Risk &

childhood
Nicola Madge and John Barker
October 2007
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce
8 John Adam Street
London WC2N 6EZ

T +44 (0) 20 7930 5115

www.theRSA.org

Registered as a charity in England and Wales no. 212424

Designed by Andy Kleeman, Red Rooster 01252 548720

The views expressed are not necessarily those of the RSA Risk Commission, the RSA or its Trustees and unless expressly
stated otherwise, the findings, interpretations and conclusions set out in this report are those of the authors.

The Authors
Dr Nicola Madge is Reader in the School of Health Sciences and Social Care, Brunel University
Dr John Barker is Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Sport and Education, Brunel University
 

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2

INTRODUCTION 8
THE BACKGROUND The meaning of risk 10
Not all risk-taking is negative 11
Childhood and the transition to adulthood 12
Risk and inequality 14
Studying risk in childhood 15
ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES To protect or not to protect 16
What do parents (and other adults) worry about? 17
How far are the media to blame? 19
The government’s response 22
A prevailing culture of risk 23
The calculation of risk 24
HOW RISKY ARE CHILDREN’S LIVES? Putting things in perspective 25
Health and Mortality 27
The risk of abuse 28
Abduction and murder 29
Accidents at home and at play 30
Traffic Accidents 31
Going out and playing out 32
Victims of crime and intimidation 34
Diet and obesity 36
Smoking 37
Drinking alcohol 38
Use of illegal drugs 39
Gambling 40
Sexual health and teenage pregnancy 41
Television and computer games 42
The internet and mobile phones 43
THE WAY AHEAD Getting the balance right: challenge and risk 45
Risk and growing up 48
Giving children more male role models 50
Teaching the skills of calculated risk-taking 50
Providing ‘cushioned’ social spaces 52
Involving the community 53
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Risky young lives? 56
Trends over time 56
The distribution of risk 57
Do children face more risks than adults? 57
Changing patterns of risk 57
Future debate and action 58
APPENDIX 59
REFERENCES 60
 

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge all the help we have received Risk Commissioners
in writing this report. Our thanks go first to the Risk
Commission and its Commissioners for the lively discussions Sir Paul Judge, Chairman
at meetings, and to John Adams, Mark Griffiths, Liam Halligan Professor John Adams
and Sir Paul Judge for the additional comments they have Mr John Armitt CBE FREng FICE
provided. Rebecca Daddow and Jonathan Carr-West have Ms Joan Bakewell
been extremely helpful and supportive throughout the Dame Jocelyn Barrow
project and we extend our thanks to them too.
Professor Jocelyn Bell-Burnell
Outside the Commission, we would like to thank Mayer Lord Stone of Blackheath
Hillman, Rob Wheway, and Jim Whitehead who gave us written Baroness Peta Buscombe
feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript. Finally we Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank
would like to acknowledge Kevin Stenson for his help and Mr James Currie
intellectual stimulation at all stages of the report’s progress. Professor Mark Griffiths
Mr Liam Halligan
Professor Steve Jones
Sir David Omand
Sir Brian Pitman
Dame Helen Reeves
Professor David Rhind
Professor Chris Wise


Executive Summary

Introduction

Growing up is a risky business. From the moment of birth children1 face an array of hazards and
challenges, most of which they overcome or deal with successfully - but some of which they
do not. As parents and citizens we want to minimise the harm that may come to our children,
but what does this mean in reality? How much safer can we make children’s lives, and should
making them as safe as possible always be our goal?

Risk-taking is important within young lives and it is argued that patterns established in one sphere of life are likely to
be transferred to others. If we want to develop enterprise and strengthen our economy, we need to ensure that young
people understand about risk and know how to cope with it. If children are over-protected as they grow up, what chance
is there that they will develop this knowledge and skill? The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures &
Commerce (RSA) commissioned the present report with this concern in mind.

The Background

Risks are defined in this report as perceptions of dangers and uncertainties that may have
negative outcomes but which may also be undertaken with positive consequences. Risk is a
complex concept but the following points seem clear:

Risk and its meaning

• Risk and uncertainty are key features of contemporary society
• Being at risk unintentionally is not the same as knowingly taking risks
• The notion of risk acts as a ‘floating signifier’ where the term in question has a more secure base
than the behaviours and events it seeks to explain

Not all risk-taking is negative

• Taking risks can be seen as a ‘normal’ part of growing up
• Most young people see risk taking as positive
• Taking risks cannot always be avoided
• Learning to manage risk is a useful skill and an essential tool of the entrepreneur

Childhood and the transition to adulthood

• Attitudes to children and risk are closely linked to views on childhood and the position
and role of children in society
• Childhood is about gaining independence and making decisions - and taking more risks
 

Executive Summary

Risk and inequality

• In many respects, risk stands as a present-day proxy for inequality
• The risks children face and take depend on their age, sex, where they live, and their cultural
and social background
• The structure of society contributes to the different levels of risk faced by individual young people

Studying risk in childhood

• The study of risk in childhood fuels a large industry
• The study of risk is extraordinarily complex and there is no simple approach nor a single message

Issues And Perspectives

Children’s lives and experiences, their role within the community and society, their rights, and
their well-being and happiness, are higher on the social and political agenda than ever before.
This does little, however, to prevent confusion in adult attitudes towards children or provide
confidence about the opportunities, restraints and protection they should be offered.

To protect or not to protect
• There is a prevailing dilemma about whether children take too many risks or whether
they are overprotected
• Children need to be able to manage risk if they are to learn the skills of the entrepreneur
• The decrease in ‘social capital’ within neighbourhoods over recent years has led to less
community surveillance and protection of children

What do parents (and other adults) worry about?

• Parents do not necessarily worry most about the things that pose most risk to their children
• One survey found that parents’ biggest worry was that their child would be involved in a road
traffic accident, followed by fears of abduction or murder, and that their children were damaging
their health by eating too much sugar and sweet things
• Risk-taking is often a family matter involving negotiations between children and their families
• There will always be limits to what parents can do to protect their children

How far are the media to blame?

• The media are often held responsible for encouraging fears about risks to children
• They also frequently point to the risks from children
• In addition they can be effective in campaigning for greater childhood safety

The government’s response

• The government has been accused of reflecting and reproducing risk anxiety
• Increasingly, both the wisdom and feasibility of legislation to micro-manage every possible risk
faced by children is questioned


Executive Summary

A prevailing culture of risk

• There is little doubt that we live in a culture dominated by health and safety concerns
• Risk assessments have become commonplace in every walk of life
• Escalating bureaucratic regulation resulted in 33 Acts of Parliament and over a thousand new
regulations to reduce risk of some kind or another in 2006 alone2
• An emphasis on ‘over protection’ encourages mistrust within the community

The calculation of risk

• Dealing with risk is a fact of life
• Young people have clear ideas of what they consider to be risks, the advantages and
disadvantages of taking risks, and the strategies they may have for staying safe

How Risky Are Children’s Lives?

Widespread concern for children’s safety and extensive legislation and advice on reducing
hazards suggest that children’s lives are inherently dangerous. But is this the case? Parental
concern is not necessarily in line with statistical risk. Parents show most concern about traffic
accidents and abduction, but accidents at home, unhealthy living, and becoming the victim of
a crime are much more common. Worry focuses on the possible consequences of risk as well
as anxieties generated by local experiences and national events.

Not all children are equally at risk, and age, sex, culture, social background and geography are among the characteristics
that can make a difference. It is not very meaningful to ask whether, overall, children or adults lead riskier lives: where they
can be compared, however, adults often seem at a higher risk (for example, in relation to obesity, alcohol and cigarette
consumption, traffic accidents, and cancer).

On some indices, the world has without doubt become a more dangerous place. Increased levels of traffic, enormous
technological advances including the internet and its risks, and much greater availability of drugs and other illicit
substances, support this conclusion. The relentless 24-hour news reports, intense media coverage of cases involving the
abduction or murder of children, and stories of ‘gang’ violence affecting both rival gang members and innocent bystanders,
also fuel the belief that everything is getting much worse than ever before. Certainly parents seem more worried about
their children’s safety.

The present report nonetheless concludes that, apart from some important exceptions including psychological risks that
are beyond its remit, the world is generally a safer place for children than in the past. Children live longer and are healthier,
and they have fewer accidents of all kinds including road traffic accidents. Furthermore, and despite extensive media
reporting of danger and violence in our communities, there is little evidence to confirm that either ‘stranger danger’ or
crime has got markedly worse. Children do, however, have less healthy lifestyles with more obesity, and alcohol and
drug misuse, and they face new hazards and dangers associated with modern technological developments. Recent years
have also seen a rise in sexually transmitted infections even if they have at the same time seen a reduction in teenage
pregnancy.

