Risk aversion is undermining childhood, new report claims

We all want to keep children safe – but are we going the right way about it? By over protecting children we stop them developing the skills and resilience they need to protect themselves – while those working with children can become so anxious about risk prevention they lose confidence in their own good judgement.

That is the message of a publication launched today (Monday 29 October) by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society, former government adviser Tim Gill argues that childhood is being undermined by the growth of risk aversion and its intrusion into every aspect of children’s lives.

No Fear explores a number of key areas – including children’s play, anti-social behaviour, adult vetting and fear of strangers – identifying the ways in which our preoccupation with eliminating risk is restricting children’s freedoms and corroding their relationships with adults.

“Although there is a widely held view that children grow up faster today, in fact their lives are far more controlled than they were 30 years ago,” said Tim Gill. “In this shrinking domain of childhood, our tendency always to view children as fragile means we are not encouraging them to develop their natural resilience – learning to manage risk in an age-appropriate way.

“This is not an unconditional plea for the deregulation of childhood: children want adults to help them stay safe, and of course we must accept that responsibility. But rather than having a nanny state, where risk aversion dominates the landscape, we should be aspiring to a child-friendly society, where communities look out for each other and for children – and the government has an important role to play in encouraging that vision.”

“We have a long tradition of influential work on children’s issues, and Gulbenkian’s interest reflects our core aim of seeking to bring about lasting, beneficial change in the experiences that people have in life,” said Andrew Barnett, director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK).  “We need to ensure that ‘safety first’ does not drive out the opportunities children should have for experiment and development, and that our desire to defend young people against some very real dangers does not lead us into a sanitised world in which creativity and personal growth are stifled.”

No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society by Tim Gill is published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The book and a four-page summary can be downloaded free from www.gulbenkian.org.uk from Monday 29 October. Copies of the book (£8.50 + p&p, ISBN 978 1 903080 08 5) can be ordered from www.centralbooks.co.uk 
 

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