Childhood is Dead, Long Live Childhood
Sometimes, while strolling around this crazy world, I see children with cellphones, iPods and other 21st century toys. And it upsets me. What happened to kids living in a protective, imagination-powered bubble? Those days are long gone.
And a new report out of Britain makes clear just how far today's tots are from the innocent, carefree, ensconced days of yore:
One in five children aged five to seven are accessing the internet without supervision from a parent, it has been revealed, raising concerns about access to adult material and grooming by paedophiles.
One in ten has a mobile phone despite a series of health warnings, and half have a TV in their bedroom, according to research by media regulator OfCom.
Some 85 per cent have access to a games console as children's lives are increasingly dominated by gadgets rather than physical play.
This data makes me want to cry, wretch and find religion. I've said it before and I'll say it again: fuck the war on drugs, let's target technology (except for the websites for which I work, of course).
Image via Vanderlin's flickr.