2 Rogers, 2007
 

Executive Summary

Precise information on risks in childhood is not possible, but estimates of the risks children face in
areas where there is information suggest that:
0.03 per million children sustain serious injuries in playgrounds each year
less than one per million children are murdered by a stranger each year
6 per million children each year are abducted by a stranger
17 per million children under 16 are killed while passengers in vehicles and
about 7 per million are killed as pedestrians each year
32 per million children under the age of 15 die from cancer each year
73 per million children are murdered every year, mainly by parents
1,500 per million 11 to 18 year-olds were involved in knife crime in London over
a four-month period in 2006
2,000 per million children are diagnosed with cancer before the age of 15
2,400 per million children under 16 have road accidents every year

5,000 per million children die before the age of one year

9,000 per million 16 to 19 year-olds are diagnosed with chlamydia each year, while
more than 1,000 per million are diagnosed with gonorrhoea and
over 5,000 per million are diagnosed with genital warts
40,000 per million are sexually abused by a parent, carer or relative at some time
before the age of 16
40,000 per million 11 to 15 year-olds report taking illegal drugs at least once a month
40,000 per million 15 to 17 year-old females, and some 8,000 per million 13 to 15
year-olds, become pregnant in any one year
70,000 per million under 18s are seriously physically abused by their parents or carers
90,000 per million 11 to 15 year-olds smoke regularly
100,000 per million children in the UK injure themselves at home each year.
140,000 per million 2 to 10 year-olds are obese and around 333,000 per million
are overweight
220,000 per million 11 to 15 year-olds say they have drunk alcohol in the previous week
between 100,000 11 to 15 year-olds play on fruit machines at least once a month,
& 200,000 per million and up to a third of this number are probably pathological
gamblers and/or have severegambling-related difficulties
270,000 per million 10 to 25 year-olds say they have been a victim of crime in the
previous year
750,000 per million 9 to 19 year-olds have access to the internet at home
530,000 per million 9 to 11 year-olds, 880,000 per million 12 to 15 year-olds,
and 940,000 per million 16 to 17 year-olds own a mobile phone


Executive Summary

The Way Ahead

This report highlights a high degree of concern about the risks confronting children, and an
uncertainty about what should be done. Although parents are concerned about their safety,
children need to grow into competent and confident adults who have a measured view of
society and its challenges. They need the opportunities to seek excitement, and to learn how
to identify and manage the risks in their lives. The challenge for the way ahead is to offer
discreet protection but yet encourage healthy risk-taking.

Six broad recommendations to help achieve these goals are:

Achieving a balanced view of childhood

The government claims it is ready for serious debate about the need to balance concerns for children’s safety with their
need for freedom to play outside. The opportunity to engage in this debate should be taken up as widely as possible, and
should involve the government, the media, the consumer industry, the community, the general public, and young people
themselves. If we are really to change ethos and attitudes surrounding children and risk, there is need for open discussion,
widespread commitment, and consensus about everybody’s responsibility.

Allowing children more independence as they grow older

As children grow older they become more competent in understanding, and being able to manage, an increasing range of
risks. Often, however, they are not provided with the opportunities to take these risks and so do not learn the necessary
skills for successful risk-taking. Limiting the risks that children are exposed to can also mean that they miss out on the
excitement of risk-taking and the satisfaction they may gain from it. The recommendation of this report is that ways are
found to give children the chance to make their own decisions about risk-taking as soon as they are competent to do so.

Ensuring more male role models for children, particularly for boys but also for girls
Anecdotal evidence suggests that children tend to engage in more physical and possibly ‘risky’ activities when supervised
by men than by women, and it is argued that boys (and girls) need men to help them overcome and manage risks. This
requires positive action as, in our society, men play a decreasing role in bringing up young people. Mothers still tend to
spend more time with their children than fathers, and there has been a recent decline in male teachers in both primary
and secondary schools. This report calls for more male role models in the community as well as at school. We need to
reduce the suspicion that men working with children can often feel they are under, and encourage more men to undertake
employment or activities where children are involved.

Encouraging the skills of calculated risk-taking

Children are always going to take risks, and the message of this report is that they should be encouraged to live their lives
safely but also be provided with the opportunities to pursue excitement and challenge. The task is to ensure that they
have the skills for calculated risk-taking. Young people gain from building resilience and knowing how to manage risks as
safely as possible.
 

Executive Summary

Providing cushioned social spaces

The phrase ‘cushioned social spaces’ describes settings in which children are able to engage in what they regard as risky
behaviour while offered some degree of adult surveillance. A recommendation of this report is that society needs to
provide young people with opportunities to express themselves in cushioned social spaces of this kind. These need to be
in line with the kinds of things children like to do, and any cushioning must be discreet but reassuring. The challenge is to
develop these with young people to make them attractive enough to ensure that they succeed in their aim.

Fully involving the community

A final, and overarching, recommendation is that the community needs to be fully involved in providing opportunities
for children to experience freedom and excitement, but yet to remain as safe as possible. Local attitudes towards
children and how they spend their time, opportunities for suitable age-related activities, appropriate male role models,
the encouragement of calculated risk-taking and the provision of settings in which this can be exercised are all best
done close to home. There is political consensus that community cohesion is key. Local understanding and ‘ownership’
of its young people, combined with extra child-friendly measures to keep a discreet eye on them, will enhance a sense of
neighbourliness and protection. It will also make it easier for parents to be less protective of their children and let them
better learn the art of risk-taking.


1. Introduction

Growing up is a risky business

From the moment of birth children3 face an array of hazards and challenges, most of which
they overcome or deal with successfully - but some of which they do not. As parents and
citizens we want to minimise the harm that may come to our children, but what does this mean
in reality? How much safer can we make children’s lives, and should making them as safe as
possible always be our goal?

There are conflicting views on these questions and debate about how far children are ‘at risk’ and whether things are worse
these days or in the past. On the one hand fears are stoked by media coverage and panic about the dangers facing and
created by children, but on the other we cannot forget the graphic pictures of distress and danger provided in historical
and literary accounts since records began.

It is all a matter of perspective

As this report discusses, children live longer and are generally healthier than in the past, they seem no more likely to be
abducted or murdered, and they are certainly less likely to suffer from a traffic accident than a decade or two ago. But, at
the same time, they are exposed to the new risks that accompany technological innovation, and they increasingly put their
longer-term well-being in jeopardy through becoming overweight or obese, drinking large amounts of alcohol, or taking
illegal drugs.

An important question is whether all children face equal risks. The simple answer is that they do not. While all young
people face some hazards and dangers, others face them daily and much more pervasively. Many kinds of risks and risk-
taking occur together, and a paradoxical characteristic of risk is that it is to a degree predictable. Sex, age, culture, social
background and geography are among the factors that help to determine susceptibility to risk.

Risk is a complex concept and involves an endless spectrum of behaviours and activities. Risk is involved in almost
everything that children do, sometimes arising unexpectedly and sometimes from the deliberated choices that children
may make. How far should we intervene to control children’s lives and offer protection at all costs and how far should
we let them make their own decisions and seek excitement and challenge? There is also conflict between those who see
dangers to children at every turn and those who argue that eliminating all risk is unrealistic and undesirable.

Risk-taking is important within young lives and it is argued that patterns established in one sphere of life are likely to be
transferred to others. If we want to develop enterprise and strengthen our economy, we need to ensure that young people
understand about risk and know how to cope with it. If children are over-protected as they grow up, what chance is there
that they will develop this knowledge and skill?

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) commissioned the present report with
this premise in mind. The Society began its consideration of Risk with the lecture by Sir Paul Judge, then the Society’s
Chairman and now its Deputy Chairman, in his Inaugural Lecture ‘Risk and Enterprise’ for the beginning of the 252nd
Annual Session of the Society in September 20054. Building on this and recognising that understanding and managing
risk lies at the heart of the challenges we face today in business, government and civil society, the Society established the
Risk Commission under the manifesto challenge of ‘encouraging enterprise’. Its aim is to urge consideration of a range of
risks with an impact on the lives of the UK population including, but not limited to, physical, social and financial risks. An
examination of children and their young lives seemed a good starting point.

