The Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) today outlined its priorities for the coming year, marking a step-change in coordination of regulation.
Is growing up immersed in screens damaging our children? Far from technology being harmful for children, some thinkers argue that it is actively beneficial, teaching them the social skills we fear they are losing. In April 2019, eight months before the emergence of the new virus that would upend our lives, the World Health Organisation declared children under five should spend no more than one hour a day looking at screen-based technology. Nearly two years and one pandemic later, screens have become an integral part our lives. We have spent this crisis working, learning, relaxing and socialising via our laptops and smartphones, and our children are spending more time on their devices than ever before. According to one US study from April 2020, half of American children were spending six hours or more online, up 500 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.