Children's Freedom and Safety

Abstract

Accident statistics provide a misleading measure of children's safety or danger. In Britain, there are now half as many children killed every year in road accidents as there were in 1923, despite a more than 25-fold increase in traffic. Surveys of English primary school children in 1971 and 1990 reveal large decreases in their freedom to travel independently. In 1971, 80% of 7- and 8-year-old children got to school on their own unaccompanied by an adult. By 1990, this figure had dropped to 9%. The principal cause of this decrease is their parents' fear of traffic.