3 The terms ‘children’ and ‘young people’ reflect cultural expectations as much as legal definitions or biological maturity. The 1989 UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child defines a child as anyone up to 18 years of age; and someone who is not yet adult but old enough to leave full time
education is often referred to as a young person. In this report we do not draw a clear distinction between children and young people and use these
terms interchangeably and somewhat inconsistently. Many different research projects focus upon different age groups and we have, where possible,
indicated the exact age range under discussion when quoting statistics or other research.
4 www.thersa.org/acrobat/lecture_260905.pdf
 

1. Introduction

This report sets out on this task. It begins by looking at the contemporary context of childhood and risk, and considers
adults’ worries for their children’s safety, and how government, media and other agencies encourage or belay their fears.
Children’s views on risk are discussed next, followed by the positive value of risk-taking in young lives, the types of risk
that give most rise to concern, and whether or not children’s lives have become more or less risky in recent years. The
report ends by identifying six broad challenges for the future.

Our key message is that while we wish to protect children from unnecessary hazards and dangers, we should not be overly
protective and prevent them from learning the skills they need to recognise and manage risk. We should also not stand
in the way of children enjoying themselves while they are young. The local neighbourhood and its networks are critical in
realising these goals.

Information and documentation on risk in childhood is extensive, and this review makes no claim to have made a
comprehensive review of the field or to have addressed all possible questions and issues. Evidence for this report is drawn
from a wide variety of materials including statistics, research reports and policy documents. These are highly variable
in purpose and content, and a cautionary note is added about the interpretation and comparison of data from different
sources or time periods. Although conclusions have been drawn, and estimates of the likelihood of particular risks have
been provided, these should be regarded as indicative rather than conclusive.
10

2. The Background

Risk is a complicated concept, and before turning to look at the circumstances of children’s
lives, and how these may have changed in recent years, we look first and briefly at the meaning
and role of risk in society, the positive sides of risk, the current meaning of childhood and the
transition to adulthood, the notion that risk is unequally distributed and the study of risk in
childhood.

2.1 Risk and its meaning

Issues surrounding childhood and risk have preoccupied social scientists and philosophers for many years and generated
complex debates. There has been discussion about how managing potential hazards arising from both natural disasters as
well as conditions of our own making is part of the human condition. Ulrich Beck5 was the first to talk about the concept
of a ‘risk society’, describing how actions are organised in terms of these risks, and Giddens6 added how uncertainty is a
key feature of contemporary society. Children as well as adults are constantly engaged in assessing and dealing with risk
in many aspects of their everyday lives7.

In this report we

define risks pragmatically, as perceptions of dangers

and uncertainties that may have negative outcomes
but which may also be undertaken with positive
consequences
Risk behaviours ‘can, directly or indirectly, compromise the well-being, the health, and even the life course of young
people’8, but they are also a normal part of growing up and important in developing individual identity9. Unintentional
injuries, which are one of the leading causes of death and serious injury in young children, often occur when children are
taking part in everyday activities: these may be suitable for their age, and have health and social benefits, but also involve
some risk10. Taking risks may also be intentional, such as when young people decide to take drugs or drive dangerously.

There is a difference between ‘being at risk’ and

‘risk taking’11
Nonetheless, all actions are associated with some risk, and perhaps the key issue is the extent to which this is understood
and assessed. Risks are, fundamentally, perceptions of hazards and dangers, and these perceptions may be accurate
or inaccurate. They may, for instance, be influenced by experts who have ‘got it wrong’, or by how an issue is portrayed.
Slovic12 says that even presenting the same information about risk in a slightly different way, such as through mortality or
survival rates, can affect perceptions. Perceptions are also subjective: people are more likely to underestimate risk if they
really want to carry out the activity in question13.

5 Ulrich Beck, 1986

6 Giddens, 1991
7 Backett-Milburn and Harden, 2004
8 Jessor, 1998
9 Sharland, 2006
10 Morrongiello and Major, 2002; Little, 2006
11 Burtney and Duffy, 2004
12 Slovic, 1987
13 Starr, 1969
 11

2. The Background

Perceptions of children at risk are also variable. As Sharland14 points out, there
can be a distinction between those young people deemed worthy of support ‘being at risk’: a situation
and those singled out for correction, even if this is not made explicit. Those or action that puts a
who create risks for ‘us’ as well as themselves are likely to fall into the latter child at risk of a negative
category.
outcome
In many ways, the notion of risk acts as a “floating signifier” where the term in
‘risk taking’: actively
question has a more secure base than the behaviours and events it seeks to
explain. Public policy, for instance, has its own viewpoint currently dominated choosing to engage in risky
by the health and safety agenda and regards risk in an actuarial sense. There activities
is the seeming belief that risks can somehow be calculated and that a sizeable
part of the policy response is to measure and acknowledge that risk. Specific ‘interventions’ may follow, but risk
assessment is a major part of any formal role.

For the media though, there are quite other motives and criteria in reporting on risk. In their case the public duty is to alert
the populace to dangers of which they might not be aware, and to call on all and sundry to ensure that tragic events are
not allowed to happen again. The underlying motivation is not to point out the probability of risk so much as to publicise
the existence of risk.

Does the population at large listen to either account?

Giddens15 suggests that people in general are becoming increasingly sceptical about scientific facts and expert views – as
well as about the media – and do not necessarily believe what they hear. Rather, they live in a state of uncertainty in which
they constantly assess and reassess risks for themselves. Certainly risks by their nature are not certainties and it can be
the perceptions of risks that are most powerful in influencing behaviour.

2.2 Not all risk-taking is negative

Almost half (53% of boys compared
Not all risk-taking is negative, and the beneficial side of risk is emphasised to 38% of girls) the young people
by children themselves as well as a growing band of voices that charges in a survey sample agreed with the
childhood with becoming too restricted. Risk-taking is seen as ‘a positive force statement ‘I like taking risks
in development, such as might be manifest in adventurousness, creativity and sometimes do things
and the desire to accept challenge’16 . Erikson’s17 view of adolescence as a that might be dangerous to
life stage during which experimenting with ideas and behaviours leads on to my health’, while only a third
independence, greater maturity and adulthood, support this thesis. disagreed with it.
Haste (2004)

14 Sharland, 2006
15 Giddens, 1991
16 Moore and Parsons, 2000
17 Erikson, 1950
12

2. The Background

Not all risk-taking is negative

It can be rewarding for young
people to ‘live on the edge’:
‘What do skydiving, rock climbing,
and downhill skiing have in common
with stock-trading, unprotected sex,
and sadomasochism? All are high
risk pursuits. Edgework explores
the world of voluntary risk-taking,
investigating the seductive nature
of pursuing peril and teasing out
the boundaries between legal
and criminal behavior; conscious
and unconscious acts; sanity
and insanity; acceptable risk
and stupidity. The distinguished
contributors to this collection
profile high risk-takers and explore
their experiences with risk through
such topics as juvenile delinquency,
street anarchism, sadomasochism,
avant-garde art, business risks, and
extreme sport.’
Stephen Lyng , Edgework (2004)
Parkinson maintains that the most
recent view of entrepreneurial risk-
taking is that it is usually a necessity
rather than a choice. Those who run
businesses or other enterprises
would really much prefer everybody
else to take the risks, but can do so
themselves when necessary.
Parkinson (2005)
Taking risks can have undeniable benefits and can mean the difference between
staying at home all the time and participating in neighbourhood activities18.
It can also, as West Stevens illustrates, be the key to success for ‘smart and
sassy’ African American adolescent girls who are ‘courageous, intelligent and
spirited’ but living in disadvantaged urban communities19. For broader groups
of young people, activities such as taking drugs and hanging out on the streets
can serve to help them join youth groups or make contact with potential friends
or partners20.
This is very much the view of cultural criminologists who refute the conventional
view that criminal behaviour is the result of pathological family interactions and
maintain that young people need to affirm their identities through their actions21.
They want fun, excitement, and the opportunity to break rules and slip the leash
of adult control22. Indeed, taking risks is often a very positive thing to do.
Entrepreneurship and leadership are frequently linked to the ability to
understand and calculate risk. Although speculation exceeds evidence, an
RBS Living Business Survey suggested that Britain’s entrepreneurs (or small
business owners) appeared to develop an interest in business at an early age
and 84% were already earning money at 13 years, very often from a paper
round. Educational level was not an important characteristic, but a motivation to
become one’s own boss, as well as energy and determination, did seem to be23.
Another claim is that risk-seeking behaviour is one of the three main factors
(alongside a high ‘need for achievement’ and an internal ‘locus of control’)
characterising entrepreneurs24. The role of risk is, however, complex in that
successful entrepreneurs seem to be those who are prepared to take large
calculated risks rather than those who appear prepared to risk all.
2.3 Childhood and the transition to adulthood
Attitudes to children and risk are closely linked to views on childhood and the
position and role of children in society. The distinction between children and
adults, transition points between childhood, adolescence and adulthood, and
children’s independence and freewill, are all important.

