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The head of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has spoken out against the lengths that some people are going to in order to adhere to health and safety regulations, branding them "small-minded bureaucrats" and condemning their actions as damaging the largely useful work that health and safety laws are doing.
When health and safety intervention is mentioned, the things that spring to mind are the ridiculous cases of conkers being banned in playgrounds and clowns prevented from blowing bubbles because of the chance of children slipping on patches of bubble residue. However, it is not only these very extreme instances which the RoSPA head was referring to in his speech.
He explained that: "We need to prepare children for a complex, dangerous world in which healthy, robust activity is more a national need than ever before." He suggested that this would be attained by allowing children to take risks and letting them have accidents, even if they run the risk of serious personal injury. Both the experience itself and the injuries that result are important learning experiences, setting them up for situations they will encounter in later life. He even described the process of children being injured in play as "not just acceptable, it is a positive necessity".
At the moment, it seems we are in danger of over-protecting our children and leaving them lacking some of the life experiences which guide them into becoming well-adjusted adults who have a good degree of common sense. It is this situation which RoSPA is speaking out against in its encouragement of risk-taking in play.
However, there are a lot of people who believe that children should be protected. After all, it is only natural to want to keep our children safe. A survey of adults conducted by the Children's Society found that 43% thought that 14 was the youngest age at which it was safe to let children out with their friends. This contrasts greatly with opinions of years gone by, when much younger children were routinely allowed out by themselves.
A previous RoSPA chairman has already spoken out in support of encouraging children to climb trees and take part in other risky outdoor activities, commenting: "When children spend time in the great outdoors, they learn important lessons what hurts, what is slippery, what you can trip or fall from. We need to ask whether it is better for a child to break a wrist falling out of a tree, or to get a repetitive strain wrist injury at a young age from using a computer or video games console."
A parent who responded to this statement said that he would not allow his children to take the risk of climbing a tree because he considered the risks to be too great there is the chance that the child could suffer a more serious personal injury than a broken wrist. His view is understandable; it would be very difficult for any parent to deal with a preventable accident which had serious consequences.
Despite the difficulty of handling the impact of individual cases on families, RoSPA is trying to place emphasis on the role of health and safety regulations in preventing needless accidents from taking place, not in restricting important life experiences. There are situations in which accidents shouldn't happen such as in a factory or on a construction site although some inevitably do. It is these instances that action needs to be taken in the form of a fine or a compensation claim against the employer.
Equally, there are situations in which accidents should occasionally happen, and this applies to many children's slips, trips and falls during play. Whilst there are likely to be some serious personal injuries suffered in the course of enjoying play outdoors, whether it is in a park playground or climbing a tree in the garden, it should be considered that these are partly tempered by the important lessons children learn as they become more risk-aware.
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