Children’s freedom to play outside with friends is being curtailed by adults’ anxiety about the modern world, says a survey published this week by the Children’s Society.
Fears about letting children play out unsupervised means adults are denying children the freedom to spend time with friends that they once enjoyed themselves. When asked the best age for children to be allowed out with friends unsupervised, most respondents (43 per cent) said 14 years or over, despite the fact that most of them had been allowed out without an adult at the much younger age of 10 or under.
The topic of friends is the first of six key themes to be considered by the Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Inquiry.
www.childrenssociety.org.uk