The status and meaning of childhood has changed enormously over recent decades25, and perhaps more than ever children
are now seen as making, and having a right to make, a difference to their own lives. This does not mean they are free of
constraints of all kinds. While lauding their autonomy on the one hand, it seems we often curtail it on the other. According
to Mayall26 children are a group that is highly protected from all kinds of dangers and excluded from many public places
either because they are seen as a nuisance or because of the risks of traffic and ‘stranger danger’. Furedi27 describes this
as paranoid parenting while Wheway28 regards it as an understandable reaction to very real risks. Whichever is the case,
‘that risk anxiety is focused on (children) is not at all surprising. Children and childhood are the repository of much social
desire and fantasy about innocence and protection, safety and threat’29.
18 Seabrook and Green, 2004; Tulloch, 2004 24 Parkinson, 2005
19 West Stevens, 2002 25 Jenks, 1996; Prout, 2005
20 Pavis and Cunningham-Burley, 1999 26 Mayall, 2002
21 Matza, 1969 27 Furedi, 2001
22 Presdee, 2000 28 Wheway, 2007
23 Prnewswire, 2006 29 Jones, 2004
 13

2. The Background

This dilemma about according independence is mirrored by confusion about the difference between children and adults. In
many ways the gap between the generations has lessened in recent years as people of all ages increasingly share cultures,
clothes and attitudes30. On the other hand, children have these days achieved a status of ‘precious but burdensome’. This
ambiguity is underlined by the absence of a clear ‘rite of passage’ from adolescence to early adulthood and a variety of age
limits and restrictions depending on the behaviour in question. Young people must often find it confusing to know whether
they are supposed to be a child or an adult.

Childhood is at root about growing up and becoming adult. Almost by definition this means having more independence
and making more decisions - and, in turn, taking more risks. Being allowed out without an adult, or staying at home
unsupervised, gives children greater opportunities for accidents, incidents, and risky behaviour. The difficult issue facing
parents is when to begin to allow children some autonomy, and in what areas. When should parents plan to let their
children become more independent – even though they know they do not make all the decisions, and that children may
engage in risky behaviours without their knowledge or consent? Boreham and Riddoch31 argue that ‘we should not forget
the moral issue of when, or at what age or stage of development, a child is capable of making such important judgements’
and balance the risks and benefits of their actions. In this sense, parents act as informal risk assessment managers,
whether or not they have the appropriate skills and tools within their personal repertoire.

The issue is complicated as there is no explicit demarcation between childhood and adulthood in our society, and young
people gain legal and social responsibilities and capabilities in a staggered fashion. For example, while children are
criminally responsible at 10 years, and can get married at 16 years, they cannot drive a car until 17 years or vote until 18
years. Although children and adults are in general agreement about the ages at which young people should be able to do
such things as take legal responsibility for their actions, learn about sex and relationships, be able to visit a doctor for a
confidential appointment, and baby-sit outside the family32, these are still areas for negotiation and individual volition.
Part of the point of risky behaviour is that it is not necessarily condoned. Driving a car without a licence, under-age sex
and experimenting with illegal drugs are cases in point. It may be precisely because these behaviours are not ‘allowed’
that they seem attractive.

Growing up is linked to taking responsibility and making decisions but so too, in many people’s eyes, to how children dress
and look, and how they behave sexually and conduct their lives.

What do most people think about the speed at which

young people grow up these days?
Of course it all depends on what one has in mind but, overall, there seems to be a strongly held view that children grow up
too quickly. Six in ten of 2,000 primary and secondary school children thought this was true (with the rest divided between
those who thought it was not and those who were not sure), and four in five of over 500 adults agreed33. Girls and women
were more likely to hold this view than boys and men. Children, however, did not seem to feel strongly that they had to
make too many decisions for themselves; only about half the adults thought children made too many decisions these
days.

30 Madge, 2006
31 Boreham and Riddoch, 2001
32 Madge, 2006
33 ibid
14

2. The Background

2.4 Risk and inequality

In many ways, risk stands

as a present-day proxy for inequality
Children are not all the same and there are limits to how far risk in childhood can be addressed generically. Not only do
children differ in their needs for protection and challenge at different ages, but the risks they are exposed to – and expose
themselves to - vary in both degree and kind depending on things such as their disposition, sex, where they live, and their
cultural and social background.

Risks of many kinds tend to reinforce each other and certain neighbourhoods expose children to more than their fair
share of hazards. This means that while some children may at one point in time be at risk of falling off a ladder, or getting
knocked from their bicycle, risk for others is more pervasive and enduring. Growing up in some locations may mean a wide
range of risks and dangers including, perhaps, traffic accidents, severe drug and alcohol abuse, the strong possibility of
victimisation, and few positive expectations for the future. Young people in these situations can lack commitments and
motivations that, in Becker’s34 view, are protective and provide a framework within which to make life choices. According
to his theory, the young person (and his/her parents) who is strongly committed to a good education and job may do
whatever possible to avoid what may be seen as bad influences. Other young people without such commitments are more
likely to continue to lead hazardous lives. Those not in education, employment or training (NEETs) can be particularly
vulnerable. Without much chance of educational and occupational advancement, they remain ‘at risk’ and contrast sharply
with those who manage to gain qualifications and ‘escape’ from disadvantage.

We live in a divided society in which there is increasing polarisation between the poor and the better off35, and
opportunities for advancement can be limited. Social mobility has declined in Britain in recent years and it now provides
fewer opportunities for the most disadvantaged to progress socially than many other European countries36. This is well-
illustrated by comparing children born in the 1950s and 1970s: while the proportion of those from the poorest fifth of
families gaining a University degree rose from 6% to 9%, the comparable increase for the richest fifth was from 20% to
47%. The clear message is that some young people are far more protected from continuing risk than others, partly due to
society and its structures, but partly due too to the choices they make within their own lives.

Inequality affects risk-taking in another way too. Children who start off most advantaged are particularly likely to have
increased opportunities for challenge and excitement and to experience taking risks under relatively safe conditions. They
are more likely, for instance, to go on adventurous holidays, spend a gap year travelling around the globe, or engage in
expensive but thrilling hobbies. Risk-taking for them is more likely to be legitimated than for other young people largely
restricted to their neighbourhoods and its provision.

34 Becker, 1960
35 Dorling et al, 2007
36 Blanden et al, 2006
 15

2. The Background

2.5 Studying risk in childhood Jessor discusses concepts of risk

from a research point-of-view and
The study of risk in childhood fuels a large industry and has led to a proliferation
points to the complexity of the
of studies, reports, theses and recommendations. It is also an evolving industry
current perspective:
in which the focus of enquiry has shifted considerably in recent decades. Beyond
this, and at any one time, perspectives on risks in childhood differ both between ‘As an emerging paradigm, the
individuals and between societal groups. trends refer to the multidisciplinary,
multi-variable, time-extended,
Not only is the study of risk subject to methodological complexity, but it is also process-focused, contextually
required to account for a wide range of behaviours that, at first sight, have little situated, person-centered kinds of
in common. Does drug misuse, for instance, in any sense resemble bungee studies increasingly represented
jumping, and could eating junk food be equated with walking home alone late in contemporary social problem
at night? What are the links between risks seen as maladaptive (e.g. taking research.’
drugs) and those that receive social approval (e.g. adventure activities)? And
He adds:
does it matter why children decide to take risks? The Adolescent Risk-taking
Questionnaire (ARQ), developed by Gullone et al37 distinguishes between thrill- ‘Single-variable explanations,
seeking risks (such as participating in dangerous sports), rebellious risks (such such as low self-esteem or the
as smoking and drinking alcohol), reckless risks (such as unprotected sex and absence of positive role models,
fast driving), and antisocial risks (such as those that involve breaking the law). have given way to well-articulated,
multivariate, multi-level accounts
In brief, the study of risk is extraordinarily complex and there is no simple that implicate person, context and
approach or a single message. The central task for this report is to ascertain who their interaction’.
is at most risk of what, to make some assessment of what this means, and to Jessor (1998)
address the question of what should be done next.

