Child Development

Baroness Benjamin Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Benjamin]

My Lords, I, too, thank the right reverend Prelate for securing this important debate. I want to take this opportunity to spare a thought for April Jones, her family and all children who are being abused.

Childhood lasts a lifetime, and everything we do affects children directly and indirectly, so their development must be society’s highest priority. The well-being of society has always depended on the way we bring up the next generation, but never before has there been such a profound and significant change in the way human beings interact with each other.

We have entered an age where technology is so influential on our lives that it seeps into our daily existence and governs the way we live, think, speak and, above all, communicate, and for some it has altered their thought processes. There are dangers and hidden consequences of the digital age, and we do not yet know how it will affect the way our children’s brains develop and their thought processes. Children are at the forefront of this techno-social revolution of instantly accessible information.

To children the internet, social media and all that goes with it are a fact of life. They are the norm and without question they are a major influence on their development and their way of thinking, and some people are beginning to worry. A planned conference, hosted by YoungMinds and the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, is chillingly entitled, “Young People in the Internet Wilderness: A Psychological Time-Bomb?”. The conference proposes to highlight and discuss the effects of the internet on the mental health of young people.

Many have highlighted the risks of uncontrolled, unregulated use of the internet and other screen media by children. The latest, and perhaps the most damning, is a report by Dr Aric Sigman which states that the average 10 year-old has access to five different screens at home, that many children are suffering from screen addiction and Facebook depression, that prolonged screen time can lead to reductions in attention span because of its effects on the brain chemical dopamine, which is linked to addictive behaviour and the inability to pay attention, and that the use of screen technology has been linked to obesity problems and heart disease. The report concludes that the average child spends a full year glued to screens by the time they reach the age of 7. This is not good.

For years, I have spoken out and pleaded with parents not to allow children to watch television or access computers in their bedrooms, especially late at night, but just last week I visited several schools across the country and was shocked to learn how many children still have televisions in their bedrooms. Apart from children being tired and unable to concentrate in school, they are being exposed to psychologically damaging material, including violence, pornography, cyberbullying, sexual grooming by online predators and manipulative content, as well as self-harm and suicide websites, all on a daily basis. Worryingly, we have no idea of the long-term implications for how all this will affect their personal and social development into adulthood. Sadly, many children are having to face peer pressure to conform and are made to feel inadequate if they are not part of this techno revolution.

The value of making computer technology and the internet accessible for all cannot be underestimated, but the challenging question is: what are the long-term effects on children? Perhaps one day long in the future we will look back at the way the internet and mass media took over our lives and speculate that it was the ultimate Pandora’s box which forever changed the world and—dare I say?—unintentionally harmed it.

There are, of course, many who will profoundly disagree that the internet and our growing use of social media might have an adverse effect on society but, one way or another, there is no doubt that it is already having some effect on the way in which our minds work.

We must view the internet techno-genie with extreme caution, and ensure that we put in place measures to protect against the potentially harmful long-term effects on our children and, in turn, society. I ask my noble friend: what consideration is being given by the Government of the effect of the internet and social media on children’s social and psychological development, and the implications for the future of our society?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, before the noble Lord, Lord Low, stands up, I offer a gentle reminder that we are in a time-limited debate. Even the odd 30 seconds or minute eats into the Minister’s time and, obviously, the time for the response of the opposition Front Bench.