Selfish adults 'damage childhood'

The aggressive pursuit of personal success by adults is now the greatest threat to British children, a major independent report on childhood says. It calls for a sea-change in social attitudes and policies to counter the damage done to children by society. Family break-up, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and income inequality are mentioned as big contributing factors.

According to the panel, "excessive individualism" is to blame for many of the problems children face and needs to be replaced by a value system where people seek satisfaction more from helping others rather than pursuing private advantage.

It also suggests that having many more working mothers has contributed to the damage done to children. "Most women now work and their new economic independence contributes to levels of family break-up which are higher in the UK than in any other Western European country."