37 Gullone et al, 2000

16

3. Issues and Perspectives

Children’s lives and experiences, their role within the community and society, their rights, their
well-being and happiness, are higher on the social and political agenda than ever before.
There is a recognition that Every Child Matters38 and a greater concern for equity and equality
regardless of age. These principles do not, however, prescribe how either children or adults
should behave, and do little to prevent confusion in grown-up attitudes towards children or
provide confidence about the opportunities, restraints and protection they should be offered.
Why else, indeed, is there such current interest in the state of childhood and the nature of a
‘good’ childhood?

3.1 To protect or not to protect

Embedded within this confusion is the very real dilemma about the degree of independence and protection children should
be given. Do children take too many risks, or are they in fact overprotected?

On the one hand, there is concern at the suffocating health and safety culture (and the public health agenda allied to this),
the semblance of a nanny state and a risk averse society, and the fear that we may be overprotecting our children and
making them overly cautious and unprepared for challenge. There is a worry that these characteristics will transfer to other
spheres of their lives and condemn them to a lifelong lack of a sense of adventure and enterprise. Failing to take risks may
mean missing the opportunity to develop and excel positively. Digby Jones, then director general of the CBI, has called for
young people to be taught more about risk-taking than their rights39, and says how ‘Giving young people opportunities to
experience, judge and manage risk should be an essential component of their education – not so that they can avoid it,
but so they can seize opportunities and benefit from them as they mature into the next generation of citizens and wealth
creators’. It is only through risk-taking that there is ‘the possibility of discovering that one is adventurous, daring, brave,
strong, confident and successful’40.

On the other hand, we display an enormous preoccupation with children’s safety. There is a perception that young people
face multitudinous perils and that we should do whatever we can to eliminate these. We worry that we may be failing in
our duty as parents and the state in allowing them to put themselves in all kinds of unnecessary danger. Young people
are ferried around much more than ever in the past, they are sent out with mobile phones (and occasionally other tagging
devices), and even as they grow older their activities are much more planned and controlled. How many Gap Year students,
for instance, now hitch-hike on their own around Europe? We clearly want young people to be safe, but are we offering
them sufficient opportunities to discover themselves? Are we in some sense negating, and hence spoiling, childhood?

Present-day attitudes to young people and their lifestyles reflect a conflict between societal and personal values. Letting
children grow up ‘naturally’ on the one hand, and striving for safety at any cost on the other, are at once pre-eminent.
The call for children to learn the skills of the entrepreneur, which no doubt stems from the continuing movement towards
globalisation around the world, is strong. The state is keen to encourage business, families and individuals to develop the
skills that will lead them to be self-reliant in responding to market forces, and being able to take risks is important in this
context.

38 DfES, 2003
39 Jones, 2007
40 Stephenson, 2003
 17

3. Issues and Perspectives

Neo-Liberalism and the operation of the free market have, nonetheless, meant social and economic change. The collapse
of old industries, the growth of privatised services and the increasingly global provision of goods and services have left
their mark within the community. Family members have become less likely to follow in their parents’ footsteps, finding
work has meant increased geographical mobility, and inequalities have become more marked. These changes, exacerbated
by growing multiculturalism, have led to growing segregation in the community and a decrease in social capital which
Putnam41 refers to as ‘connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness
that arise from them’. People are less likely to know their neighbours, particularly in some locations, and have become
increasingly anxious and suspicious. As a result they pay more attention to protecting their children and worrying about
their safety, anxious too about their own reputation.

3.2 What do parents (and other adults) worry about?

Parents worry. It is part of the parental condition.

They worry about the things that may affect their children’s health, well-being, achievement, happiness and safety, and
they worry about being blamed if something goes wrong. Surveys do not all report exactly the same messages about
the things parents worry about most for their children, but they are in broad agreement about what parents worry about
most. The survey of around 1,000 parents carried out at the end of 2002 and reported by Murrin and Martin42 is probably
as representative as any.

Parental concerns for their child/ren (most to least)*

• They would be hit by a car or lorry

• They might be abducted or murdered
• They are damaging their health by eating too much sugar and sweet things
• They are spending too much time watching television or playing computer games
• They are growing up too fast
• They might become the victim of crime
• They eat too much junk food
• They have friends who are a bad influence
• They might get a serious illness
• They might become the victim of physical violence.
*Murrin and Martin (2004)

Parents do not, however, necessarily worry most about the things that are most likely to happen. As Murrin and Martin43
point out, they often worry about things that are very unlikely to happen. For example, while more children die from cancer
than any other cause, parents worry most about their child getting run over. They comment on the complexity of parental
concern and how parents may

• worry too much about things that are very unlikely to happen
• worry about things that would not matter too much even if they did happen
• worry about things they have little control over
• yet do not worry enough about some things that pose a real and great threat to their children

41 Putnam, 2000
42 Murrin and Martin, 2004
43 ibid
18

3. Issues and Perspectives

Other commentators agree that attitudes towards risk do not simply reflect the actual likelihood of a negative outcome.
Rather, they are influenced by factors that include personal experience, personality, the characteristics of the child in
question, and messages from authorities, the media and the broader social and cultural context. As Valentine44 comments,
attitudes surrounding ‘stranger danger’ no doubt reflect the severity of possible consequences of assault rather than
simply the likely risk of stranger danger that is lower than the risk of other occurrences, such as traffic accidents, which
parents may worry about less.
Anxiety about risk is about much
Teenage pregnancy:
Case in point more than the actuarial danger
Hoggart found that between a Parents may worry more as young people grow up and parental control becomes
quarter and a third of the 25 young less. Adults do not always know what their children are doing and have less
teenagers who had recently given direct influence over their behaviour. They may also be aware that parents and
birth or were about to, said that children can differ in their perceptions of risk, either in the use of public and
they had not become pregnant by private space in both rural and urban locations45, or in the home46. Parents and
mistake. Most said they had been children may also have differing views on behaviour and its outcomes.
unsettled or unhappy, and felt
positive about becoming mothers. Young people say that the ‘imagined’ fears of their parents influence the freedom
Whatever their parents’ views, those they are given47, but how far is this true? Often it seems that risk-taking is a
young people did not feel they had family matter that involves negotiations between children and their families,
engaged in risky behaviour. rather than something that is determined solely by parents.
Hoggart (2007)

Negotiating risk and freedom

Backett-Milburn and Harden examined the everyday negotiations around risk, safety and danger within four families
in a Scottish study, and noted the ‘dynamic, fluid and contingent nature of risk construction and reconstruction’. Three
particular features were highlighted.

First, although all families were different in what was permitted and negotiated, each had a ‘bottom line’ that signified
a boundary. Variations depended on the characteristics and histories of each family, and ‘many families had a shared
cautionary ‘‘local” story or personal experience of “an incident” to which parents and children often referred as
justification for parental watchfulness’. Second, negotiations depended upon age (although this could be overridden
by maturity and sense) that could mean different boundaries for siblings, and what happened in other families. Third,
negotiations also had a view to the future with parents concerned to instil good habits in their children, whatever the
cost. As one of the mothers in the study reported: ‘Because I say to them “I’d rather have you alive at 16 and hating
me than dead” ’.
Backett-Milburn and Harden (2004)

The scope for reducing risk is undoubtedly greater for some parents than others. It is, for example, more difficult to protect
children in more deprived and dangerous neighbourhoods. More affluent parents may be able to move somewhere else,
but this is less possible for families with low levels of income. Some young people will want to transgress social and
geographical boundaries and establish their own identity, and there will be little their parents can do. Talking about
parents in deprived areas whose children become involved in gangs, Pitts48 comments that ‘Telling these families to take
responsibility for their kids behaviour is like telling them to take their kids into the jungle and take responsibility for them
not getting eaten by lions and tigers’.

