OPINION The risks of being too safe


By DR. PAUL TRANTER and CHRISTINA THIELE


Nov. 20 marked National Child Day in Canada, and Dec. 13 will


mark 20 years since the Government of Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), obligat- ing Canada to promote, implement, protect, and monitor the rights of children.


Recently Richmond Children First and Richmond Public Health engaged approximately 3,000 children in a rights-based art project where they were asked to identify the right that was most impor- tant to them. Overwhelmingly, the right to play was at the top of their list. We know that play is critically important to children. Play is the way children learn about themselves and their place in the world, as well as learn social skills and motor skills. Play develops children’s self-esteem and cre- ativity.We also know that children’s lives in modern cities are less playful than they were a generation ago. One of the main reasons for the restriction of children’s play is the de- velopment of a risk-averse society, and a cul- ture of fear that favours supposedly ‘safe’, adult-organised activities over imaginative play.


But in our attempt to keep our children safe, is there a risk that there is no risk? Many parents see the world as a more dan- gerous place — a world where children’s suc- cess and survival requires constant parental surveillance, monitoring, guiding, protection, and stimulation.The fact that children learn through play seems to have been largely ig- nored.We have assumed that children learn best when stimulated through programmed activities. In Free-Range Kids Lenore Skenazy argues that we are poor


risk assessors because we focus on certain risks such as injury while playing, and stranger danger, and ignore other long-term risks.By worrying about the wrong things, we do damage to our chil- dren, raising them to be anxious and unadventurous or, as Skenazy puts it “hothouse, mama-tied, danger-hallucinating joy extinguish- ers.”


The long-term impact of this includes the risk of children be- coming afraid to use their bodies actively, the limiting of children’s intellectual, emotional, and social development, the loss of the joy and wonder of exploring their world independently, and increased levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes. ‘Risk anxiety’ has also invaded the school playground. A dra- matic loss of children’s access to play opportunities in their own school grounds has occurred over the last generation.The most se- rious of these include reductions in recess time, ‘out of bounds’ ar- eas in parts of the school ground where children would benefit most from play in ‘green spaces’, the removal of play equipment, and the implementation of restrictive rules about children’s use of school grounds that force teachers into a policing role. Partly in fear of lawsuits, ‘risk anxiety’has led many teachers and


principals to feel that any risk is too much risk, and that unstruc- tured physical activity is ‘unsafe’. Consequently, school boards try to remove all risk (and exciting and challenging activities) from the


school grounds, even though this restricts children’s development and their understanding and appreciation of their world. An Ontario principal recently banned all tennis balls, soccer balls, baseballs, and footballs from the school. In the US, some schools go to the extreme of posting signs saying ‘No Running on the Playground’, and other schools choose not to provide playgrounds at all.Removing risks to this extreme has been described as ‘sur- plus safety.’


The elimination of all risks in children’s play is neither desirable nor achievable.


The organization Play England recognizes that there will always be some risk of injury when children play. Risk is a critically important aspect of chil- dren’s development (excluding risk of life- threatening or permanently disabling injury in play). Experience of minor injuries is a uni- versal part of childhood, which plays a pos- itive role in child development: when children experience or witness injuries, they learn the consequences of their actions and choices. Apart from the dangers associated with in- activity through surplus safety, the strategy of removing all risk from school grounds may be futile due to ‘risk compensation’. Children and adults compensate for any change in the level of risk that they are exposed to. If the en- vironment becomes more dangerous, indi- viduals take more precautions.Conversely, if the environment is made safer, individuals take more risks. If the school ground is perceived to be bor- ing, children may compensate by engaging in a range of activities that increase their lev- el of challenge, excitement, and risk.This in- cludes fighting and bullying, or using play equipment in ways that were not intended by their adult designers so that extra challenges


are created (e.g. climbing onto the top of a swing set and jumping from the top bar). In contrast, where schools allow children to en- gage in play behaviors and locations that could be seen as risky (e.g. building play huts and forts, or digging holes), there are typi- cally fewer occurrences of aggressive behavior between children. It is worth considering the real risks of removing risk from chil-


dren’s play, especially as we consider that play is a fundamental right for children and youth protected under article 31 of the UN- CRC.


Dr.Paul T ranter is an associate professor in Geography in the


School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Canberra.He is currently visiting Canada and the US.Among his many publications on child friendly environments is a new book:Freeman, C.and T


ranter, P


2011, Children and their Urban Environment:Changing Worlds, Earthscan, London, 2011


Christina Thiele (@scyofbc) is the communications and child rights project coordinator for the Society for Children and Y of B.C.T


support child rights at home and work visit scyofbc.org and everychild.ca.


outh o learn more about child rights and what you can do to .,


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