‘I think a lot of the debate around [the nearly one million 16-24-year olds who are NEET*] has been framed in the wrong way as a fiscal problem. It is a fiscal problem, but it’s [also] a moral problem, it’s a social problem, it’s an economic problem. I think you’ve got a moral crisis.’

Alan Milburn, former Labour cabinet minister

*Not in Employment, Education or Training

 All that geopolitical turmoil during the past week has somewhat eclipsed the growing debate about the impact of social media on young people. There is, however, quite a vigorous debate, particularly in the House of Lords, on whether the United Kingdom should follow Australia in banning under-16s from access: it's the subject which leads discussion in The Bigger Picture this week.

Taking a wider perspective, the lead article in The Times last Saturday featured Alan Milburn's review of what he describes as a ‘lost generation’ of 16-24-year olds who are not in employment, education or training; his comments also reference the addictive power of social media at several points.

He warns against placing too much emphasis on mental health concerns, commenting that both anxiety and depression are normal. However he also reflects, as shown in our opening quotation, that it's a moral problem — indeed, a moral crisis — as well. There's no doubt that this has been escalated considerably by the isolation and distortions brought about by excess social media exposure.

The new Children 's Minister Josh McAlister very much understands this challenge for a particularly insecure segment of adolescents: young people in care. He would like to see at least two reliable adult relationships for each care leaver to provide points of reference, and those who listened to Amol Rajan’s Radical podcast on foster carers will understand why this is so important.

The need for a moral compass for the young is a substantial challenge in our secular society of today, particularly when communication is so binary and detached, with so many hours spent locked into screen time. Even Amol Rajan admitted that his average daily screen time was over 5 hours.

We can, of course, look to sport to provide opportunities for in-person activities and conversations, but it's not a route that the majority of young people have the opportunity to follow.

Faith communities could considerably increase in-person interaction for young people, and there is a growing realisation among Christian churches that much more could and should be done to welcome them. A recent article in the Church Times was headed, ‘Churches can prevent loneliness’; it presented several practical suggestions for action and, although it referred as much to older people as younger, its references to volunteering and community action pointed to opportunities for real involvement at a local level.

The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury made community action the key feature of her New Year’s message, and I took the opportunity to send her the 2012 report called ‘Resourcing Christian Community Action’ with which I was closely involved.

It's not just the Christian faith which can help in providing this moral compass: the Muslim faith also contributes to finding a better way forward. I was recently introduced to ‘Equi’, which also provides a range of interaction opportunities through community action.

Establishing a moral compass during childhood and adolescence provides a strong basis for reference points in adulthood. This week’s episode of The Hypnotist refers to the ‘Inner Child’ concept which enables adults to look for guidance from their early years’ experience, in order to resolve current day challenges. But, if the extent of childhood experience has been heavily restricted by excessive use of social media and online gaming, where will they find this inspiration for their future adult life?

Alan Milburn is right to criticise our modern tendency to define all aspects of anxiety and depression as symptoms of mental health conditions, but we cannot deny that childhood development is being severely impacted by the isolation caused by social media and the lack of a moral compass.

At The Share Foundation we place considerable emphasis on life skills development. Literacy and numeracy are, of course, essential ingredients for building financial awareness, but skills of communication and confidence for interacting with others are equally important. Its ‘Stepping Forward’ course, designed as an introduction to the performing arts, provides an easy way to build these transferable skills; a publicly-available version of the course is being launched in February — please register here if you're interested to hear more.

And, for those with an interest in research and policy-making for inter-generational rebalancing, please don't forget to enter your ‘Save the Date’ registration.

There’s a lot going on to improve prospects for young people but, as Alan Milburn points out, we need to re-balance political priorities in order to ensure that the opportunity for them to achieve their potential in adulthood is not obscured by excessive focus on old people and their pensions.

Gavin Oldham OBE

Share Radio