With nights drawing in and barely a month to go before the clocks go back, it might seem an odd moment to launch a campaign to encourage children to spend more time outdoors.
However, the 300 organisations launching the Wild Network today believe the problem is too urgent to wait until spring.
The campaign aims to help parents who are worried about how much time their children spend on Facebook or playing computer games and reconnect them with nature, giving them what it describes as more “wild time”.
It comes after Public Health England published evidence last month that children who spend more time watching screens tend to have higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression.
Research by University College London’s Institute of Child