Earlier this month, Symantec published a list of the top 100 kids’ online search words for 2009 (ages 18 & under). The data comes from a free search monitoring service for parents called OnlineFamily.Norton.

As expected with a sample group including teenagers, some of the online search words are anything but innocent. However, what is shocking is that “porn” is the 4th most popular search word among kids ages 7 and younger.

Amusingly, “Norton Safety Minder” is the 46th most searched for phrase among kids 18 and under. Search results include instructions on how to temporarily disable OnlineFamily.Norton.

BAD SEARCHES FROM THE TOP 100
by boys and girls (ages 18 & under)

#4 - Sex (#4 for boys & #5 for girls)
#5 - Porn (#5 for boys & #24 for girls)
#32 - Boobs (#17 for boys)
#82 - Pussy

TOP 25 SEARCHES
segmented by age groups

You can learn a lot about someone by what they search for online. These top search results paint a pretty clear psychographic picture of the priorities, preferences, and habits of online youth.

Kids and teens are obviously learning and experimenting with adult content much sooner than many parents, kids’ ministries, and youth ministries realize. As Time magazine reported early this month, 40% of adolescents have intercourse before ever talking to their parents about safe sex, birth control, or sexually transmitted diseases. Parents often dread giving their kids the sex talk(s), but studies show that kids want to learn from their parents. Instead, many kids learn about sex through friends, the Internet, and experimentation.

Parents sometimes say things more vaguely because they are uncomfortable and they think they’ve addressed something, but the kids don’t hear the topic at all.
- Dr. Karen Soren :: New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital

From a children’s ministry perspective, it is important to realize that statistically quite a few 7-year-olds in your class are searching for porn and exposing themselves to things much more serious than what traditional lessons cover. Obviously, children’s ministries cannot be straightforward about sex, but being too vague doesn’t work either.

Perhaps there are subtle ways to layer lessons with mature spiritual principles. Ideally, children’s ministry lessons should clearly yet subtly word things in a way that trains, helps, and ministers to the kids who are hurting and/or have picked up bad habits while simultaneously “going over the heads” and still teaching the kids who still have their innocence. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done.

For Discussion:
- What do you think about these online trends?
- How can churches help?

(via Mashable & CNET)

Boys are different than girls. As previously discussed, boys prefer a dramatically different learning environment and style than how girls prefer to learn.

The social preferences of boys and girls are also sharply contrasted according to new brain scan research from the National Institute of Mental Health. TIME summarizes the research nicely. Essentially, girls want one-on-one close friendships, and boys prefer to interact in groups.

As girls progress from early puberty to late adolescence, certain regions of their brains become more active when they face a potential social interaction. Specifically, when an older girl anticipates meeting someone new — someone she believes will be interested in her — her nucleus accumbens (which is associated with reward and motivation), hypothalamus (associated with hormone secretion), hippocampus (associated with social learning) and insula (associated with subjective feelings) all become more active. By contrast, boys in the same situation show no such increase in activity in these areas. In fact, the activity in their insula actually declines.

This research combined with our knowledge of gender learning preferences, gives insight into how we can create youth ministries that maximize both a teen’s learning and social enjoyment.

For Boys:

So when teaching boys, keep the group large but controllable (i.e., 12-24 boys) and in even numbers for team competition. Stand and move around while speaking forcefully and realistically. Allow the boys to occasionally move and keep the room at 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Use cooler colors in your environment and teaching. Play sports and competitive games, so the boys can naturally bond via social competition.

For Girls:

So when teaching girls, keep the group very small and intimate and allow for one-on-one interaction or even mentoring. Sit in a circle with the girls and speak descriptively and in a nurturing tone. Keep the room at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Use lots of colors, particularly warmer colors, and use visual and/or tactile textures. Create a secure yet stimulating environment where they can feel comfortable in taking risks that you encourage them to take.

For Discussion:
- If you teach kids and youth, what has your experience taught you about their preferences?

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis commissioned America’s Research Group to investigate why young people leave the church. The findings are published in Ken Ham’s new book Already Gone. Some insights include:

Among 20- to 29-year-old evangelicals

• 95% attended church regularly during elementary school
• 95% attended church regularly during middle school
  >> 40% first had doubts about the Bible in middle school
• 55% attended church regularly during high school
  >> 43.7% first had doubts about the Bible in high school
• 11% attended church regularly during college
  >> 10% first had doubts about the Bible in college

Oddly, the study discovered that those who attended Sunday school (61%) are actually more likely than non-attendees (39%):

• to not believe that all the accounts and stories in the Bible are true
• to doubt the Bible because it was written by men
• to defend keeping abortion legal
• to accept the legalization of gay marriage
• to believe in evolution
• to believe that good people don’t need to go to church

Clearly, most children’s ministries are failing at producing long-term disciples. So what will it take to change this?

