The Wild Child Campaign was launched by the National Trust to co-inside with the summer holidays. What fantastic news! We totally agree..."Children should play outside and get dirty according to the National Trust, which is to campaign to get couch potato youngsters off the sofa. The rise of childhood obesity and increasing ignorance about nature has prompted fears that many are being robbed of a healthy and active childhood. In response, the National Trust is to hold more than 1,000 events at its properties around the country, designed to let children get their hands dirty" (Louise Gray, environment correspondent -The daily telegraph, Saturday February 21)
"If children do not get first hand experience of the real world there will be problems later on with emotional and physical resilience" said Sue Palmer author of Toxic Childhood
For more information on the activity program and campaign see www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A Good Childhood
The report A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age was launched on 5 February 2009, published by the Children’s Society. It reported on the findings of the The Good Childhood® Inquiry, the UK's first independent national inquiry into childhood. The aims of the inquiry and report are to renew society's understanding of modern childhood and to inform, improve and inspire all our relationships with children. Its findings about changing childhood support the arguments for encouraging children to spend more time outdoors.
Compared with 50 years ago there have been three massive changes:
Children have more money, more leisure and access to new technologies. Many children now inhabit a new youth culture, more separate than ever from adults. But modern culture involves three serious dangers. It encourages:
With £3 billion a year to spend, children attract massive advertising. By the age of two children handle a new toy differently according to whether they have seen it on TV the previous day. By the age of three they prefer an advertised brand to another. Much advertising is good fun but some advertisers explicitly exploit peer pressure.There is evidence to suggest that the more a child is exposed to TV and the Internet the more materialistic they become, the worse they relate to their parents and the worse their mental health. The promotion of sugary, salty high-fat foods to children is a contributory factor to rising levels of obesity
The Children’s Society on lifestyle
Lifestyle encompasses a whole range of childhood issues including the ways in which children are involved in making choices about their own interests and hobbies and how they spend their time. Play is fundamental to children’s health and development. It is vital that time, space, priority and resources are given to ensuring that children have opportunities for play and leisure. There is a real need to ensure a good balance between protecting children on the one hand and allowing the freedom to play and explore their environment on the other.
The Children’s Society recognises that old and new media technologies and the Internet offer a range of extraordinary learning and global networking opportunities. We also recognise that these opportunities come accompanied by risks, and that there is a great deal of legitimate concern and fear amongst parents and other adults about children’s access because of this. Just as in matters of play and the physical freedom to explore the world, The Children’s Society believes that adults need to strike a healthy balance in relation to children’s access to media and online communities.
The Children’s Society aspires to see a balanced approach towards children’s involvement in and exposure to the consumer world. Setting the potential benefits and opportunities in a context of ensuring safeguards against the intrusive and pressurising impact of pervasive advertising - especially when it targets young children and ‘pester power’ as a tool for increasing sales. Equally important is the need to help children and young people develop a critical understanding of what they see, hear and read in the media, including advertising that targets them.”
For more information about the summaries in the report - www.childrenssociety.org.uk/all_about_us/how_we_do_it/the_good_childhood_inquiry/report_summaries/14751.html
Compared with 50 years ago there have been three massive changes:
Children have more money, more leisure and access to new technologies. Many children now inhabit a new youth culture, more separate than ever from adults. But modern culture involves three serious dangers. It encourages:
- The view that to be happy you have to be wealthy and beautiful.
- A conflict model of human relationships.
- Physical inactivity, eating, drinking and smoking to excess.
With £3 billion a year to spend, children attract massive advertising. By the age of two children handle a new toy differently according to whether they have seen it on TV the previous day. By the age of three they prefer an advertised brand to another. Much advertising is good fun but some advertisers explicitly exploit peer pressure.There is evidence to suggest that the more a child is exposed to TV and the Internet the more materialistic they become, the worse they relate to their parents and the worse their mental health. The promotion of sugary, salty high-fat foods to children is a contributory factor to rising levels of obesity
The Children’s Society on lifestyle
Lifestyle encompasses a whole range of childhood issues including the ways in which children are involved in making choices about their own interests and hobbies and how they spend their time. Play is fundamental to children’s health and development. It is vital that time, space, priority and resources are given to ensuring that children have opportunities for play and leisure. There is a real need to ensure a good balance between protecting children on the one hand and allowing the freedom to play and explore their environment on the other.
The Children’s Society recognises that old and new media technologies and the Internet offer a range of extraordinary learning and global networking opportunities. We also recognise that these opportunities come accompanied by risks, and that there is a great deal of legitimate concern and fear amongst parents and other adults about children’s access because of this. Just as in matters of play and the physical freedom to explore the world, The Children’s Society believes that adults need to strike a healthy balance in relation to children’s access to media and online communities.
The Children’s Society aspires to see a balanced approach towards children’s involvement in and exposure to the consumer world. Setting the potential benefits and opportunities in a context of ensuring safeguards against the intrusive and pressurising impact of pervasive advertising - especially when it targets young children and ‘pester power’ as a tool for increasing sales. Equally important is the need to help children and young people develop a critical understanding of what they see, hear and read in the media, including advertising that targets them.”
For more information about the summaries in the report - www.childrenssociety.org.uk/all_about_us/how_we_do_it/the_good_childhood_inquiry/report_summaries/14751.html
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