Richard House interviews Sue Palmer on the 20th anniversary of their Open Letter about the parlous state of childhood in modern society. With over 100 key authorities signing, “the letter clearly ‘caught a wave’ of emerging cultural disquiet about the multiple, arguably deleterious impacts on children’s experience of the relentless march of technological society”.
Says Sue Palmer in the interview, reproduced below*: “Yes, 20 years is a long time to watch the fears voiced in that letter come horribly true: startling increases in developmental conditions (nowadays known as ‘neurodiversity’); escalating mental health conditions amongst children and young people (and no reliable data, because there are more children requiring help from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) than the system can cope with), and a growing gap between the life chances of children from poor and wealthy backgrounds.” The text of the original ‘open letter’ published in The Telegraph in 2006, is included as an endnote in the interview text.
The interview can be viewed and downloaded in the window below.
*Interview originally published in the April 2026 issue of New View magazine.