CHILDREN RETREAT into video games and the internet because of the hostility of some adults, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.Commenting on the latest developments of the Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Inquiry, of which Dr Rowan Williams is patron, he highlighted several key areas which were detrimental to children’s lifestyles.
Writing in The Guardian newspaper he said: “The withdrawal of young people into e-communication, from computer games to permanently attached mobile phones, is much lamented and maligned, but is partly about the desire to be inside a protected space from which adults are excluded.
“If the world comes to be seen as territory where the casual presence of the young is not welcome, it is not surprising that the indoor, electronic world is more attractive.”
The Archbishop criticised the use of an electronic device – the Mosquito – which emits a high pitched sound which only children can pick up, effectively driving them away from loitering at shop entrances.
“The use of ultrasonic dispersal devices is an indiscriminate and kneejerk response to a perceived problem,” said Dr Williams.
He also said that children suffer from a detriment of decent recreational places to meet in. In addition he said that the inquiry had confirmed that children to value the support of family and relationships.
Concluding, he said: “The inquiry can hardly do its work if we aren't prepared to look into what makes a good adult life too.”
Speaking to Religious Intelligence the Children’s Society’s director for children and young people, Penny Nicholls, also said that adults were very much responsible for changing attitudes among children.
“Whilst children and young people might be more materialistic we have to reflect why that might be the case because children reflect the society they live in,” said Ms Nicholls.
“If they live in a society where people get their sense of self-worth from what they possess, that is going to be reflected in their values.”
She added: “This is more about our value base in society. If we tackle that value base we can approach this debate in a more ordered form.”
The Children’s Society commissioned the GfK NOP poll to coincide with the launch of a summary of evidence submitted to the Good Childhood Inquiry on its fourth theme – lifestyle.
The poll found that 89 per cent of adults felt that children nowadays are more materialistic than in past generations.
Some 69 per cent think the government should ban junk food advertising and seven in 10 said violent video games make children more aggressive.
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