Toxic Childhood

Last Updated on August 10, 2025 by Karl Thompson

Toxic Childhood is where rapid technological and cultural changes cause psychological and physical damage to children

The concept of Toxic Childhood is one of the main criticisms of the March of Progress view of chilhood. It is especially critical of the idea that more education and products for children are necessarily good for them.

Sue Palmer’s Theory of Toxic Childhood

Sue Palmer, a former primary school headteacher invented the term toxic childhood. Her theory is outlined in her 2006 book: Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About It‘.

In the book, Palmer argues that a toxic mix of technological and cultural changes are having a negative impact on the development of a growing number of children, and she outlines six main ways in which childhood has become increasingly toxic over the years.

Six examples of toxic childhood

A few years ago Sue Palmer’s Web Site had a very clear summary of six social changes which were damaging children’s early development, listed below….

1. The decline of outdoor play – linked to increased childhood obesity.
2. The commercialisation of childhood – linked to children being exploited by advertisers.
3. The ‘schoolification’ of early childhood – which reduces independence.
4. The decline of listening, language and communication skills – because of shortened attention spans.
5. Screen saturation – reduces face to face interaction.
6. Tests, targets and education – increases anxiety among children.

Below I summarise some of the ways aspects of childhood today may still be toxic!

The decline of outdoor play

According to Early Years Matters play underpins every aspect of children’s development. Children develop intellectual, language, social, emotional, and creative skills through play.

It is through play that children explore the world around them, take risks and develop their imaginations.  

However outdoor play for children has declined significantly in the last decades. Save the Children recently reported that only 27% of children play outside regularly. This compares to 80% 55-64 olds when they were children.

Outdoor play generally provides children with more freedom than indoor play, allowing children to develop a greater sense of independence and self-reliance than with indoor play which is altogether more controlled and monitored by adults.

The decline of outdoor play also means children are getting less exercise today and it is correlated with increasing childhood obesity. It could also be having a detrimental impact of children’s mental health.

According the interactionist theory of socialisation play is central to the development of the self in childhood. So the decline in outdoor play may even be preventing children from becoming fully social beings.

The commercialisation of childhood

Childhood has become increasingly commercialised over the last few decades. This is where children are turned into consumers from early years into their teens. This is achieved mainly through advertising products and brands to children through television and more recently social media.

While the number of adverts children watch on television has decreased since 2013, social media is a different story.

Children are increasingly being bombarded with content marketing on social media: funny videos and memes which link to products. Children may also follow minor celebrities who promote certain brands and products.

With such marketing techniques children may not even be aware they are victims of commercialisation.

The ‘schoolification’ of early childhood

Childhood has become increasingly regulated and there is an expectation that children should always be learning at a standardised pace to keep up with ‘ordinary’ child development.

For example the baby centre has milestone charts for children in different age brackets outlining what most, half, and ‘advanced’ children can do by certain ages.

There is thus more pressure on parents and child carers to be teaching language, numeracy, or motor skills to very young pre-school children rather than just allowing them freedom to explore and enjoy their childhoods.

The government has also recently announced an increase to the amount of time children should spend in school. From September 2024 children should be. in school for 6.5 hours a day or a minimum of 32.5 hours a week.

The decline of listening, language and communication skills

The number of children estimated to be behind with language and communication skills in England and Wales increased to 1.9 million in 2023, up from 1.7 million in the previous year.

Combined with the above point this means we are setting more and more targets but children are just failing to reach them. This will then probably mean more catching up in school rather than modifying the targets.

All together we seem to have constructed a set of rules for children than sets many of them up to be failures from a young age.

Screen saturation

One study (reported 2020) based on a sample of 3000 10-16 year olds found that half of them were online for more than 5 hours a day.

However the study above finds mixed results for the positive or negative consequences of increased screen time on child development, physical health and mental well-being.

Tests, targets and education

Marketisation from 1988 has greatly increased the role of testing in schools. This has led to a narrowing of the curriculum as more time is spent on teaching children to jump through the hoops required to pass exams.

More testing and exam pressure is also correlated with increasing anxiety among children.

More Recent Books on Toxic Childhood

Sue Palmer has published two more books, focusing on boys, in 2007, and on girls, in 2014.

Toxic Childhood: Criticisms

There are several criticisms of the view that childhood has become increasingly toxic:

• This could be an example of an adult ‘panicking’ about technological changes, maybe children are more adaptable than Palmer thinks?
• Taking the longer term view, childhood may well be more commercialised today, but surely children are better off today as consumers rather than producers (child labourers)?
• This article by Catherine Bennett is worth a read – it reminds us that ‘in the good old days we just had to endure beatings’, although in fairness to Sue Palmer I don’t think she actually romanticizes the past, she’s really just pointing out the new and different problems children now face in a post-modern age.

Toxic Childhood Today….

The example below is an extreme example, maybe best defined as hyper-toxic childhood….

Ryan Kaji was the highest earning YouTube star in 2020.

Along with his parents he makes videos about toys – which includes reviewing various different products, but also promoting his own brand of toys.

In the video below Ryan and his parents are promoting his ‘vending machine’

A very toxic childhood

This seems to be a good example of a family promoting ‘toxic childhood‘.

Apparently Ryan and family churn out at least one video a day, meaning this kid, encouraged by his parents, is opening one new product a day, and being watched by millions of other children.

And in the above video, we see Ryan’s parents asking to buy junk food from Ryan, the vendor – so encouraging children to not only be consumers, but also to eat junk food.

According to this Guardian Article it’s not clear whether some of these videos count as ‘reviews’ (which the family claims) or ‘advertising’.

The family is paid by various sponsors and it’s possible that they are endorsing their products for a fee.

Winners and losers?

This is a good candidate for the most offensive YouTube channel I’ve ever seen – clearly the parents are winners as they are making an absolute fortune (with almost $30 million earned in 2020), I’m not sure how well Ryan is going to turn out – brought up with millions of viewers and a massive materialist streak, it’s difficult to see how he’s going to mature into a reasonable adult.

Certainly the companies are winning, with cheap adverts for their products.

But the child-viewers of these reviews are very much the losers – here’s an ‘ordinary kid’ just like them whose opening a new toy every single day and having a great time, but the average kid simply can’t afford that level of consumption, but is being taught that consumerism is fun, normal and good.

Find out More about Toxic Childhood

Palmer’s Web Site used to be well organised, and used to have a lot of links to recent research on Toxic Childhood..

Unfortunately the and the free information (arguably like childhood) has disappeared, and it now just links to her books, which you have to pay for. (I guess times are hard for adults as well as children, especially when you’re used to a headteacher’s salary!)

Having said that some of her most recent books on child development and education are worth a read. Her most recent publication argues for raising the school starting age to seven!

Related Posts 

Dive deeper into how modern culture affects childhood. Check out my Childhood Sociology hub for an A-Level Families and Households revision guide covering social construction of childhood, paranoid parenting, and more.

Other relevant posts within that topic include….

• Sue Palmer’s Toxic Childhood is a criticisms of the The March of Progress View of Childhood
• Supporting evidence comes in the form of Paranoid Parenting – Frank Furedi’s 2001 book in which he argues parents restrict their freedom so much that it may harm children by preventing them opportunities to develop as independent individuals.
• Are children too controlled? An examination of some of the ways parents control their children today.
• Inequalities between children – is a further post on the darker side of family life.
• Also relevant is this post – Is childhood disappearing? 
• You might also like this: More Evidence of Toxic Childhood

This material is relevant to the families and households module, usually taught in the first year of A-level sociology.