44 Valentine, 1996
45 Valentine and McKendrick, 1997
46 Kelley et al, 1997
47 Ward and Bayley, 2007
48 Pitts, 2007
 19

3. Issues and Perspectives

Parental attitudes to risk, and the way in which these are conveyed, are likely to have a significant impact on their children
and the confidence with which they engage with the world. Nonetheless, there will always be a limit to what parents can
do to protect their children, and much will depend on the willingness of the child to cooperate. Even in the home parents
may not be in control if they do not know how to restrict their child’s access to the internet or if they cannot encourage
them to lead a healthy lifestyle. On a more optimistic note, however,

children tend to take more notice of what their parents

say than adults realise49
Child obesity: media panic?
Kline highlighted the media panic
engendered by the rising levels of
childhood obesity. By charting the
coverage given to childhood obesity,
child health and health risks more
generally between 1999 and 2004,
he claimed that by 2004 ‘obesity
had become the key child-health
story in Britain’. This in turn raised
the political stakes, with attention
turned to the role of advertising,
and sent government, industry and
consumers into battle.
Kline (2005)
3.3 How far are the media to blame?
The media are commonly blamed for exaggerating risk and whipping up public
anxiety. According to the Better Regulation Commission (BRC)50, much of the
pressure for greater regulation to reduce risk comes from this quarter and is as
likely to be based on ‘deliberately orchestrated moral panics’ as on reasoned
evidence or argument. Their powerful messages can be very effective in
generating public concern.
Another side of the picture is that the media have been responsible for helping to
bring the circumstances of children to public notice and for instigating campaigns
to put more effective safeguards in place. Sometimes these actions, such as in
highlighting the case of Maria Colwell and bringing the scandal of child abuse to
public notice51, have been of undoubted success. In other instances their impact
has been more questionable. For example, the media attention paid to the Orkney
scandal of 1991, when members of an alleged Satanic paedophile ring were
accused of having abused children, was of little service to the community and
indeed may well have contributed to the devastation faced by many families.

Orkney scandal, 1991

‘After allegations of child abuse involving satanic ritual sex games in a quarry, police and social workers raided homes
in South Ronaldsay, Orkney Islands in the early hours of February 27 1991. Nine children were seized, bundled into
a chartered plane and taken to homes on the mainland. Other high profile alleged child abuse cases in Cleveland,
Rochdale and Nottingham had made national headlines around the same time.

The allegations, it was alleged at the time, stemmed from another case. Children in the “W” family were taken off the
island and into care following the earlier imprisonment of their father. Three of the children, it was reported, made
allegations of organised sexual abuse during “disclosure therapy sessions” with police and social workers.

Within five weeks the case collapsed and the nine children, aged between eight and 15, were returned to their homes.
The Crown Office had concluded that no individual would face charges. Sheriff David Kelbie said the interviews with the
children were manipulative.

49 Madge, 2006
50 The Better Regulation Commission, 2006
51 Parton, 1985
20

3. Issues and Perspectives

There followed a £6m seven-month inquiry by Lord Clyde. His 363-page report, in October 1992, heavily criticised
the way Orkney social service handled the allegations, rebuked most of the senior individuals in the case and
made 194 recommendations. The W children remained in care and their case was not specifically addressed by the
inquiry.

In March 1996 the four families at the centre of the scandal accepted a full apology from the islands council and
compensation. The W family have not been offered compensation.’
Guardian52

As well as exposing risks to children, the media have for a long time pointed to the risks created by young people – from
Mods and Rockers to ‘today’s gangs’. The present day messages reflect the ambiguity towards childhood that is apparent
throughout society. These put forward the view that children are essentially anti-social and seem to revel in sensationalised
reports of individual law-breakers. But they also point to less common risks facing children through extensive coverage
of cases such as the Soham murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, and the several young people who
have recently murdered and been murdered on British streets. The demonisation of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables
in 1993 following the murder of Jamie Bulger is a case in point53. The rarity of cases such as these does little to reduce the
newspaper wordage accorded to them and makes them better stories. Interestingly, nonetheless, adult perceptions of
young people’s portrayal in the media still see ‘as troublemakers’ as far more prevalent than ‘as victims’54 .

52 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1927841,00.html
53 Morrison, 1998
54 Madge, 2006
 21

3. Issues and Perspectives

The media, risk and children: a snapshot

To explore this theme further, we provide a snapshot of how the media reflect - and perhaps
fuel - preoccupations and anxieties surrounding children and risk, and also highlight the
complexity and confusion in this area. Newspaper articles and news website pages relating to
children, young people and risk were gathered for one month during June 2007.

30 different issues were uncovered illustrating the frequency and diversity of discussions taking place about children
and risk.

The news stories covered a broad spectrum of perceived risks, issues and topics ranging from numerous features or
comments following the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal at the beginning of May, to the more mundane
Alert over ‘Heelys’ after raft of injuries (Metro newspaper, 4th June), alerting parents to the possible dangers of young
children wearing “Heely” shoes (roller shoes). Other commonly discussed topics were children’s obesity and health
(Cervical cancer jabs for all young girls, Daily Telegraph, 21st June) and children’s safety in public spaces and on the internet
(Undercover police smash paedophile ring posting live abuse online, Guardian, 18th June).

Some news stories were local (When should children walk alone? BBC website, 7th June, which reports on a head teacher
from Western Super Mare preventing a six year old from walking to school without adult supervision). Others reflected
policy discussions or on-going debates (Infants being treated for obesity, BBC website, 14th June, regarding children and
young people’s obesity). Yet others highlighted potential threats to all children (Number of children dying on the roads
shoots up by 20% in a year, Daily Mail, 28th June, or No show of hands for quiet children, Daily Express, 1st June, a report
suggesting teachers should not ask pupils to put their hands up to answer a question in order to stop quiet children falling
behind).

Not all children face or create similar risks, and some stories focused on certain groups to highlight these differences (Half
school ‘failures’ are white working class boys, Guardian, 22nd June, which discusses challenges to the assumption that
pupils from minority ethnic groups do worse than white pupils, or Mob Kills Boy in Weekend of Terror, Daily Telegraph, 27th
June, which comments on increasing violence amongst groups of young Londoners). Others issues also were relevant for
only a minority of young people (Using restraint on young offenders, Guardian, 22nd June).

News stories are notoriously short lived. Tombstoning (jumping off high cliffs into the sea) may well be this year’s summer
craze amongst young people which may have equally short lived coverage in the media (It’s a silly craze they are going
through, Daily Telegraph, 31st May).

Interestingly, and importantly, some articles discuss unease about children and risk. Some problematise our current
perception and understanding of risks in relation to children and call for a more balanced and positive appreciation of
risk-taking (Selective Fears, Guardian, 7th June, and Bumps and bruises are good for children, The Times, 12th June), both
of which argue that risk is an essential part of life. On the other hand, there are also the continuing ‘something must be
done’ discussions (The Times, 23rd June, was on the trail of predators who target our fragile children discussing how child
abusers could be identified and prosecuted).

Although there can be a balance in media reporting, there are still some stories and reports that speak louder than
others.
22
3. Issues and Perspectives
Pessimism about the appropriateness
of services to address risk has been
expressed by Abbott-Chapman and
Denholm57:
‘The concepts of risk and of risk
management are now prominent
in preventive health education and
health care programmes, despite
the paradox between the ‘estimated
magnitude of different risks and the
subjective perception and acceptance
of these risks’58. What is regarded as
‘acceptable or ‘unacceptable’ risk
to different individuals and groups
is usually a reflection of subjective
reactions such as public outrage,
or public indifference to hazards
magnified or diminished by media
coverage59 .’
Government measures to deal with
risk are very often in response to
perceptions of risk rather than any
proven hazard or danger. Burgess has
enlarged on this point and provided
the example of panic surrounding
the erection of mobile phone
masts despite a lack of scientific
evidence to demonstrate that they
affect health and well-being – other
than by creating anxiety within a
community. As Burgess comments,
‘The generally very defensive
reaction of state authority to risk
concerns in the late modern period
has created a risk-averse society
that sometimes appears afraid even
of its own shadow’.
Burgess (2002)
55 Jones, 2004
56 Judge, 2005
57 Abbott-Chapman and Denholm, 2001
58 Skolbekken, 1995
59 Sandman,1993; Shanahan et al, 2000
3.4 The government’s response
The government in many ways reinforces adult perceptions of risk to children
by reacting to public and media pressure rather than responding to evidence.
This can mean that policies that reflect and reproduce risk anxiety rather than
reflecting a proper, informed evaluation or appraisal of the real dangers facing
children55. There is indeed a need for an independent risk commission to look at
individual issues56.
Public anxiety and pressure have, in recent years, focused on matters as diverse
as child abuse scandals, the dangers of paedophiles, antisocial behaviour,
traffic, the internet, drugs, alcohol, and the growth of obesity. They have led to a
proliferation of regulation, legislation and guidance that is far too long to list60.
Has this outpouring of
advice and measures had the
“desired” effect?
In general, the answer is likely to be no. Children continue to be abused and
abducted, have accidents, are victimised in the community and at school,
increasingly drink alcohol and take illegal drugs, and still get pregnant at a
young age. Perhaps the most notable impact of governmental action has been
to increase and heighten concern for children and the risks they face.
Indeed, the explosion of legislation and guidance does not always serve its own
purpose. In the view of the BRC61 : ‘we rightly expect certain basic safeguards
to be in place but the BRC would assert, and our many witnesses agree, that
the over-regulation of risk and the resulting glut of rules and guidelines make
us less willing to take responsibility for risk, undermines trust and dilutes our
sense of adventure’. There is a message that the state is taking over, and that
individual responsibility is of a lesser order. And increasingly both the wisdom
and feasibility of legislation to micro-manage every possible risk facing children
is questioned. There is also a growing critique of the view that provided certain
safeguards are put in place; risks will have been dealt with. As Little62 points out
in relation to children’s play equipment, safety depends not only on nature of
the equipment but also on how it is used and how it is supervised.
Once a moral panic is underway, there is strong pressure on government to
reassure, and a strong political drive to be seen to act. Kline63 outlines how, in
relation to children, it might be required to react to the worry that children are
spending too much time watching television or using their computers, or that
they are being exploited by the consumer market. At other times the task is to
allay fears about the risks of terror on the streets, the risk of abduction, or the
risk of contracting meningitis. There are endless risks to evoke a response.
60 BRC, 2006
61 BRC 2006, p6
62 Little, 2006
63 Kline, 2005
 23

