Children's reflections of lockdown to be stored in digital time capsule

An initiative encouraging young people aged between 3 and 17 to reflect and share their memories of lockdown has been launched.

Young people are being asked to share their personal memories from lockdown to give children of the future a glimpse of what lockdown life was actually like through a child’s eyes. The memories that children submit for ‘Children of Lockdown’ will be stored in a digital time capsule that will be archived by the British Library and preserved forever as an important part of the UK Web Archive’s COVID collection.

Charlotte McMillan, founder of Storychest, an app that allows families to share their memories privately and safely, observed that it has often been through children’s accounts of historical events that we have gained true insight, capturing key moments through a unique, unaffected lens and in a way that benefits future generations, keen to understand the impact first hand.  

Charlotte, who created lockdown reflections with her own boys, before launching Children of Lockdown, says that views from parents about the project have been mixed. “Some parents might think that it’s gloomy asking children to go back in time especially when lockdown has represented a time of turmoil and stress for a lot of people, but this activity can be done sensitively and in a playful way. In contrast, I’ve received many messages of support from parents and teachers who have used Children of Lockdown as a pause and reflective literacy project that complements the conversations they have had with their children around lockdown.”

Lockdown has led to an increase in mental health difficulties in children, with parents reporting their children experiencing emotional problems, being restless and having difficulties concentrating. 10,000 parents were interviewed for the Co-SPACE (COVID-19 Supporting Parents, Adolescents, and Children in Epidemics) survey led by experts at the University of Oxford.

Laura Berridge, Founder and Artistic Director of Arts Insight, a charity with the aim of creating a brighter future for young people through the arts, commented: "As adults, we can rationalise, we can use our years of life experience to apply the necessary coping strategies to our daily struggles. That is why our voices are heard in the media and within our homes and schools as the decision making force, hence the mantra that every child on earth has heard, “adults know best”.

She added: “Projects such as Children of Lockdown and ‘A Sense of Lockdown’ - a short film which shared year 6 primary school children’s experiences of lockdown through storytelling, poetry and the children’s personal accounts are so relevant as they encourage children to confront and overcome any emotional stress that COVID and lockdown has caused them.  The process of creating the film was designed to be multifaceted in the therapeutic and artistic benefits for those children involved. The power of the arts and creative subjects that encourage self-reflection, communication and expression should not be overlooked, especially at a time when mental health services are struggling to support the number of people who desperately need it after the pandemic.”

To enter this project, you have until 5pm on 31st July to upload your entry to the Children of Lockdown website. All entries will be displayed on the website and the British Library will be saving them in an archive.