Children 'poisoned' by junk food

The childhood of UK children is being poisoned by a cocktail of junk food, marketing, school targets and video games, a groups of academics and children's experts have claimed.

More than 100 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts contributed to a letter to the 'Daily Telegraph' calling on the government to act to prevent "the death of childhood".

The letter said: "We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions.

"Since children's brains are still developing, they cannot adjust... to the effects of ever more rapid technological and cultural change."

The letter said that children needed real food, instead of processed junk food and real play, as opposed to computer games, television and internet. They also needed regular interaction with their parents.

The letter said: "They also need time. In a fast-moving, hyper-competitive culture, today's children are expected to cope with an ever-earlier start to formal schoolwork and an overly academic test-driven primary curriculum.

"They are pushed by market forces to act and dress like mini-adults and exposed via the electronic media to material which would have been considered unsuitable for children even in the very recent past."

The group who signed the letter included children's writers Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson, director of the Royal Institution, Baroness Greenfield and child care expert Dr Penelope Leach.

(KMcA)