3. Issues and Perspectives

3.5 A prevailing culture of risk

Is everything risky?
There is little doubt that we live in a culture dominated by health and safety
An emphasis on health and safety
concerns. Risk assessments have become commonplace in every walk of life,
has led to a common perception
alongside advice on how to deal with every kind of possible adversity. Even the
that almost everything is risky.
Scout Group website is awash with this kind of information, which is a clear
sign of the times. Recent years, and notably since 1993 when four teenagers “How extraordinary! The richest,
were drowned during a canoeing expedition in Dorset, have also witnessed a longest lived, best protected, most
growth in what Rogers64 calls ”fear entrepreneurs” – lobby groups, campaigners, resourceful civilization, with the
regulators and inspectors ‘whose livelihoods depend on fuelling concern about highest degree of insight into its
the dangers of everyday life’. She comments how ‘We are bound up in a risk- own technology, is on its way to
reducing bureaucracy that threatens our commercial competitiveness in world becoming the most frightened.
markets’ and points out how escalating bureaucratic regulation resulted in
Is it our environment or ourselves
33 Acts of Parliament and over a that have changed? Would
people like us have had this sort
thousand new regulations to reduce of concern in the past?... Today,
there are risks from numerous
risk of some kind or another small dams far exceeding those
from nuclear reactors. Why is the
in 2006 alone. one feared and not the other? Is it
just that we are used to the old or
Much of the discourse surrounding children and risk has focused on children’s
are some of us looking differently
play, with vociferous debate arguing on the one hand for ensuring children’s
at essentially the same sorts of
safety and on the other for encouraging and allowing young people to enjoy
experience?”
themselves in a relatively unrestricted environment. Nonetheless, as Moorcock65
notes, there is much more information available for parents on the possible Wildavsky (1979)
dangers facing their children than on the risks they actually face. Furedi66 in Slovic (1987)
believes that we now live in a climate of ‘permanent panic’.

A survey of 2,000 children found that three-quarters of those of primary school age said that parents and carers
worried too much about them hurting themselves or being in danger, and four in ten secondary school children said
that most parents and carers over-protect their children.

Almost half the 500 adults in the same study agreed that parents over-protect their children67.

This emphasis on ‘over protection’ in turn encourages mistrust within the community. Strangers and even neighbours
are reluctant to intervene to help children for fear their motives will be misinterpreted, and many men (and increasingly
women too) choose not to work with children for much the same reason. Nobody these days is allowed near children
in any formal capacity without having undertaken a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check, and Piper et al68 graphically
illustrate how many professionals have become cautious about even touching children in case they are falsely accused of
molestation. This feeling of mistrust is pervasive and Burgess69 highlights how the message from universities encouraging
students to avoid becoming the victim of ‘date rape’ drugs is to trust nobody.

64 Rogers, 2007
65 Moorcock, 1998
66 Furedi, 2001
67 Madge, 2006
68 Piper et al, 2006
69 Burgess, 2008
24

3. Issues and Perspectives

3.6 The calculation of risk

One Study of children’s views on
the actions and activities that are
more or less risky, found that:
• most saw taking illegal drugs,
smoking, having sex without
using condoms, binge drinking,
walking alone at night in a
strange area and doing daring
stunts to show off as ‘very risky’
and around two in three
said riding a motorcycle or
skateboarding fell within
this category
• by contrast, the majority felt that
using mobile phones frequently
or having sex using condoms
was ‘not risky at all’
Haste (2004)
Daily life involves the calculation and negotiation of risk. Looking before we
cross the road, choosing a route home from the bus stop after dark, and deciding
who to be friends with, are examples of the kinds of choice we regularly make.
Dealing with risk is a fact of life, and this is as true of children as of adults. Young
people are not always involved in public discussion of risk even though they are
perfectly capable of taking part70. If asked, they have clear ideas of what they
consider to be risks, the advantages and disadvantages of taking risks, and the
strategies they may have for staying safe.
For some, risk may be the
natural condition
Gillen et al71 quote a 12 year-old boy whose definition of risk was ‘living in my
street’ and risk indeed features as a daily ‘fact’ in many young lives. Other
authors72 demonstrate how young people develop strategies to deal with the
potential hazards and dangers they face rather than simply trying to avoid risk
altogether. Even when risks are understood, young people may knowingly take
them because this is preferable to living their lives wrapped up in cotton wool.
Daily risks facing young people include the possibility of victimisation. Risks of
this kind tend to be geographically based: certain places gain the reputation of
being risky, perhaps because there are ‘rival’ groups and a history of harassment,
while others seem relatively safe. Young people’s strategies may involve
avoiding these risky areas, and entering or crossing them by seeking safety in
numbers and making sure they are not on their own73. Usually these decisions
are calculations that, even if the calculations can go wrong, imply that young
people are active social agents who organise their own lives.

70 Harden, 2000
71 Gillen et al, 2004
72 e.g. Seabrook and Green, 2004
73 Watt and Stenson, 1998
 25

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Widespread concern for children’s safety, and extensive legislation and advice on reducing
hazards, suggest that children’s lives are inherently dangerous. But is this the case? This
section examines the evidence, and asks how often children are actually ‘at risk’ and whether
their lives seem riskier nowadays or in the past. Furthermore, do children face more risks
than adults? It looks both at risks with clear negative outcomes for children (e.g. accidents or
assaults) as well as activities that may heighten the risk of poor outcomes in the longer-term
(e.g. watching television or drinking alcohol). Children are exposed to an almost endless array
of potential risks, and the following account is inevitably selective. It is also beyond the scope
of this report to consider risks in countries other than the UK.

Before reviewing the evidence, it is important to reiterate that risks of danger or other negative outcomes are not evenly
distributed. ‘Average’ levels of risk say little about any children in particular: these exaggerate the chances of hazards for
some but belittle them for others.

• Age, first of all, makes a considerable difference to both the situations and risks children are likely to be exposed to as
well as the coping skills they are likely to have.
• Sex, too, can affect behaviour and exposure to risk, in part because boys are generally shown to engage in more risky
physical activities than girls.
• Where children live, and their cultural and socioeconomic background, further determine their chances of poor health,
accidental injury, or victimisation within the community.

The full extent of these differences is not, however, always clear. Even in London, characterised by its diversity, available
data do not allow a systematic analysis of inequalities by ethnicity and child poverty74.

Putting things in perspective

As the following sections show, some kinds of activity are much more risky than others. Although overall rates of risk conceal
differences between children, they do help to portray a general and current picture of risk. Estimates are approximate,
and based only on what is known, but suggest that injuries in playgrounds, and murder or abduction by a stranger, are
relatively rare while accidents at home, health risks from drug and alcohol use and obesity, and particularly victimisation,
are much more common. It would seem that the things that worry parents most are not necessarily the things that are
most likely to occur in children’s lives. Worry focuses on the possible consequences of risk as well as anxieties generated
by local experiences and national events.

