Introduction

Children in the early decades of the 21st century are growing up in a social world remarkably different from that of their parents or grandparents. While every generation is transitory by nature, a uniquely striking feature for children living in contemporary society is the proliferation of digital technologies and the unprecedented pace and scale of change such technologies bring. The opportunities and benefits afforded those born into a digitally rich environment are immense and can have a positive impact on many important areas of children's lives including education and learning, play and creativity, and relationships and social connectivity. However, casting a shadow over this vision of techno-utopia is a cloud of associated risks and potential harms which appear in guises unique to a digital environment, for example cyberbullying, online sexual exploitation and access to distressing content. While not all children are exposed to digital technologies equally, the modern world is constantly changing in complex ways, and digital technologies are an integral part of this shifting landscape. An increasingly interconnected digital world requires children to learn the skills and be given the support to navigate the complexities of a hi-tech environment and to feel safe and happy to live, learn and play within it. This book is concerned with how children can live mentally healthy lives, meeting the challenges inherent in a society increasingly dominated by digital technologies, while also harnessing the abundance of great opportunities this has to offer.

The original ‘digital natives’ became young adults at the beginning of the 21st century. This book addresses a younger generation of ‘new digital natives’ – today's children – whose formative experiences are shaped by a social world saturated with digital technologies. International research suggests that the use of digital technologies has increased exponentially worldwide while the age of first access continues to drop (Gottschalk, 2019). In the United Kingdom, 50 per cent of ten-year-olds owned a smartphone in 2019 (Ofcom, 2019) and the average age of first mobile ownership was seven (Childwise, 2020). Patterns of usage are also shifting. In 2018, ‘tweens’ (aged 9 to 12) reported digitally active lives resembling those of teenagers recorded just three to four years earlier (Chaudron et al, 2018).