The 7.30 Report (Sydney, 1 November 2006) ran a story on the impact of technology on childrens' developmment. Increased use of the Internet and computer games is occuring, as children socialise and play indoors, using technology, rather than outdoors interacting with other children and nature.

Various experts on the show, including Sue Palmer, author of 'Toxic Childhood' (Orion, 2006) (http://www.suepalmer.co.uk/toxic.php), argued that although the modern world is becoming increasingly fast and insecure, children should not be pressured to develop faster. They need to play, outdoors, and directly with other children.

However, many parents aren't letting their children play outdoors as much anymore. They're scared of strangers, or of injury. Children are growing up with a fear of others.

The issue of marketing and brands (eg, of toys or food products) was also raised. Have brands became an anchor, or a point of certainty, for young children brought up in a world where anything unknown is to be distrusted? Have parents' own insecurities, emerging in periods of economic change, been reflected in their childrens' upbringing?

Further, what are the impacts of new forms of residential development? Are new housing developments, from apartment towers to 'McMansions' with lots of indoor space but tiny backyard and few nearby parks, harmful to children? How are kids growing up? What can be learnt from international experience?

Brad I would suggest that the attention that kids pay to marketing is due to some very clever marketing. I can only hold up my daughter as an example. She is 15 months and generally not a tad interested in tv (trust me I have tried to use the tv as a subsitute baby-sitter a few times while I get the washing up etc done). However, from the time she was 3 months old if one of those Mcdonalds ads with the pretty music came on, she would WHIP around and stare. Now that she's a bit older she now sways to it as well. Funnily enough its the Maccas ads and the Soul (phone) ads that really get her. The only other thing on tv that I can get her to pay the slightest attention to is Raggs the Dog - a kids show on in the mornings. Even then she only reacts to the music at the start of the show, she certainly doesnt sit down and watch the rest of it. The intro music gets a squeal and an excited dance, but that's all. Makes me think that the likes of Maccas invest plenty researching the effects of music in their kids ads.

Children are human. They have the same urges to be useful, think, create, solve problems, use their imaginations, love and be loved as adults. They need attention – buckets of it. They need praise and to feel successful. They do not need complaints, anger, punishment and retribution – they need rewards for behaving well. They need to be part of a happy, functioning unit that can look after itself, as well as working with other such groups. They need at least one friend they can trust. They need to feel secure in a family that is home most evenings and does things together…
Children who make up their own games, build their own huts and toys, assist with meals, clean their own rooms, help in the garden, do the shopping, have a list of jobs to do before play, take responsibility for themselves and younger siblings, are paid a wage for their contribution to the family so they learn the value of both work and money, read books so their imaginations are fired up… these children are alive, fun to be with, smart and sane.
Television removes the requirement to imagine. The story is told, the images are presented, the sounds are there, the voices and characterisations – there is absolutely nothing left for the viewer to do! Which is why we can remember a book we read years ago, but haven’t a clue what we watched on TV last night. TV is the opposite of thinking. Research shows that the brain of a person sitting in front of a TV set watching no matter what program, is less active than the same person's brain when sitting alone in a darkened room with no stimulus but his own imagination.
You want fun, smart, bright kids? Never use the TV for entertainment. Give the kids a reasonable allowance and let them buy what they will, with no top ups! They’ll soon learn to appreciate you, money and the joy of saving up until something can be afforded. The joy of doing something for themselves!