Not allowed to play outside

A quarter of ten-year-olds are never allowed to play outside on their own
By LAURA CLARK - More by this author »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=555168&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

A quarter of all children between eight and ten have never played outside without adult supervision, ministers will admit today.


They are concerned that children now have fewer opportunities than ever to play outdoors thanks to over-zealous health and safety crackdowns and a "no ball games here" culture.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls will unveil the figures as he launches a public consultation on a blueprint to improve play areas.


Research has found that the average age at which children are allowed outside without adult supervision has risen from around seven years in the 1960s and 70s to just over eight years now.

One in three parents will not even allow older children, aged eight to 17, to play outside the house or garden.

The planned play areas campaign includes a £225million drive over three years to revamp 3,500 playgrounds and create 30 new adventure playgrounds for eight to 13-year-olds.

These will have super-size climbing frames, assault courses and forts in a bid to lure the age group sometimes called "tweenagers" away from computer games and TV.

It is also intended to halt the growing trend towards obesity in children.

Mr Balls, who has previously said that children should be allowed to play with conkers and have snowball fights, said: "We know 80 per cent of children prefer to play outside and 86 per cent of parents agreed that on a nice day their children-would prefer to go to the park than watch TV

"Yet children spend less time playing outside than they would like and less than their parents did as children.

"In our consultations, parents told us this is because there are not enough safe places to go.

"There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that parents think their children are safer playing inside on a computer than outside."

Mr Balls's remarks will be seen as an acceptance that youngsters are increasingly being brought up in a "cotton wool culture".

But the announcement comes in a week when ministers were revealed to have approved the selloff of at least 187 school and community playing fields since Labour came to power in 1997. This was despite a pledge that such amenities would be carefully protected.

The Children's Society, which is holding a major inquiry into the state of childhood, has warned that youngsters are missing out on forming crucial early friendships because they are no longer meeting playmates outdoors.

Experts who gave evidence to the Childhood Inquiry stressed the importance of allowing children freedom to play and make friends.

It helped them "practise making and consolidating friendships and to deal with conflict".

Modern technology is seen as partly to blame, since listening to music players and playing computer games tend to be solitary pursuits.

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

I knew some kids like this growing up and they ended up to be either, 1. the strangest people as adults I've ever met or 2. rebellious as all get-out.

Great work, parents!

I swear these reporters and researchers are reading my mind.

I truly feel sorry for today's kids. I know they will have their own childhood memories, but they will never experience the simple pleasure of BEING OUTSIDE on a summer day, all day, w/o any interference from mummie or duddie! Or, making some of their own decisions, day in and day out.

This is where most of my fondest memories come from.

Sad sad life modern breeders have made for their families, because they fall into the Culture of Fear.