Film-maker David Bond reflects on why kids don’t get out to play: from the lure of screens to community intolerance.
What do children spend their time doing? For me, growing up in the suburbs in the 70s and 80s, it was roaming the streets – playing out in the fresh air.
For children today, their favourite thing is more likely to be screen-based.
Whilst filming PROJECT WILD THING I attached a camera to my daughter’s head. I wanted to find out how she spent her time.
The results were startling. 32% of her time was spent at school, 17% watching TV, 15% on the computer and just 4% playing outdoors. Time on screens dwarfed time playing out by a ratio of seven to one!
And it’s not just my daughter. It’s the same for kids across the country. The latest figures from Childwise show that children spend 2 hours a day surfing the internet and 2.5 hours watching TV.
These are sedentary activities. Scientists are worried that watching TV or playing on the computer all day will cause child obesity rates to balloon. The effects of screen time on children’s brains are hotly debated. Is it bad for them? Whatever the effect, it is self-evident that spending time playing outdoors is good, not just for kids’ brains, but for their minds too. And time spent indoors looking at screens is time not spent playing outside in the fresh air.
If playing outdoors is so good for kids, why don’t they do more of it? According to the latest stats, less than a quarter of kids play out at least seven times a week.
This week’s Playday survey revealed a long list of excuses for why kids today don’t play out as much as my generation. Alongside fears of busy roads and strangers, one stood out: unwelcoming communities.
1 in 4 adults said that a major barrier is intolerant neighbours. Over a quarter of parents said they worry about being judged by neighbours for letting their children out to play.
I recently experienced community intolerance for play first hand when I returned to visit the streets where I’d grown up playing. I met a group of boys skateboarding and cycling in the road. They told me that ‘nosey old people’ threaten to call the police if they don’t clear off and play somewhere else. ‘But’, one boy said, ‘you can’t go anywhere else, because there’s nothing here’.
Playday has been great at breaking down some of the barriers to children getting outdoors to play. It has brought communities together to create spaces and events where play isn’t simply allowed but celebrated. Perhaps if communities did this more often we’d see more children playing out on the streets.
Playday is great, but our challenge as parents is to make everyday a Playday.
- David Bond’s new documentary film, PROJECT WILD THING, is released in cinemas nationwide from 25th October. Find out more and join the movement at www.projectwildthing.com
