The Current Dilemmas of Adolescence, Social Media, and Pornography
This webinar is primarily for professionals working with adolescents with problematic behaviors. It may also be of interest to parents and caregivers.
The challenges facing parents, caregivers, and adolescents in today’s digital landscape have arguably never been more complicated. All too often, adolescents find themselves navigating the harsh realities of readily available media without adequate guidance. Meanwhile, parents and caregivers are constrained by time and resources to help them and struggle to keep pace with these rapidly evolving technological issues. According to recent studies:
- Over half of teens have expressed regret over the existence of social media platforms.
- Despite this, they spend more and more time on these platforms, yet commonly describe feeling left out or excluded.
- All of this is taking place at a time in which social media hosts higher levels of sexually explicit content, and adequate sex education has not kept pace.
In this webinar, Seth Wescott and David Prescott review recent research and discuss the changing face of clinical practice in the current era. They offer ideas for understanding these issues and provide strategies for supporting adolescents and their families as they navigate this digital landscape.
Who's Presenting
Seth Wescott, LMLP, ATSA-F
Seth Wescott is a Licensed Master’s Level Psychologist and has been working with individuals with problematic sexual behaviors since 2002. He has worked in maximum security prisons for both adults and adolescents as well as various community-based settings. In private practice, Seth conducts pre-disposition and pre-adjudication psychosexual evaluations of adults and adolescents. He serves as chair of the ATSA Public Policy Committee, and is an ATSA Fellow. He is a certified trainer for Static-99R, Stable-2007, and Acute-2007 risk assessments. Seth is a Professor of the Practice at the University of Kansas and an Adjunct Professor of Counseling at Mid-America Nazarene University.
David Prescott, LICSW, ATSA-F
A mental health practitioner of 40 years, David Prescott is the Director of the Safer Society Continuing Education Center. He is the author and editor of 25 books in the areas of understanding and improving services to at-risk clients. He is best known for his work in the areas of understanding, assessing, and treating sexual violence and trauma. Mr. Prescott is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Contribution award from the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA), the 2018 recipient of the National Adolescent Perpetration Network’s C. Henry Kempe Lifetime Achievement award, and the 2022 recipient of the Fay Honey Knopp Award from the New York State Alliance for the Prevention of Sexual Abuse and New York State ATSA. He also served as ATSA President in 2008-09. Mr. Prescott currently trains and lectures around the world. His published work has been translated into Japanese, Korean, German, French, Polish, and Southern Tutchone. He has served on the editorial boards of four scholarly journals.