Canada's First Online Healthy Lifestyle Channel for Youth Airs October 31st

^{URL-TV part of Canada's Youth Drug Prevention Strategy}

OTTAWA, Oct. 28 /CNW/ - This Halloween, tune into URL-TV—Canada's first online healthy lifestyle television channel for youth aged 10 to 24, featuring programs for youth and by youth on everything from cooking and budgeting to bullying and drugs. Found at www.Xperiment.ca, URL-TV is designed to engage, educate and empower youth to make healthy lifestyle choices and stay away from drugs.

A significant number of Canadian youth use drugs. More than 60 per cent of illegal drug users are 15 to 24 years old, with the average age of first use as young as 11 among some groups of high-risk youth.

What to do? 

Go where youth are. "To communicate to today's youth, you have to be online," says Michel Perron, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), a national not-for-profit organization working to reduce the harm from alcohol and drug use. "That's why we created www.Xperiment.ca and now URL-TV."

Give youth the 'power of positive'. Research tells us that giving youth information about drugs alone is not enough—effective prevention needs to teach skills. "We need to help youth improve their self-esteem, their decision-making abilities, and their ties to their families and communities. If they do, they'll be less likely to get involved with drugs," says Perron.

To that end, CCSA partnered with an independent television production company, Mad Moose Television (MMTV), to produce URL-TV.

"Rather than trying to push a message to just say 'no', URL-TV offers today's media-savvy youth opportunities to say 'yes' to activities, skills and information that speak to their interests, passions and need for exploration in an engaging and entertaining manner," says Perron. "URL-TV blends information about substance use and its effects into youth-friendly skill-building infotainment."

Home Alone Zone and Video Video: For youth, by youth
One of URL-TV's feature programs is Home Alone Zone. Designed to fill the time gap between school and when parents return home from work, it shows students how to cook healthy snacks and meals, create fun and easy crafts, and shop on a shoestring budget. The special Halloween launch show will feature how to make 'smokers' lungs' out of pudding and cookie crumbs.

Another program, Video Video, invites youth to submit their own creative videos answering questions like: "what would you do with a thousand dollars?" and "how do you deal with peer pressure on things like drugs and alcohol?"

Both programs are available on demand in French and English. Other shows in the works will feature up-and-coming Canadian bands, and programs to help youth build financial and entrepreneurial skills.

About Xperiment.ca
Xperiment.ca, the web address where URL-TV can be found, was launched in 2008 by CCSA and has won numerous awards as an innovative drug prevention website. The site features 'URL', an animated eyeball that can be given a variety of illegal substances like pot and ecstasy with the click of the mouse. This allows youth to explore through virtual experimentation, seeing the effects that different drugs have on URL without harming themselves.

About Canada's Drug Prevention Strategy for Youth
Xperiment.ca and URL-TV are part of a CCSA-led Drug Prevention Strategy for Canada's Youth, a five-year initiative that aims to reduce illicit drug use by Canadian youth aged 10 to 24. The Strategy involves stakeholders from across the country in all provinces and territories and is funded through the federal government's National Anti-Drug Strategy.

Besides working with a national group of experts comprised of youth, media, marketing, communications, youth service organizations and drug prevention experts to develop Xperiment.ca and URL-TV, CCSA has also worked with experts in the field to develop a national portfolio of Canadian standards and guidelines for prevention programming in various settings (school, community and family) to strengthen the work of the Strategy and extend its reach.

About CCSA
With a legislated mandate to reduce alcohol- and other drug-related harms, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) provides leadership on national priorities, fosters knowledge translation within the field and creates sustainable partnerships that maximize collective efforts. CCSA receives funding support from Health Canada.

About MMTV
Mad Moose Television (MMTV) is an independent television production and distribution company specializing in full turnkey productions. With a head office located in Cornwall, Ontario, MMTV benefits from satellite sales and production facilities in Montréal and Toronto.

For further information:

Danna O'Brien
Playbook Communications    
Tel.: [phone] ext. 163   
Email: [email protected]