Nursery World - Commercialisation - Hard sell harming childhood?

Many parents think the onslaught of consumerism is bad for their children, as Annette Rawstrone hears.

Children's well-being is being damaged because childhood has become too commercial, according to the majority of adults in a new survey. They agree that children are being subjected to pressure to achieve, behave and even consume like adults at an ever earlier age.

The Children's Society poll found that 89 per cent of respondents felt that children nowadays are more materialistic than in past generations. Most are also concerned that children's self-esteem is being damaged by the media's negative coverage of them.

Commenting on the poll, which is part of an ongoing Good Childhood Inquiry, Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of the Children's Society, says, 'A crucial question raised by the inquiry is whether childhood should be a space where developing minds are free from concentrated sales techniques.

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