Dr. Paul Downes:

I will just make a wider holistic point about engaging young people in meaningful activities. People sitting and look at screens for hours every day, and lockdowns have accentuated this problem, may not be particularly happy in their daily lives. Part of it is a spillover of general unhappiness. We need a vision for extracurricular activities, after-school projects, meaningful sports, the arts and nature and to channel people's energies in other directions. This is linked to the discriminatory bullying I mentioned. Research in the area of social psychology highlights that it is not enough just to have contact with people to overcome prejudice or discrimination. Contact and structured co-operation are required. It is about structured co-operative tasks. The online environment is so unstructured in many ways that it facilitates that sense of mutual antagonism. As part of a revitalisation of our society, we need to integrate arts and sport, which are individually strong in many ways, with a social and emotional education. For example, there is increasing interest at the level of the European Commission in outdoor education, social and emotional education and the interplay between the two. It is about challenging our young people's energies in diverse directions.