Promising initiatives in the government programme

Three quick questions for Annegrete Juul about the new government programme:

What were your immediate reactions when you read the new government programme?

At the Centre, we work from the principle that healthy choices should not require special knowledge or motivation but should be the easy and natural choices for children and young people. This is often best achieved by influencing the broader environments and structures that shape their lives. These may include legislation, pricing, infrastructure, housing conditions, or the design of urban spaces and schools.

From that perspective, the new government programme contains several promising ideas and initiatives. These include, for example, proposals for stricter rules on children’s access to social media, more affordable fruit and vegetables for families, and ambitions to strengthen access to leisure activities and voluntary communities.

Why are the broader environments so important for children and young people?

Of course, there is no guarantee that these intentions will be followed by political action or that the initiatives will have the effects we hope for. But the reason it is important to work with the broader environments is that responsibility for children’s health and well-being cannot be placed on children alone. They are not the ones who buy the family’s groceries, choose where the family lives, or decide how accessible sweets and tobacco are.

We forgot that, for example, when we let children loose on social media. We left the environment in the hands of those who profit from keeping children on their screens for as long as possible, and ever since, children have largely been left to navigate social media on their own—with all the consequences that has had in terms of the marketing of unhealthy foods, poor well-being, and, in the worst cases, abuse.

We left the environment in the hands of those who profit from keeping children on their screens for as long as possible

Why not leave it up to families themselves?

Social media is a good example of how difficult it can be to manage on your own. We also know that there are significant social inequalities in children’s health and well-being. Many families simply do not have the resources, knowledge, or opportunities to create healthy environments.

Structural measures can support these families without singling them out as families in need of support. For example, making fruit and vegetables more affordable benefits everyone, but it is likely to make the biggest difference for those with the least money left in their bank account at the end of the month. Likewise, making leisure activities more accessible will have a greater impact on those who are currently excluded than on those who are already doing both parkour and clarinet lessons.