‘Isolated’ children shut the bedroom door on life outside

MOST children are spending the majority of their free time in their bedrooms, the first survey of young people’s social lives since the pandemic has revealed.

Researchers found that the lure of social media and the impact of lockdown on social lives had left Britain’s children startlingly isolated.

The Yougov survey of 5,000 11 to 18-year-olds discovered that 41 per cent had no opportunities to make friends and 19 per cent spent most of their free time alone.

Onside, the youth club charity that commissioned the survey, said it laid bare an under-reported crisis of loneliness gripping Britain’s youth.

Kathryn Morley, its chief executive, said: “We have always known that young people skulk off to their rooms but with all the devices they have these days, they now have the ability to just stay there uninterrupted.

“So much is accessible to them through their devices and the danger is there on the internet and in what they are exposing themselves to.”

The survey comes a month after the inquest into the death of Molly Russell, 14, found that her viewing of social media posts about self-harm and suicide contributed to her death.

She took her own life in November 2017 after spending months immersed in what her father, Ian, described as a “demented trail of life-sucking content”.

The Yougov survey found that 77 per cent of young people spend most of their time at home and 56 per cent experience medium or high levels of anxiety.

Gershom Clarke, who runs an Onside youth club in Barking and Dagenham, east London, said: “The young people walking into our youth centre today are less confident in making their own decisions or trying new activities.”

Campaigners fear the cost of living crisis will exacerbate the problem.