaging and high quality videos can be a powerful way to reach young adolescents with critical information about puberty, body image, healthy relationships and other sexual health topics.<\/p>\n

Audience
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Our primary audience is 10-to 14-year-olds who have access to devices and networks to\u00a0watch online videos. In the initial phase, the videos will target U.S. audiences, but the goal is\u00a0to scale globally.<\/p>\n

Focus Group Insights<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

The AMAZE project partners\u2014Advocates for Youth, Answer and YTH\u2014conducted discussions with groups of 10\u00ad-to 14-year-old girls and boys in New\u00a0Jersey, Virginia and California. The key findings<\/a> confirmed that the young people are social\u00a0media savvy, and almost all of them owned smart phones. They use social media to stay in\u00a0touch with friends and family, for entertainment, and for assistance with schoolwork. They\u00a0use a wide range of platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, Kik, iFunny and ooVoo. The social media platform they use depends on what they are using\u00a0it for at the moment. These findings confirmed what other local and national research has\u00a0found about young people\u2019s use of the internet and social media.<\/p>\n

The Focus Groups stressed the importance of the following elements:<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n