Toxic Childhood Analysis

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92%, that is the percentage of kids who have a digital footprint by the age of two (2015). Childhood today is being eroded by addictive video games, poor childcare and junk food diets. Parents need to take note, for this is no meagre issue. Just recently in 2011, 228 experts urged in a letter to Britain’s government, for a change to culture surrounding children. Modern technological life has consumed the childhood that most adults of today knew; instead, children today live a “toxic childhood” marked by a sedentary lifestyle and lack of proper development. Change needs to happen to interrupt this erosion of childhood. Parents and society have a responsibility to properly raise kids and make sure children have a childhood to cherish. …show more content…
The quick pace modern world has eroded away time for elements essential for brain development, such as first hand experiences, playing outside and interacting with others. The time for these elements is being spent in front of a screen. Sally Goddard Blythe, the director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester, found in a study that up to half of Great Britain’s children were not ready for school by age 5. She found they struggled to grip pencils, sit still, stand up straight and even kick a ball. The study concluded that the failure to develop motor and communications skills was caused by a sedentary lifestyle. Notably, Mrs. Goddard Blythe said “If I go back 23 years to when I first started, the primary underlying cause for such difficulties, was mild cerebral palsy.” “Increasingly, I am seeing children with no single, obvious cause but general lifestyle issues (Such as to much screen time) that seem to be contributing to their undeveloped motor skills.” Another research project by Neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield, found eleven year olds were scoring on cognitive tests “about two to three years below what they were 15 years ago.” The lack of develop among children today, could leave a generation lacking critical communication, motor and cognitive