Guardian.co.uk | Modernity 'poisoning childhood'

Press Association
Tuesday September 12, 2006 9:53 AM

Childhood is being lost to a dangerous combination of junk food, marketing and video games, experts have warned.

A group of 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts have written to the Daily Telegraph urging the Government to act, warning children are being poisoned by the modern world. [...]

Guardian.co.uk Link

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See also Telegraph.co.uk Junk culture 'is poisoning our children'
By Ben Fenton

(Filed: 12/09/2006)

A sinister cocktail of junk food, marketing, over-competitive schooling and electronic entertainment is poisoning childhood, a powerful lobby of academics and children's experts says today.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph*, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood. [...]

*entitled 'Modern Life Leads to More Depression Among Children'

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Of course, little if any of this discussion is new to those with an eye on childhood past and present (see selected bibliography below). But as K.J.Brehony rightfully notes, where's the evidence for these latest claims? Do all of the criticisms and complaints offered by the 110 experts hold water (equally)? Isit constructive to consider structural and geographical critiques of 21st century Western childhood in the same breath as others?

Allen, David. Is Childhood Disappearing? Studies in Social and Political Thought. No 6. March 2002.
Bracey, Gerald W. On the Death of Childhood and the Destruction of Public Schools : The Folly of Today's Education Policies and Practices. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.
Buckingham, David. After the Death of Childhood : Growing up in the Age of Electronic Media. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2000.
Elkind, David. Reinventing Childhood : Raising and Educating Children in a Changing World. Rosemont, NJ: Modern Learning Press, 1998.
James, Allison. Theorizing Childhood. New York: Teachers College Press, 1997.
Kline, Stephen. Out of the Garden : Toys, Tv, and Children's Culture in the Age of Marketing. London ; New York: Verso, 1993.
Mintz, Steven. Huck's Raft : A History of American Childhood. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004.
Postman, Neil. The Disappearance of Childhood. New York: Delacorte Press, 1982.
Scraton, Phil. "Childhood" in "Crisis"? London ; Bristol, Penna.: UCL Press, 1997.