Technology doesn't have to harm your child's wellbeing

Children today have never been offline. Almost from the womb - that first, grainy ultrasound image posted on social media - Generation Alpha and younger Gen Z-ers have had a digital footprint, and been immersed in a world of constant digital connection.

- LILY-JO

My own son, born in the year that the first iPhone came out (2007), has never known a life where phones were not connected to the internet and carried around in one's pocket.

The news that tech bosses could face jail under the Online Safety Bill if they fail to protect children from harmful content is one step on the road to understanding that young people today inhabit an online world unrecognisable from anything we grew up with. The terrible death of Molly Russell - the teenager who took her own life after viewing suicide and self-harm content online - means we can never forget our responsibility to children and their digital wellbeing.

Today's young people are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. Hospital referrals for children with serious mental health problems have shot up 39 per cent in one year, according to NHS data analysed by PA. Admissions for eating disorders have soared by 82 per cent.

Our children are living through the fastest technological revolution in history, in a world scarred by the global pandemic, all while facing down the barrel of a climate crisis. We cannot find solutions for mental ill health if we do not recognise the complexity of the psychological stressors facing Gen Z and Generation Alpha today.