The Conservative MP, writing a 4Children pamphlet, entitled The State our children are in, suggested that the combination of social media, sexualised childhoods, long periods in front of screens and a lack of adult role models is creating this quarter-life crisis.
Comments in the pamphlet particularly focused on the role of technology. Loughton warned that relationships between parents and children are ‘in danger of becoming increasingly sidelined by advances in technology’. He also said that by the time children born today are seven years old they will have spent a year of their lives looking at a screen, and by the time they are a teenager they are more likely to have a TV in their room than they are to have both of their parents living at home.
Loughton, the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said: ‘By all accounts, growing up in Britain today is more challenging than almost ever before. Pressures to get into the chosen school, to perform well at the right school, to “look cool”, to be resilient in the light of peer pressure, and to safeguard one’s integrity both on and off social media - the many faceted phenomena of the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood - are all everyday challenges that our children and young people have to deal with from an early age. It’s little wonder that mental health problems are affecting so many of our young people even younger. It’s also little wonder that research from the University of Greenwich claims that many young people are suffering from a “quarter-life crisis” in their 20s as they seek more meaning from their existence.’
Focusing on technology, Loughton added: ‘Who needs the stimulation of human touch and the building blocks of attachment when you can have it all delivered remotely down a fibre-optic cable or, even more conveniently, have a Wi-Fi baby? It’s no wonder that we all too often struggle to shield children from the slings and arrows of social media, when many parents are accomplices in securing their children a place on Facebook well before the advisory age of 13. Incredibly, nearly one in five children now gets their first mobile phone by the time they are five.’
