You've often heard me say how lucky I was to be born in 1936 even though I had to put up with Adolph Hitler for nine years. I gloss over the Rickets, Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria because I escaped them all. Apart from the war, which we got used to, I had a good childhood, was well nourished despite rationing and had good caring parents. The only electronic aid we had was the wireless, we had a telephone but I never had cause to use it. As far as I was concerned it was simply a means by which work could contact my father. Looking back and comparing it with today, it was in so many ways an Age of Innocence.
What's brought this on is two bits of news that have come to me in the last few days, first was the report in this paper that West Craven High School has banned mobile phones on the premises because they are not necessary, encourage bullying and other dangerous behaviours. By the way, I thoroughly approve of this policy and wish the school well in enforcing it. Then there was the news this morning of a report based on a study of schoolchildren and the problems they face. Top of the list was bullying and 'sexting' via mobile phones whereby they were encouraged to send each other explicit pictures of themselves. The children (some of them less than ten years old) said that this was rampant and if they didn’t join in they were accused of 'being frigid'. Even worse, they said that even if they actively avoided these behaviours, the news feeds they had as applications on their phones were loaded with sexual innuendo seemingly targeted at young people and couldn't be avoided. Add to this inappropriate brand advertising and I for one wonder what on earth is happening here?
I look back fifty years to when Vera and I were rearing three daughters and reflect that while we didn't always get everything right, at least we hadn't these modern problems to worry about and on the whole they all grew up straight and level-headed. I can't imagine what it must be like for modern parents, all I can say is that it would worry me sick. I have every sympathy not only for the kids but the parents.
The question is can anything be done about it? I have this terrible feeling that while policies like banning phones in school might help a little, the danger is still there for the rest of the day. Are we so sick as a society that this is now the norm? The terrible thing is that this deterioration in behaviour happened on our watch, perhaps we took our eye off the ball. If so all I can say is that I for one am ashamed and wish there was a way to put the Genii back in the bottle. Trouble is, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Children playing in the School Lane beck in Earby around 1900.
