It’s the summer holidays – and children need time outside

The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/04/summer-holidays-children-time-outside-obesity-mental-health

"A survey earlier this year found that three-quarters of children spend less time outside than US prison inmates. The National Trust has long spoken of “nature deficit disorder” as screen time increases and the so-called “radius of activity” shrinks (the area around a child’s home where they are allowed to roam unsupervised has shrunk by over 90% since 1970). There is a mental health epidemic in adults that stems partly from the health system’s failure to adequately deal with issues in childhood. We are constantly being hawked mindfulness apps and techniques as a way of supposedly dealing with this."