Last week, more than 200 experts signed a letter to a national newspaper calling for action to protect children from 'the erosion of childhood' through commercialisation and technology, and calling for a play-based curriculum for children under six in nurseries and schools.
Two of the letter's signatories have given their views to Nursery World.
Baroness Susan Greenfield, CBE, FRCP (HON)
Senior Research Fellow, Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford (pictured)
As a neuroscientist, I'm aware of the highly sensitive adaptability of the human brain to the environment. If the brain adapts to the environment, and the environment is changing in unprecedented ways, then it is a given that the brain will change accordingly. Therefore, what concerns me is the dominance of screen technologies. It is a sadness to me that very young children are attracted to something with sound and vision that lacks smell and touch, and that there is a lack of threedimensional interaction.
You look first for trends. In the 1950s, we saw the trend for the increase in lung cancer with smoking. There are certain trends we should be exploring - such as why there is a decrease in empathy, for example, and an increase in drug prescriptions for ADHD. Might one of the factors be that a young child could be adapting to an environment mandating a short attention span?
With 'trolling' on Facebook, for example (posting abusive messages), this suggests that there's a lack of empathy.Perhaps the perpetrators simply don't know what it feels like to be abused.
A recent study of teenagers in China found that there was a strong correlation between playing video games and shrinkage in certain areas of the brain. With obesity, research has shown that obese people are more reckless in gambling tasks. Perhaps they are more prone to both the thrill of eating and the exciting experience of gambling.
However, rather than saying we need regulation, we have to find out what is so appealing about technology and computer games, and deliver it to our kids in three-dimensions and give meaning to the real world. Rather than saying technology is bad, we should be thinking about how we can hone it, so it can be part of our life but not central. Computers and technology are essential and valuable, but they should not be the dominant culture. We have to think of creative ways of giving confidence and a sense of identity.
I'm also very concerned about the sexualisation of children. We should preserve childhood as much as possible. But it's not just about banning things - it's well-intentioned to want to ban marketing to children, but we need to be realistic. What we need to do, is give children a strong sense of identity and fulfilment. If people are happy in their skin, as the French say, and have support and encouragement, they are less likely to be influenced by marketing.
John Carnochan, QPM FFPH
Detective chief superintendent, Co-director, Scottish Violence Reduction Unit
Violence is preventable and not inevitable, and the most important four years in a child's life are up to age three. Prevention is not only better than cure; it is cheaper and far more effective.
The skills imparted by parents to their children are non-cognitive or 'soft' skills, not hugely technical skills, just skills that are acquired in early years that help us all negotiate life, to better communicate, negotiate, compromise, judge risk and generally make good decisions about ourselves.
Investment in children's futures needs to take place early. Spending money on supporting parents and carers to give their children the best start in life has economic benefits beyond reducing crime. This is not about party politics, it is about doing what is right. The evidence is overwhelming and compelling.
Investing in violence prevention is not just about economic cost - it is also about a cost that cannot be measured in charts and graphs and percentages: the emotional cost to victims, offenders, families and communities. If we want to build stronger, healthier, safer communities that are sustainable because the individuals and families living there will be more resilient, then we must make such decisions, and make them now.
- Open EYE, the group behind the book 'Too much, too soon?', has set up the Saving Childhood Network and is asking supporters to sign a petition supporting its campaign against the effects of commercialisation, screen-based technology and 'developmentally inappropriate pressures' on children.
