Is today’s ‘complicated’ world hindering our children’s development?

New report raises concerns over lack of freedom for today’s children

It is widely understood that playing freely is good for children, but today’s parents are united in the belief that their children lack the freedom they had as a child (63%).

Fears over safety mean that more than half (57%) of nine year olds are restricted to within sight of their home, with 29% unable to venture out of the grounds, despite parents (44%) admitting to playing in secret dens in wooded areas and local parks when they were young.

According to the The Dairylea Simple Fun Report*, released today and authored by childhood expert Tim Gill, an overwhelming majority (84%) of today’s parents believe that their own child’s childhood is more complicated than that of previous generations, dominated by computers, constrained by parent fears and blighted by school pressure.

The majority of parents (74%) believe that technology plays too big a part in play with 58% going as far as saying they are ‘concerned’ about the amount of time their children spend in front of a screen.· Combined, these pressures leave children with less time than their parents had for ‘simple fun’, such as playing outdoors with friends. With two in three (67%) children craving playtime with friends, but only 16% having the time and freedom to do this every day and 36% less than once every two weeks.

So how do we ensure we’re not wrapping our children up in cotton wool and hindering their opportunity to learn for themselves and experience real life, but without putting them at risk?

Listen to the report’s author Tim Gill discusses what is becoming a controversial, confusing and worrying issue for parents.