Is a Technological Childhood Toxic?

"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannise their teachers." (Socrates 469 –399 BC)

It is not uncommon for the current generation to look at the next generation and lament the loss of the ideals by which they measured their childhood. Our concerns are often shaped by the impact of change, the fear of no longer knowing or understanding the new, and the alienation of our own adult selves from the distant realms of childhood.

Every generation experiences it’s own and distinct childhood, no less valuable than the one before, and no less resistant to adult dissection and interpretation. Today’s child is exposed to technology and uses technology as a part of their daily life.

My own child stared in wonder the other night as through the windows of a passing car she observed children snug in the back seat of the latest model SAAB, watching television courtesy of small screens installed in their parents headrests. Her vocal opinion was expressed that this technology surely constituted “a perfect childhood”. Yet, when questioned about her impression of this perfect childhood it also meant time to play outside and go exploring, opportunities to play with animals, time to draw, regular holidays to theme parks and beaches, and an abundance of toys.

Her life, like so many other children’s is not confined or measured by their access to technology. Rather, life for children today is  seamlessly integrated with technology, combining the more familiar experiences of past childhoods with the technological innovation of the current one.

It is adults, not technology, that appear responsible for the creation toxic childhoods by promoting technology as a form of childcare and mandatory for superior educational achievement.

Adults who do not allow children access to a variety of opportunities and fail to provide a range and balance of activities are encouraging and undermining healthy balanced childhoods.

An Out of School Hours Service where television and computer games are the staple program, schools where exploration is limited to that which occurs through a computer, where homework is undertaken through the internet, families where dinner is eaten in front of the television, parents who never take time to visit a park with their children, the granting of permission for the constant use of television or computer games during a child’s free time, are all supporting the use of technology as a quick fix to suppress an active childhood rather than an opportunity to enhance it. 

In a letter to London’s Daily Telegraph in September, 110 teachers, psychologists and children’s authors called on the British Government  to prevent “the death of childhood”.

The letter alerted politicians to the need to appreciate and maintain  opportunities for children to be exposed to first hand experiences of the world, regular interaction with significant adults , active play and time to just be.

The letter goes on to elaborate “In a fast moving hyper competitive world culture, today’s children are expected to cope with an ever earlier start to formal schoolwork and an overly academic test driven primary curriculum. They are pushed by market forces to act and dress like mini adults and exposed via the electronic media to material which would have been considered unsuitable for children even in the very recent past”.

The concerns of this eminent group rested in part on the exposure to electronic equipment and marketing, seen as a potential poison for a happy healthy childhood.  However, at what time do we stop looking to politicians for answers and as a society look at our own practices? What responsibility will the 110 teachers, psychologists and children’s authors take towards supporting childhood?

Most importantly, here in our own Australian backyards, what commitment will you make to the children in your care to ensure technology is only one part of their childhood, not overpowering it and that balance is achieved for the healthy development of our nation’s children?

Children are not two dimensional – we all have a role to play in ensuring that their childhoods aren’t either!

by Robyn Monro Miller