Risking Our Kids (ATOM Study Guide)

Risking Our Kids (Judy Rymer, 2008) is a documentary about how children are raised in Australia and how this affects their physical and mental health. Despite good intentions and increasing affluence, we are nowhere near getting it right. In fact, many health problems more often associated with adults are now being seen in alarming numbers in young children. This film looks at why this is happening and what needs to be done to change things.

Increasing childhood rates of diabetes, respiratory disease, behavioural disorders, obesity and mental health problems lead former Australian of the Year, Fiona Stanley, to predict that the next generation of Australians could have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

But this is 2008. Australia is awash with cash. Shouldn't our children be the healthiest kids in history? Child health expert Professor Stanley believes they are not.

Following Fiona and her team of scientists from their laboratories to remote Aboriginal communities and into increasingly wealthy but unhealthy homes around Australia, this film builds the case for what scientists call 'the modernity paradox'. Can it be that our contemporary western lifestyle is delivering a toxic physical and social environment in which children are growing up sick?

After a lifetime of cutting edge scientific study into the condition of the nation's children, Fiona passionately and eloquently explores the alarming measurable health effects of the way we now bring up children. These are problems with solutions, but, says Fiona, effective action needs political and community will right now.