It can be really confusing sometimes, working out our emotions, and sometimes we might be confused about our feelings. If you are feeling confused or overwhelmed by your feelings, make sure to talk it over with trusted adults, like a Guidance Officer, a parent, teacher, or helpful services like Kid’s Helpline. Kids Helpline also has information about emotions here - https://kidshelpline.com.au/kids/issues/talking-about-feelings
If you are wondering how emotions actually work from a physical point-of-view - the limbic system is a set of basic brain structures located on top of the brainstem and buried under the brain’s cortex. The limbic system controls how you feel and express emotions, as well as some other functions of the body. By producing emotions (such as fear, anger, pleasure, and sadness), the limbic system enables people to behave in ways that help them communicate and survive physical and emotional upsets.
Among Us can be super fun to play. It’s obviously full of lying and betrayal so it's important that everyone playing understands that those things are part of the game but not great in real life! 😊
It’s also important to remember when playing games with a chat function that there could be cyberbullying or chat that isn’t suitable for young people. A good way to keep yourself safe is to play private games with people that you know, and to report anything that is not appropriate in the chat screen.
To report a player who is acting inappropriately, open up chat, click the ‘Kick’ menu, select the player you want to report, and click the Report button.
You can also use the new ‘Quick Chat Only’ and ‘Censor Chat’ filter to keep the game a safer place for yourself.
~ Sarah
Some people become interested in having a boyfriend or girlfriend at an early age, others are not interested until they are well into being an adult. There is no magical age that tells you when you can and cannot start dating.
However, parents and carers’ rules about relationships play a part here too. If your parents have told you that you must be a certain age to date and you keep a relationship secret from them, it will be difficult for them to help if you need support and advice. Relationships can be tricky, and you may need the support from your family at some stage.
In any case, regardless of age, it is important that if you do decide that you want to start dating someone, that you ask for their consent and communicate this with them. You both must also be mature enough to follow basic relationship rights and responsibilities, such as respecting one another as an equal, giving yourself and them space to spend time with other friends and family, and ensuring you both are free to express yourselves respectfully without any pressure or threats.
If you feel you and the person you are interested in understand how to be a respectful partner and will not pressure each other to do anything that you are not ready for, that is more important than any particular age.
~ Bonnie
If you are sent a nude picture, there are a few things you can do, and a few different issues depending on the age of the person in the photo and your relationship.
If the person in the nude photo is under 18 years, it is a criminal offence for you to possess child exploitation material which is what this photo is catogorised as. In this case it's important you talk to a trusted adult who can help deal with the situation. Delete the photo and do not send it to anyone else as this is considered distributing child exploitation material which is a very serious offence.
If it is your boyfriend or someone you are dating our advice is to discourage any sharing of nude photos, not only because it is against the law if you are under 18, but also because the photo is out of your control once it has been shared and you are relying on the trust of someone else to keep the photo confidential. It is a good idea to talk to your current boyfriend about this and don’t send any nudes in return.
If you are both over 18 years old and you receive this photo, unsolicited, you might like to let him know how inappropriate it is to force a nude photo onto someone. You can also block him and report him within the app as this is a violation of the standards of the code in which most messaging applications fall under. It can be good to let him know you are reporting him to show him there are consequences for his actions and to deter him from sending this pic to others.
- Christie