On the one hand, I believe that every children’s ministry can absolutely improve what they do. There is always room for improvement, but I also think these failed children’s ministries are the byproduct of failed churches.

If you want to reach and disciple children, you must reach and disciple their parents. Church going kids spend only 1% of their time at church, 20% at school, 30% sleeping, and much of the rest watching TV and playing. Children’s ministers can determine the 1%, but it is the parents who have the power to decide what reaches their kids during the other 99%. If you disciple the parents, you disciple the kids.

For Discussion:
- How can children’s ministries better disciple kids in the Sunday school classroom?
- How can churches better train parents to disciple their kids during the rest of the week?

(via)

Environmental design for churches has changed drastically over the last two decades (at least on the fringes). It has become much more than church interior design. It has evolved into creating entire worlds and environments.

For example, when Cornerstone Harvest Church (Lima, OH) recently revamped their Heir Force youth ministry, they hired Little Mountain Productions to develop the environmental design. The result was a youth ministry design that featured a lifesize M-1 Abrams tank and 40 foot wing span plane coming out of the walls.

To complement these installations, Little Mountain Productions also added acoustic panel military graphics to the room.

In case you are wondering how they did it, here are some production shots.

OooRah!

The University of Texas School of Public Health recently discovered that middle school sex happens more often than most think. According to their study:

• 1/3 of students experienced precoital touching behaviors
  >> 43% of these students experienced sexual intercourse
• 12% of students experienced vaginal sex by age 12
• 7.9% of students experienced oral sex by age 12
• 6.5% of students experienced anal sex by age 12
• 4% of students experienced all three types of sex by age 12

Among sexually active middle school students:

• 1/3 experienced vaginal or anal sex without a condom within the past three months
• 1/4 had four or more partners

Obviously, this trend is alarming morally. But researcher Christine Markham also states:

These findings are alarming because youth who start having sex before age 14 are much more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, use alcohol or drugs before sex and have unprotected sex, all of which puts them at greater risk for getting a sexually transmitted disease or becoming pregnant.

I think middle school ministry is usually too soft. It is a difficult age to teach because some students are still years away from puberty while others are already beginning to experiment with sex, drugs, alcohol, and porn. Children’s ministers don’t like to touch taboo topics, but when 1 in 3 students are feeling each other up, how can they afford not to?

It takes tact, grace, and wisdom to discuss these things with students without offending or embarrassing them or their parents. It is challenging but worth it. It is much easier for a middle school minister to teach a preventive message than it is for a high school minister to rewire students’ established bad habits.

For Discussion:
- At what age does your church begin approaching tough topics?
- What do you think is the best way to teach tough topics to young students?

Generation Z is everyone between 2001 to 2021. They are who your children’s ministry will strive to reach for the next two decades.

While it is difficult to forecast how Generation Z will evolve, I think we have enough data to predict that these children will have their innocence robbed at earlier ages and engage in sexual activities earlier and more often than previous generations.

THE POWER OF LYRICS
The University of Pittsburgh surveyed ninth-grade students and discovered:

Exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex was one of the strongest associations with sexual activity.

Compared to those with the least exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex, those with the most exposure were more than twice as likely to have had sexual intercourse. Similarly, among those who had not had sexual intercourse, those in the highest third of exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex were nearly twice as likely to have progressed along a noncoital sexual continuum compared to those in the lowest third.

GENERATION Y STATS
Currently, the United States has 750,000 teenage pregnancies each year.
One in four (25%) U.S. teen girls have sexually transmitted infections.

GENERATION Z TODAY
Obviously, pop lyrics have digressed from the days of the Beatles (i.e., “I wanna hold your hand.”) to the era of Beyonce (i.e., “I know you want my body. Tonight I’ll be your naughty girl”).

Many of today’s Generation Z kids already listen to mainstream pop music. In fact, 44% of UK parents sing their babies pop songs and TV theme tunes rather than nursery rhymes. And if they do not listen to provocative pop music yet, media conglomerates will package it to them and tell them to listen.

