May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and even Elmo and friends are joining the call for a broader view of youth mental health. Under the direction of Sesame Workshop, sesame streetnon-profit educational unit, organization new campaign(will open in a new tab) aims to support the emotional well-being of young children.

“Responding to the growing mental health crisis of young children and building on years of experience in developing social-emotional learning content for families, the workshop will address this urgent need with a wide range of activities and engaging content designed for the whole family and available on multiple platforms to reach children. and families, wherever they are,” the organization said in a statement. “The youngest children are often overlooked in mental health discussions, but evidence is mounting that young children are struggling now more than ever.”

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The corporate initiative Sesame Workshop is a response to February report(will open in a new tab) by the American Pediatric Association, which declared a nationwide mental health crisis for children.

“Our country is not meeting the behavioral health needs of our young people,” the researchers write. “While problems with the child mental health system have been known for decades, recent factors, including the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic, hastened its breakdown… The factors that triggered this crisis are complex, but not insurmountable.”

The campaign will offer strategies that caregivers, families and community workers can use to recognize signs of emotional distress in children and provide support in managing strong feelings and acquiring essential social-emotional skills.

As part of a multi-year, multi-platform campaign, families can enjoy sesame street neighbors across a range of cross-platform content, including a new 45-minute YouTube episode titled “Elmo’s Impressive Mindfulness”(will open in a new tab) in which the iconic character learns to calm his anxiety ahead of YouTube’s “Big Talent Show”. Celebrities and creators such as Jenny Slate, Juanpa Zurita and LaurDIY have joined the group to learn about mindfulness and calming activities.

Other resources include a special edition aimed at parents. happiness laboratory(will open in a new tab) podcast hosted by Yale University professor Dr. Laurie Santos. The episode will feature Sesame Workshop CEO Steve Youngwood and Kay Wilson Stallings, Executive Vice President and Director of Production and Creative Development, and Elmo, who will share additional emotional regulation strategies for parents and caregivers. It will be followed by another three-episode series about happiness with favorite characters and songs sesame street.

So, Sesame Workshop wants to bring their Good night world!(will open in a new tab) the podcast is back for a second season in collaboration with meditation app Headspace. “Developed by a team of early childhood and meditation specialists. Good night world! reimagines the popular Sleepcast format to help kids practice the transition from their active days to daytime naps or naps,” the organization wrote.

The campaign will venture into literature with a six-book series based on sesame streetX Video “Monster Meditation”(will open in a new tab) on YouTube in partnership with Headspace and Penguin Random House. The organization also announced a publishing collaboration with Mayo Clinic Press Kids(will open in a new tab)imprint of Mayo Clinic Press, to create a series of books on whole body health and emotional wellness, scheduled for fall 2024.

In addition, the Sesame Workshop has recently been launched. resource center(will open in a new tab) contains a digital storybook, worksheets, videos, and activities, including resources in English and Spanish, to support parents, caregivers, and service providers in building a strong foundation for emotional well-being. Video resources can also be streamed on PBS Kids.

In April, Sesame Workshop partnered with the Advertising Council to release a Sound it Out ad campaign titled “Me and My Adult,” a video that sings along about the importance of caring for caregivers for a child’s emotional development. And when viewed around the world, a prime time episode Takalani Sesame, sesame streetSouth African show that will premiere May 20, titled “Special Great Feelings”.

“We at Sesame are committed to a vision of a world where all children can thrive and feel the joy of life, and do so with gratitude for their mental health and well-being. Through the power of our beloved characters and proven resources, we will “re-raise awareness of the importance of caring for children’s emotional well-being and reduce the stigma associated with seeking support for children’s mental health,” said Sherry Westin, President of Sesame Workshop.

To learn more about the new Sesame Workshop resources, visit center of emotional well-being of the organization(will open in a new tab). Families can tune in sesame street on HBO Max.

I want more family and upbringing or mindfulness stories in your inbox? subscribe to Mashable Newsletter “Top Stories” Today.

you can now sign in to your google using passwords. Google has added the capability in what is arguably the biggest step in encouraging the use of authentication technology designed to address many of the weaknesses of passwords.

Access keys – developed by Apple, Microsoft, Google. and other allies – use a strong cryptographic security framework that ties your login rights to your phone or computer. There are no obscure strings of letters, numbers, and punctuation to remember. Access keys typically use a biometric authentication step such as a fingerprint or facial recognition, although other options are possible.

Google has already built support for passkeys into its Android phone software and the Chrome web browser, but it wasn’t until Wednesday, the eve of World Password Day, that you could use passkeys to sign into Google websites. For now, access keys work alongside other login methods, so you can try them without giving up other previous authentication methods like passwords or hardware security keys.

If the access keys work as expected, they will be secure and easy enough to use to completely destroy passwords. Considering how many millions of us use Gmail, YouTube and Workspace, password support in Google services is a big deal for this technology.

“Password keys are the beginning of the end for passwords,” said Christian Brand and Sriram Karra, two Google executives who oversaw the project. says the blog post Wednesday

in my access key tests, I was able to easily generate a passkey on my primary Android phone and propagate those credentials to my Mac and then to my iPhone. My existing authentication options—hardware security keys, app authentication, and Google app prompts—are still available.

Passwords are familiar but not easy to use. We choose guessable passwords that hackers can crack. We reuse passwords across multiple apps and services, so stolen credentials can be used in “credential stuffing” attacks to compromise other accounts. We support passwords with two-factor authentication, but it has its own issues, especially with login codes sent in a text message.

Access codes are designed to bypass all of this. They are based on cryptographic standards that secure e-commerce transactions and network communications. Fast Identity Online Alliance for use in authentication. The FIDO Alliance started with hardware security keys, the strongest core authentication technology, but repackaged it into access keys in an attempt to make it easier and cheaper to use.

While passwords are new, some sites have surpassed Google in login support. Among companies offering login password are eBay, Docusign, PayPal and Shopify.

As with hardware security keys, login credentials are configured to work with an application or website service. Your phone or computer does the actual authentication locally on its own hardware. This prevents one of the biggest security threats today, phishing attempts that try to get you to share your credentials or other sensitive information with fake websites.

You can set up passwords on multiple devices. And if you’re temporarily logging in using your friend’s phone or a public library computer, Google offers a QR code scanning mechanism that allows you to temporarily log in without permanently storing your password.

Password managers use passwords

One of the complexities of access keys is that they are, at least for the moment, tied to specific technology ecosystems – mainly Apple and Google. For example, when you install a Google passkey on an Android phone, Google automatically generates passkeys on other Android devices, but not on your iPhone.

But password manager makers Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane, and 1Password are now active in the FIDO Alliance and are working on technology that allows you to export and import passwords. However, it’s not clear how easy the process will be, and while Google has expressed support for the idea, Apple has remained silent.

“Today, with Google enabling passwords, 1.5 billion people worldwide now have the ability to use passwords,” 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner said Wednesday. “However, in order to be widely adopted, users need the ability to choose where and when they want to use access keys so that they can easily switch between ecosystems.”

Password Manager Dashlane already knows how to store passwordsand on Wednesday added the opportunity login to your password manager with a password instead of the master password too.

“By eliminating the master password, Dashlane will allow users to create new password-free phishing-resistant accounts that are free from the vulnerabilities of traditional passwords and multi-factor authentication,” the company said, arguing that access keys are also easier to use than passwords. .