Air pollution has a particularly damaging effect on children. They’re still growing and breathe faster than adults do. They also live closer to the ground, where the most polluting gases from vehicles accumulate. Pollution from traffic has been linked to problems with brain development, stunted growth, respiratory conditions, cancers and 300,000 child deaths worldwide. Children … Continue reading Schoolchildren helped redesign a city to cut air pollution and climate warming
In England, new research reveals how the poorest children are being negatively affected by an early years funding shortfall. The study found almost one in five childcare providers (17%) in the most deprived areas of England anticipate closure in the next twelve months – over twice as many as those in the most affluent (8%). … Continue reading Early years funding crisis in England affecting the poorest children
In summer 2018 I did workshops with year 6 pupils from Sir Francis Drake Primary School and Grinling Gibbons Primary School. Both workshops were held at and organised with the help of the wonderful team at Deptford Lounge. Pupils had already discussed the idea of regeneration with their teachers in school and were therefore prepared … Continue reading How do 11-year-olds understand the regeneration of Deptford?
In this extract from their report, Neighbourhood Design: Working with Children Towards a Child Friendly City, Dinah Bornat and Ben Shaw propose new approaches to urban design and participation with young people. A quarter of London’s population is younger than 18 years old. That’s a significant proportion, but children are nevertheless largely unrepresented in urban … Continue reading The child’s view of a neighbourhood
School based schemes which aim to get teenagers more physically active have had mixed success to date. Often these initiatives only increase activity in the short term, and ask teenagers to take part in a limited choice of sports or activities, such as football or dance during and immediately after the school-day. This approach is … Continue reading What teenagers told us would make them more active
With growing concerns over children’s online privacy and the commercial uses of their data, it is vital that children’s understandings of the digital environment, their digital skills and their capacity to consent are taken into account in designing services, regulation and policy. Mariya Stoilova, Rishita Nandagiriand Sonia Livingstone’s research project Children’s Data and Privacy Online set out … Continue reading Where does your data go? Developing a research methodology for children’s online privacy