Look at the some of music nominees for Nickelodeon’s 2009 Kids’ Choice Awards:

• Beyonce
  “Now take it off while I watch you perform.” (Suga Mama)
• Chris Brown
  “Let’s get and make love on Venus.” (Gimme Whatcha Got)
• Alicia Keys
  “So maybe we can go to first base because I feel you.” (Teenage Love Affair)
• Jesse McCartney
  “Spend the night with me and I’ll rock you.” (Rock You)
• Katy Perry
  “I kissed a girl just to try it. I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it.” (I Kissed a Girl)
• Pussycat Dolls
  “I can get off when you ain’t around.” (I Don’t Need a Man)
• Rihanna
  “What you got up in them jeans? Put it on me, or get lonely.” (Lemme Get That)
• Kid Rock
  “that little p**** l***** finger f***** h* a** c***.” (F*** U Blind)
• T-Pain
  “She was s***** on me. And I was l***** on her.” (69)

Considering a large part of Nickelodeon’s audience is Generation Z, the future looks rough for these kids, particularly those who are already listening to Kid Rock, T-Pain, the Pussycat Dolls, and Katy Perry.

For Discussion:
- Where do you see hope for Generation Z?
- How can ministries best help Generation Z from becoming the probable statistics of teen pregnancies and STDs?

According to NDP Group, kids are increasingly using digital media to acquire information. While this is not surprising, the growth rate statistics are fascinating.

Among kids ages 2 to 14 in 2008:

• 92% use a computer (down from 94% in 07)
• 85% play video games (up from 80% in 07)
  >> 82% of kids ages 2 to 5 play video games (up from 79% in 07)
  >> 57% of girls play video games (up from 50% in 06)
  >> 30% of kids ages 6 to 9 own a portable video game device
• 60%  use portable digital music devices (up from 51% in 07)
  >> 20% of kids ages 6 to 9 own a digital music device
• 51% use a cellphone (up from 49% in 07)
  >> 30% of kids ages 6 to 9 own a cellphone
• 22% download ringtones
• 22% watched TV digitally on a computer, cellphone, gaming device, or music device (up from 17% in 07)

Three trends that particularly stand out to me are:

1. Video Game Momentum
   It has been a long time since Atari, Mario, and Duck Hunt, so I am surprised to see video game usage among kids still growing at such a startling of 80% in 2007 to 85% in 2008. It seems hard to imagine kid culture being more fixated on video games, but clearly the love for gaming will only grow stronger.
2. Diaper Gamers
   Four out of every five 2 to 5-year-olds play video games. Think about that. Some still struggle with pooping their pants or wetting the bed, yet they are learning how to master gaming. While playing video games at such a young age does not completely rewire a kid’s ability to enjoy childlike things, I do believe early gaming makes kids pickier and raises their level of expectations for entertainment.
3. Instant Gratification
   Unless you are 8 years old, it is difficult to imagine growing up in a world where you can often instantly watch your favorite show, listen to your favorite song, call your best friend, look up an answer, or play a game. While these conveniences are wonderful, they also eliminate many opportunities to learn patience and self-discipline.

   Because these conveniences change kid culture, it is important that children’s ministers and parents both emphasize the importance of good character and provide kids with opportunities to develop their character.

For Discussion:
- What do you think of these statistics?
- How do you see digital media changing kid culture?
- What methods work for reaching kid culture?

[via Advertising Age]

If you want to have a creative church environment, consider doing something fun with the walls. Companies like Design Public (USA) and Wallpaper from the 70s (Germany) offer a wide variety of creative wall products. But the scope of resources extends far past these two companies.

To help guide you through it all, here is a toolbox of links to some of the best wallpapers, wall murals, paints, primers, stickers, and wall applications available.

DESIGN YOUR OWN MURAL OR WALLPAPER

• Design Your Wall (USA)
• Murals Your Way (USA)
• Totally Custom Wallpaper (USA)
• Rollout (Canada)
• myfotowall (United Kingdom)

RUST-OLEUM PAINT AND PRIMERS

• Magnetic Primer
• Dry Erase Paint
• Chalkboard Paint
• Glow in the Dark Paint

UNIQUE WALL DECOR

• Braille Walls by Inhabit (USA)
  A wall application that gives walls braille-like bumps.
• Colouring-In Wallpaper by Jon Burgerman (United Kingdom)
  Coloring book wallpaper.

• Fruit Cocktail Wallpaper by Flavor Paper (USA)
  Scratch n’ sniff wallpaper that comes in cherry, banana, and tutti frutti scents.
• Fingerprint Wall Sticker by ferm LIVING (USA)
  Giant fingerprint wall sticker.

• Prose Stickers by blik (USA)
  Custom wall stickers of any text you want.
• Seesaw Wall by Inhabit (USA)
  Give smooth walls an alternating seesaw effect with this wall application.

• Warped Walls by Surrealien (Germany)
  Custom fitting wallpaper that “warps” around the room.
• Words Spoken by Rollout (Canada)
  Wallpaper with empty word bubbles that can be written in.

• Versa TILE by Element Labs (USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong)
  LED panels that create walls of changing color, pattern, and movement.

Of course, there are plenty more resources than these. Are there any that you think should be on the list?