www.need2know.co.uk

I stumbled across this website by accident last year while looking for advice on student finance, as my son was about to start university.
It looked a very interesting site, so I bookmarked it so that I could go back later and have a proper look at it.

It is a website that aims to provide young people with useful information and advice on all sorts of topics which affect their everyday life. It is supported by the NHS, so you ...
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I will give you a tour around the site to give you an idea of the sort of things which are included:-

When you first enter the site, you will find a homepage which gives a selection of main topics of the day which you can just click straight on to if they are of interest.
There is a 'Teen Life check' survey which is about life issues - this offers useful advice and helpful websites, which are all approved. Being ... more

I stumbled across this website by accident last year while looking for advice on student finance, as my son was about to start university.
It looked a very interesting site, so I bookmarked it so that I could go back later and have a proper look at it.

It is a website that aims to provide young people with useful information and advice on all sorts of topics which affect their everyday life. It is supported by the NHS, so you can rest assured that all advice given is very responsible.

I will give you a tour around the site to give you an idea of the sort of things which are included:-

When you first enter the site, you will find a homepage which gives a selection of main topics of the day which you can just click straight on to if they are of interest.
There is a 'Teen Life check' survey which is about life issues - this offers useful advice and helpful websites, which are all approved. Being a survey format makes it more interesting to do as well.

There is a 'Time Out' section, which includes entertainment, sports, style, arts & culture, web and mobile and gives you the option to get involved. Discussions in this section include - teen heroes & role models, teens who fancy a career in the movie biz and advice on getting into sports, although this varies.

Down the left hand side, you will find a menu, with sub menu's off, as I've listed below:-

*HEALTH*
This section covers subjects such as, Addictions, Sexual health, Wellbeing, Keeping fit, Body matters, Mental health, First aid, Health services ( you can get a health check survey on here), Getting confident.
There is excellent advice and information on contraception, advice on sex and STI's and pregnancy. There is also lots of fun quizzes on here.

*MONEY*
This section offers great info and advice for students. Advice on debt danger and understanding the risks of credit cards, how to budget and cut spending. Advice on avoiding interactive sites such as ringtones, chatlines etc and making young people aware of the charges involved. Also advice on benefits.

*TRAVEL*
Great advice in this section for young people holidaying without parents for the first time, Gap year travelling advice, learning to drive and how to travel safely.

*RELATIONSHIPS*
This section covers real life stories of subjects such as bullying. There are discussions about relationships and friendships, love & break-ups, coping with bereavement, coping with nagging parents ( not that I'm one of those :-)!

*LEARNING*
Discussions and advice on Year 9 options, revision, exams and homework. You will find links to universities, EMA and Connexions.

*WORK*
This section gives advice on careers, part-time work and work experience. It gives links to the Job Centre and sites that help you to set up a CV.

*LAW*
Advice on knowing your rights, job law, crime and justice. There are discussions on rascism and equal opportunities. There are links to Crimestoppers, Shelter, Citizens Advice and more.

*HOUSING*
Advice on moving out of the family home, real life stories from flatmates, advice on renting, buying, landlords and student housing. Also offers advice for the homeless.

*ENVIRONMENT*
This section has quizzes to find out how green you are. There is advice on recycling, climate change, pollution and conservation.

*COMMUNICATE*
Various debates go on in here which encourage you to send in your opinions. You can cast your vote on burning questions.
This is where you will also find some fun games such as, Junk Busters, Flip the frog and my favourite, Bloc til you drop!

You have the opportunity to sign up for a free weekly newsletter.
There is also an email facility - if there is a particular article you think would be relevant to a friend, you can email them straight from the site.

*MY OPINION*
As you can see, this site is invaluable for teenagers and young people going through the turmoils of starting off in life as independant individuals. The advice given is excellent and very responsible, but given in a way that young people can relate to.
Even if you have a very open relationship with your teens, there are still probably times when there are certain things that they would prefer not to talk to us about, which is understandable. I'm sure that this site would be very helpful for the majority of subjects that may be bothering them.
I have a 19 year old son who started university last year and have found that this particular year, he's experienced nearly everything on this site, such as learning to budget on a student grant, looking into moving out, learning to drive, and coping with relationship problems.
I gave him this site to bookmark onto his laptop and he's found it to be very useful.
I also have a 17 year old daughter, who is in a relationship and I've found out that shes recently become sexually active. As all mothers know, this is a very difficult thing to come to terms with, and although I have discussed safe sex etc with her, I can see she is embarrassed and a bit uncomfortable so I gave her the website, knowing that I can trust the advice that is given.

The site can also be very useful for parents who want to use it to give advice as lots of teenagers just can't be bothered to read anything for themselves.
Some of the advice is also in our interests as parents, as the advice given to them for coping with nagging parents is as follows:-
To help more around the house.
To step it up at school.
To show you can be trusted.
Be reliable.
Think positive.

I'm sure with advice like that, you'll all agree its a GREAT website!

The site is very easy to use and as all teens seem to spend most of their time on MSN and Myspace, it can be opened and minimized while they are online anyway and read in between doing other things whilst online. Much easier than trying to talk to them and just getting a grunt in return, don't you agree parents? :-)

Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope all your teens will find it useful. Nic x 

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