Children in England 'have less freedom to go out to play'

A survey by the University of Westminster’s Policy Institute compared how much freedom children have to go out and play in their local neighbourhoods in 16 countries.

Researchers put Finland at the top, as the country where parents gave children the most freedom to move around on their own, with the majority of eight-year-olds allowed to cross main roads, travel home from school and go out after dark alone.

The majority of Finnish children can:

• travel to places within walking distance or cycle to places alone at the age of seven;
• cross main roads, travel home from school and go out after dark alone, at eight;
• cycle on main roads alone at nine;
• and most children travel on local buses alone at ten.

England was placed seventh in the survey, behind Denmark, Japan, Sweden, Norway and Germany.

The report, the latest in a series looking at the issue, makes a number of recommendations to increase children’s freedom. These include stricter road safety measures, reducing dependency on cars and adopting daylight saving timing to allow children longer daylight hours and cut road accidents.

Eighteen thousand seven to 15-year-olds and their parents were asked between 2010-2012 about what they were able to do in their local area without being supervised.

Significant restrictions on children are placed in nearly all the countries in the study, with danger from traffic the main reason given by parents for not letting children go out on their own.

Children were only allowed to go out after dark alone in Finland, Sweden, Japan and Denmark.

Although the correlation between traffic deaths and the ranking of countries for independent mobility was weak, almost all the countries with the highest levels of children’s independent mobility have national policies to promote walking or cycling, and the local authorities in these countries are permitted to set lower speed limits than nationwide speed limits.

Car and mobile-phone ownership rates in the countries in the study seem to have little impact on children’s freedom of movement, the report said.

Restrictions on children’s independence have increased in recent years, despite the health and developmental benefits of giving them the independence to go out and play on their own, researchers said.

Data from the first report in 1971 found that 55 per cent of children in England were allowed to travel to places other than school on their own, while in 2010 virtually no children did this.

Ben Shaw, director of the Policy Studies Institute, said, ‘Allowing children the freedom to get about in their local area unaccompanied by adults has been found to be important for their health and physical, mental and social development. Yet we have found that children around the world have significant restrictions placed on their freedom to get about – to go to school, to visit friends, and get to places to play.’

He added that some cities, such as Rotterdam and Vancouver ‘have been inspired to place children at the centre of their development; on the basis that if a city works for children it works for everyone.’

‘However, if the benefits of these approaches are to be enjoyed in the UK, the needs of children must be given much greater priority by decision makers working in the policy areas of planning, development and transport.’

Country ranking for children’s independent mobility

Source: Children’s Independent Mobility: an international comparison and recommendations for action