关于童年我们总是有说不完的回忆和趣事，但是大家有想过吗？现在孩子的童年和你以前的童年究竟有什么差别？或者说不同年代的孩子的童年发生了哪些变化，这对于小孩子会产生怎样的影响？

Momentous Changes in Childhood

In just a few decades childhood has changed out of all recognition.

在短短的几十年中，童年时代发生了翻天覆地的变化。

Today children will spend most of their time indoors, often with adults rather than with siblings or friends, be supervised more closely, be driven everywhere rather than walk or cycle, take part in many more organised activities and, probably for several hours every day, engage with a screen of some kind.

如今，孩子们将大部分时间都花在室内，通常是与成年人而不是与兄弟姐妹或朋友在一起，受到更密切的监督，被载着而不是走路或骑自行车，参加更多有组织的活动，并且可能每天花费几个小时与某种屏幕互动。

All this is done with the best of intentions. Parents want to protect their offspring from traffic, crime and other hazards in what they see as a more dangerous world, and to give them every opportunity to flourish.

所有这一切都是出于最好的意图。父母希望在他们认为更加危险的世界中保护自己的后代不受交通，犯罪和其他危害的影响，并为他们提供每一个成长的机会。

Prosperous parents these days, especially in America, invest an unprecedented amount of time and money in their children to ensure that they will do at least as well as the parents themselves have done, and preferably better.

如今，富裕的父母，特别是在美国，为孩子们投入了空前的时间和金钱，以确保他们至少能做得和父母本人一样好，最好做得更好。

Those endless rounds of extra tutoring, music lessons, sports sessions and educational visits, together with lively discussions at home about every subject under the sun, have proved highly effective at securing the good grades and social graces that will open the doors to top universities and well-paid jobs.

经过无休止的额外补习，音乐课程，体育课和教育访问，以及在家中就每个主题进行的热烈讨论，事实证明，这些方法在确保良好的成绩和社交礼仪方面非常有效，这将打开顶尖大学和高薪工作的大门。

Working-class parents in America, for their part, lack the wherewithal to engage in such intensive parenting. As a result, social divisions from one generation to the next are set to widen.

就美国而言，工人阶级父母缺乏进行这种强化父母养育的资金。结果，从一代到下一代的社会分化将扩大。

In rich countries the vast majority of 15-year-olds have their own smartphone and spend several hours a day online. We should also consider the effect on children of an array of screen-based devices, from televisions to smartphones, offering a feast of passive entertainment, interactive computer games and the opportunity to connect with peers remotely.

在富裕国家/地区，绝大多数15岁的人都拥有自己的智能手机，每天上网花费数小时。我们应该还将考虑从电视到智能手机等一系列基于屏幕的设备对孩子的影响，提供一系列被动娱乐，交互式计算机游戏以及与同伴远程连接的机会。

There are growing concerns that overuse might lead to addiction and mental illness, and that spending too much time sitting still in front of a screen will stop them from exercising and make them fat. The digital world also harbors new risks, including cyber bullying and sexting.