Younger generations may wonder how we ever coped growing up without high-speed broadband, smartphones and TV streaming.
But just as a nostalgia for 90s pop culture saw the return of Britpop mainstays Pulp, Blur and Oasis, increasing numbers of parents also seem to be hankering for a simpler time before the internet age.
The trend for ‘parenting like it’s the 90s’ includes digging out retro technology such as walkie talkies and Gameboys – playing board games together as a family, exploring nature and even letting children be bored – without the distraction of iPhones, tablets or YouTube channels.
Campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood said the movement was a ‘resistance to what’s happened to childhood’ since the rollout of the mobile phone.
It said those raised in the 1990s remember what it was like before smartphones were commonplace.
Ideas include sending children outside at every opportunity, eating meals without iPads, reading books, comics and magazines instead of scrolling and watching slower-paced films and television programmes.
Almost 200,000 parents have now signed the group’s pact, agreeing to delay giving their children a smartphone until they are at least 14, and social media until 16.
Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood, said: ‘We are the last generation who can clearly remember what life was like before smartphones and there is now a real hankering to give kids the same experience we had – one before mobile phones and smartphones took over.
‘Over that same period parents have got more risk-averse and too scared to let our kids play out and take risks.
‘There is now a growing trend for parents to wonder if there is a better way, if we can loosen the reins and give them more freedom in the real world and less time online.’
She said this also included trusting children to go to the shop and buy some milk, cooking dinner and even getting a landline.
