The handheld device the parks want families to pick up is a stick

Vodafone and the UK National Parks have spent the summer advertising a handheld device with unlimited uses and a battery that never dies. It is a stick. You can try it for free in every park, including Eryri.

A Vodafone poll found 94% of parents and carers wanted more time outdoors this summer. 55% said nature trips already sit among their most memorable days out.

They call the habit app-venturing: using a phone to get outside rather than stay in. 51% of parents use a device to coax children out more often, 68% more than five years ago. 83% feel safer knowing they can call if something goes wrong. Common uses are weather (63%), maps (48%), a child's question on the path (31%) and naming a plant or bird (27%). 77% still take the phone to photograph the day.

Nature cuts the other way too. 46% of parents said being outside reduces their own screen time. Half said children ask for screens less when they are busy playing. 30% said sticks, feathers and stones take over those games, swords, wands, walking poles, even microphones.

Nicki Lyons of VodafoneThree said the aim was phones used on purpose, then pockets. Gavin Capstick, speaking for the National Parks, said a stick becomes whatever a child decides it is, which is why it still works. Helen Dodd, a child psychologist at Exeter, said self-directed outdoor play builds independence, not only an afternoon's entertainment.

Liberty Lux News