Lucy Carne: Bubble wrapping Generation Alpha will only stunt their resilience

A viewers’ warning for The Gruffalo’s Child and banning school banking — the pathological need to shelter our children is getting out of hand, writes Lucy Carne.

It’s laughably ironic that the Queensland Government – boasting a state debt of $100bn – decided to scrap a school banking program.

You’d have thought some fiscal management training might perhaps come in handy for future generations.

But, no. Queensland (with the highest debt in the nation that is forecast to hit $130bn in three years) has become the latest state to follow Victoria and South Australia in expelling banking, like the Commonwealth Bank’s Dollarmites scheme, from schools.

School banking schemes, such as the Commonwealth bank’s Dollarmites, have been deemed inappropriate for children. Picture: Supplied

The states’ ban follows an Australian Securities and Investments Commission report, released last year, that found school banking programs exposed young children to “sophisticated advertising and marketing tactics”.

A fear that capitalism will corrupt our children is driving this over-reaction, but have they actually met any kids?

Six year olds wear FitBits and toddlers play on iPhones in prams these days. To think that a bank handing out free rulers and stickers would irreparably influence our impressionable babes is mind boggling.

My daughter came home from school last week with the latest Scholastic Book Club catalogue that includes a book for 10-years-olds called Become a YouTuber: Build Your Own YouTube Channel, which teaches children to “make awesome videos for your subscribers’ ‘.

But a Dollarmite account is evil?

Children currently aged 11 and younger have been dubbed Generation Alpha by social researchers Mark McCrindle and Ashley Fell in their new book.

Gen Alpha will be our most tech-savvy generation. Picture: iStock

Social Researchers Mark McCrindle and Ashley Fell have just released new book, Generation Alpha.

They are the children of Millennials and grandchildren of Baby Boomers and have been raised with technology from the cradle.

They will be the biggest generation the world has witnessed and by 2024, when their cohort is complete, they will comprise two billion people, compared to just 836 million Baby Boomers. They will mature earlier and live longer than any other generation, with most experiencing the twenty-second century.

But this tension to protect and constantneed to hold Gen Alpha’s hand is surely doing them a disservice and suffocating their right to learn from their own life experiences.

Quoting psychologist Collet Smart, McCrindle and Fell in Generation Alpha write: “We’ve swung from ‘children should be seen and not heard’ to wrapping them up in cotton wool, but now attention needs to be given to introducing children to healthy struggles and challenges.”

As a mum to three Gen Alphas, my concern for their resilience and fortitude was reinforced when I encountered a viewers’ warning for distressing content at the start of The Gruffalo’s Child on the ABC.

For those unfamiliar with this literary-turned-animation genius, it’s a story about a young Gruffalo (a monster-like creature) that goes for a walk in a forest at night and meets some animals. But our national broadcaster deemed it too scary and slapped a warning on it as a duty of care to protect Generation Alpha.

“The Gruffalo’s Child contains scenes of suspense,” the ABC warns. “We advise that for younger viewers it might be best enjoyed as family viewing.”

As an older Millennial who still carries the traumatic scars from watching the horse drown in the swamp in The NeverEnding Story, surely we’ve gone too far with a warning on The Gruffalo’s Child?

An illustration from children's book The Gruffalo's Child. Picture: Supplied

A generation of children survived The NeverEnding Story swamp scene.

Nowadays, the cinematic canon for children (Frozen, Despicable Me, Boss Baby and Secret Life of Pets) are all bright colours, strong moral lessons and gentle baddies.

“You think Hugh Grant in Paddington 2 is terrifying? You don’t know how good you’ve got it,” I’ll lecture my kids. “In my day we had to watch Skeksis in The Dark Crystal. You have no idea what it means to be scared.”

The ABC didn’t seem to show the same hypersensitive duty of care during my childhood.

I recall a cartoon called The Mysterious Cities of Gold, which I can’t quite remember beyond something about some kids flying around South America on a condor.

But it was the mini-doco at the end of each episode that involved a real-life re-enactment of sacrificing a virgin to the gods, including a priest on an altar holding down a woman and raising his knife to stab her that has really stuck with me. Probably not appropriate after-school viewing, thanks ABC. But hey, we survived.

I had a Dollarmites account too. And guess what? As an adult, I picked my bank loan based on the best interest rates offered, not on who gave me a free ruler at school.

Generation Alpha has an incredibly bright future ahead. They have weathered a global pandemic and will face challenges that we can’t possibly imagine, yet as digital natives will be the most tech-savvy, curious and connected people to inherit the planet.

But perhaps to aid them in growing into intelligent, empathetic, independent and resilient leaders, maybe we should dial down this pathological need for society to shelter them.

Expose them to a bit of capitalism and scary cartoons here and there.

Surely, then they will become the greatest generation ever.