CYP Now - Editorial: We must protect the right to outdoor play

Play, one of the things most closely associated with children and childhood, is in danger. As Tim Gill, the outgoing director of the Children's Play Council, put it in his farewell speech at the National Children's Bureau last week, the "outdoor child" is near extinction. It's not just that there has been a decline in local playgrounds. Parents are now more afraid to allow their children out unaccompanied. And working lives mean that parents have far less time simply to be around while children play.

And as more and more of children's time is occupied by childcare, after-school clubs and all kinds of improving activities, so there is less time for children simply to be children, to let their activities freely follow their imaginations.

Just as importantly, the sight and sound of children playing seems no longer to bring a smile to people's faces, but a frown, adding another reason why parents are reluctant to allow their children to "go outside and play".

We are at a critical time for play. That sounds trivial, but the policy directions that are set now will have a big influence on how childhood itself will be experienced in the future. The erosion of play is a reality.

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