Let’s talk about childrens screen time, and time outdoors… Conventional wisdom says that children spend so much time on screens because content is addictive. Yes, algorithms are designed to be compelling and drive engagement, and yes, devices are always close at hand. BUT there’s far more to this story. One reason that kids are glued to their phones is that their freedom elsewhere is restricted, and not some an inherent or manufactured desire to do so.
Screen time isn’t what children want
In March, three influential academics – including social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, along with Lenore Skenazy and Zach Rausch – worked with the Harris Poll to survey more than 500 US children aged 8–12. Their goal was simple: to understand what kids really want to do with their spare time.
And the answer is simple and clear. Nearly three quarters of children surveyed (72%) said they’d prefer to spend their time together with frieds, doing things in-person and without screens. How about that for myth-busting?
When they were asked to choose their favourite way to spend their free time with friends from a concise list of three options, children’s choices were again unmistakably clear:
- 45% chose unsupervised, unstructured play, like casual sports, playing make-believe, or exploring the neighbourhood.
- 30% chose adult-led activities, such as ballet or football.
- 25% chose socialising online.
These kids, whom the press constantly criticises for being screen-obsessed, chose time outdoors with their mates, without adult intervention, almost twice as often as they chose online socialising. They would rather have the independent, “free-range” childhood of previous generations. Of my generation. I’m aware of how very lucky I was as a kid. So what’s the problem? Why is there this myth around childrens screen time?
Why aren’t kids getting what they want and need?
The problem is simple: many children are no longer allowed that precious, perhaps precarious but somehow wild and free childhood. So where can they hang out unsupervised, spending their time as they wish, resolving their own conflicts, and testing their boundaries? Online, in the only space left open to them, glued to a screen in the perceived “safety” of their own home.
The survey data confirms that this is not hyperbole. Restrictions on children nowadays seem extreme and far-reaching, even in low-risk environments.
- More than a quarter of the 8- to 12-year-olds surveyed are not even allowed to play unsupervised in their own front yard.
- Fewer than half of the 8- and 9-year-olds surveyed had gone down a grocery-store aisle alone.
- A staggering 62% of children in this age group have never walked or biked to a location like a park, store, or school without an adult present.
Our kids are growing up on lockdown. Their childhoods are strangely adult when it comes to technology, and infantilised when it comes to real life.
The fear factor: Anxious parents
What’s behind this level of restriction? According to a separate Harris Poll, it’s because parents are growing ever more fearful that bad things will happen to kids during unsupervised play. Fears that are wildly disproportionate to reality.
For instance, when parents were asked what they thought would likely happen if two 10-year-olds were playing alone at a local park:
- 60% believed the children were likely to get injured.
- 50% believed the children were likely to get abducted.
This is a sort of collective delusion.For example, child abduction by a stranger is statistically less likely than being struck by lightning. These fears are not based on facts; they’re driven by relentless media coverage of isolated, tragic incidents.
The consequences are profound. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the children in the survey agreed with the statement: “I would spend less time online if there were more friends in my neighborhood to play with in person.” Screen time is thus often the default, not the desire. And as the researchers note, the decline of real-world independence and free play directly correlates with the rise in anxiety, depression, and self-harm among young people.
Our anxiety has created a dystopia where real-world autonomy is vanishing, where kids are both anxious and infantilised.
How is this relevant to outdoor leaders?
And why it relevant to us? Well, one chapter in Michael Bond’s excellent book Wayfinding talks specifically about how unstructured and unsupervised physical play, outdoors, demonstrably helps children to learn how stuff works, to gain confidence in their physical environment, and to develop the essential skills required for navigation. They learn to deal with risk, manage boredom, and resolve disagreements – all critical components of successful independent travel. And arguably, of successful adulthood.
If you teach navigation, map reading, or field craft to younger folks, bear in mind that they are a generation that may well lack this core physical and environmental confidence. If you supervise or assess Duke of Edinburgh awards and your Bronze group are freaking out, treat them with empathy. They’re freaking out for a reason. They just haven’t had those years of unsupervised trial-and-error that are necessary to build these competencies. Be gentle with them – what looks like a lack of initiative is actually a lack of previous opportunity 🤗
Photo by Laura Ohlman on Unsplash, diolch.
