‘Stranger danger’ is often identified as a barrier to children spending more time outdoors unaccompanied, but, writes Chris Cloke, the NSPCC’s Head of Child Protection Awareness, a new NSPCC report published last week indicates that children are at greater risk of meeting someone who might harm them through the internet or by mobile phone than they are on the street or at the park.
For today’s generation of children the idea of spending long summer days playing outside may be a distant dream and they are more likely to be roaming an online world than out and about in our streets, parks and countryside.
Chris Cloke, the NSPCC’s Head of Child Protection.
This lack of freedom is often blamed on parent’s perceptions of risk. The National Trust’s Natural Childhood report and the resultant Inquiry both identified ‘stranger danger’ as a key barrier to children spending more time outdoors unaccompanied. Although we shouldn’t downplay the awful occasions where children have been abducted in an outdoor setting by strangers, it’s important to recognise that such occasions are, thankfully, very rare.
But is the world a safer or more dangerous place for children today than when you were a child? Whatever your view it is likely to be filtered through a rose tinted lens of nostalgia. So we need to look at a few facts.
A new NSPCC report published last week – “How safe are our children?” – has pulled together a robust set of child protection data, giving a clear picture of how many children are being harmed in the UK. The good news is that in many ways children today are safer than previous generations, at least from traditional sources of danger. Child murder, for example, is down by 30 per cent since the early 1980s and serious assault involving children have also declined steadily as have child suicide rates in most of the country.
However, the changing nature of the way we live our lives means that actually the chances of a child meeting someone who can harm them is now much greater through the internet or a mobile phone than through a stranger in the street or the local park. And with children as young as 5 spending up to six hours a week on the internet, a quarter of 11 and 12 year-olds now see something which worries them on the internet every day.
Although parents are used to equipping their children to deal with real or potential threats to their safety, they are much less confident when dealing with the online world. It sounds obvious but talking to your children about what they do online and what is and isn’t ok is vital. Just as you’d make sure they knew not to talk to strangers in a park the same applies in chat rooms and social networking sites.
So the next time someone waxes lyrical about how everything was better in the ‘good old days’ you may like to point out that in some ways children are safer than in the past. But at the same time do ask them to be vigilant. If we all work together perhaps we can re-forge that longed for community spirit where everyone looked out for each other’s children as they played out in the street.
For more advice on keeping children safe, while they are out alone or are on-line, visit the NSPCC website – www.nspcc.org.uk. NSPCC helpline advisors are on hand 24 hours a day on 0808 800 5000 and can offer advice to parents worried about how to keep their children safe online and when they’re out and about.