74 Mayor of London, 2004

26

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

0.03 per million children sustain serious injuries in playgrounds each year
less than one per million children are murdered by a stranger each year
6 per million children each year are abducted by a stranger
17 per million children under 16 are killed while passengers in vehicles and
about 7 per million are killed as pedestrians each year
32 per million children under the age of 15 die from cancer each year
73 per million children are murdered every year, mainly by parents
1,500 per million 11 to 18 year-olds were involved in knife crime in London over
a four-month period in 2006
2,000 per million children are diagnosed with cancer before the age of 15
2,400 per million children under 16 have road accidents every year

5,000 per million children die before the age of one year

9,000 per million 16 to 19 year-olds are diagnosed with chlamydia each year, while
more than 1,000 per million are diagnosed with gonorrhoea and
over 5,000 per million are diagnosed with genital warts
40,000 per million are sexually abused by a parent, carer or relative at some time
before the age of 16
40,000 per million 11 to 15 year-olds report taking illegal drugs at least once a month
40,000 per million 15 to 17 year-old females, and some 8,000 per million 13 to 15
year-olds, become pregnant in any one year
70,000 per million under 18s are seriously physically abused by their parents or carers
90,000 per million 11 to 15 year-olds smoke regularly
100,000 per million children in the UK injure themselves at home each year.
140,000 per million 2 to 10 year-olds are obese and around 333,000 per million
are overweight
220,000 per million 11 to 15 year-olds say they have drunk alcohol in the previous week
between 100,000 11 to 15 year-olds play on fruit machines at least once a month,
& 200,000 per million and up to a third of this number are probably pathological
gamblers and/or have severegambling-related difficulties
270,000 per million 10 to 25 year-olds say they have been a victim of crime in the
previous year
750,000 per million 9 to 19 year-olds have access to the internet at home
530,000 per million 9 to 11 year-olds, 880,000 per million 12 to 15 year-olds,
and 940,000 per million 16 to 17 year-olds own a mobile phone
 27

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Health and mortality • Infant mortality is lower than ever

before and there are fewer than
One clear improvement for children has been in their health. 5,000 deaths per million children
in the first year of life
They are more likely to survive beyond infancy, and more likely
• Mortality rates decrease after
to be successfully treated for the illnesses and conditions they
the first year of life but increase
may contract. Children also have much lower rates of mortality again in adolescence and then
than adults. continue to rise over later years
• Although infectious illnesses
• The Registrar General records about 374 deaths per million from internal (i.e.
have decreased, there has
health) causes and 71 deaths per million from external (i.e. non health)
been some rise in other forms of
causes for under 19s, compared with almost 13,000 and 400 per million
childhood illness
respectively for those aged 19 or over75
• Up to 33 per million under 19s die in traffic accidents, compared to 16 per • Children from more
million dying from other causes of accidental injuries, 5 per million from disadvantaged backgrounds tend
intentional self harm (mostly 15-19 year olds), and 4 per million from assault76 to have the poorest health

Most children these days live in good housing and have an adequate diet. They
are, nonetheless, still at risk of ill-health and particularly cancer. • Approximately 1,514 children
aged under 15 are registered
It is difficult to compare children and adults in cancer incidence and mortality as each year as developing cancer
many types of childhood cancer are rare in adults and many types of adult cancer • This represents an incidence of
(lung, breast and bowel) are very rare in children. Nonetheless, cancer incidence 135 per million children
and mortality rates are both much higher for adults than children (incidence • The chances of a child being
rates are about 4,350 per million adults and 135 per million for under 15s, while diagnosed with cancer before the
mortality rates are 280 per million for adults and 32 per million for under 15s). age of 15 is about 2,000 in
a million
Mortality rates fluctuate over the life cycle.
• In the UK, around three-quarters
of child cancer patients survive
• These days about 5,000 children per million die before the age of one
for at least five years after the
• The comparable rates for 1 to 4 year-olds and 5 to 14 year-olds are around
223 and 112 per million diagnosis
• After this age, mortality rates begin to rise. Around 454 per million 15 to 24 • Around 300 under 15s, or over 30
year-olds die, and from then onwards rates climb steadily per million, die from cancer
• By the age of 55 to 64 years, the annual mortality rate is over each year
10,000 per million
• Leukaemia is the most common
form of child cancer death77
These rates have shown a clear decline over recent decades.

75 ONS, 2004a
76 ibid
77 Cancer Research UK, 2007
28

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

The 20th century also witnessed a significant decline in the incidence of

Number of deaths per 1,000
childhood infectious diseases, even though the numbers of children reporting
live births within one year of
longstanding illnesses rose marginally, particularly in families with manual
birth has declined from: occupations. Furthermore, rates of food poisoning increased by over a third
84 in 1921 between 1990 and 1999, tuberculosis – which had been declining steadily
to 31.1 in 1951 until the 1990s – has re-emerged, and studies suggest that rates and severity
of asthma among children have increased markedly. Although the incidence of
11.2 in 1981
childhood cancer is on the increase, from 129 per million in 1987 and 117 per
7.4 in 1991 million in 1977, rates of mortality are decreasing, from 40 per million in 1987
5.6 in 2000 and 59 per million in 197779. Rates of paediatric in-patient services have risen,
although visits to GPs and hospital admissions have levelled off80.
and 5 in 200478

Child mortality rates for 5 to The risk of abuse

9 year-olds fell from:
A large-scale study of child maltreatment in the UK82 provided national estimates
2.5 per 1000 in 1921 of abuse. It suggested that
to 0.2 in 1981 • around 7% of under 18s had at some time experienced serious physical
and now remains between 0.1 & 0.2 abuse from their parents or carers
per 100081 • 1% of under 16s had been sexually abused by a parent or carer
• and a further 3% had been sexually abused by a relative

Lower estimates of abuse are gained from child protection registers for neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and/or
emotional abuse. These indicate that 32,100 of under 18s, or 0.23%, were registered on 31 March 2004. These figures,
however, do not take account of children who are abused but undetected. ChildLine83 reports that during the period 2005-6
it took 11,976 calls (or 9% of its total calls) from children who said they were experiencing sexual abuse. It is likely that many
of these children were unknown to child protection services.

Certain young people are at greater risk of abuse than others. Boys, for example, are more at risk of physical abuse while girls
are more commonly sexually abused84. Moreover, physical abuse seems to decrease with age while sexual abuse increases.
Social disadvantage also appears to put children at greatest risk of abuse85. Children from certain minority ethnic families
are over-represented in child protection registers86, although this may reflect cultural issues or institutional systems which
are more likely to investigate the circumstances of ethnic minorities than white families.

There is some suggestion of a downward

trend in child abuse over recent years
Numbers on child protection registers are an important source of information, even though they are likely to under-report the
real numbers. These indicate that, overall, children on these registers have decreased in recent years, from 32,500 in 1993
to 26,400 in 200687. However, they also reveal that concerns have changed over this period. Between 1999 and 2006, for
instance, the incidence of neglect, sexual abuse and physical abuse declined whereas the numbers of children on registers
for emotional abuse or mixed/other reasons increased. Prosecutions for cruelty to and neglect of children have, nonetheless,
risen. Statistics provided by the Home Office88 show that there were 2,300 such prosecutions in 1998/9 but 5,046 in 2005/6
(although there was some change in how these statistics were compiled in 2001/2).

Despite these trends, information and awareness of the risk of abuse has certainly increased significantly over the past
few decades. This has followed from high profile cases in the media and led to increased visibility of campaigning groups
such as ChildLine and policies that include the introduction of Criminal Records Bureau checks.
78 ONS, 2004a 83 ChildLine, 2007
79 ONS, 2004c 84 Cawson et al, 2000; Scottish Executive, 2004
80 ONS, 2004b 85 Madge, 1997
81 ONS, 2004a 86 Laming Report, 2003
82 Cawson et al, 2000 87 DfES, 2006a 88 Home Office, 2006
 29

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Abduction and murder In 2002/3, there were 846 offences

relating to child abduction of
Dangers from strangers and paedophiles loom large among children under the age of 16 in
England and Wales (representing a
parental worries. Parents often report curtailing their children’s rate of under 80 instances per million
freedom to protect them from stranger danger or paedophiles89, children), and over half of these
and research suggests that between 58% and 91% of parents were attempted rather than actual
abductions. In the case of attempts
have concerns for these possible dangers90. The media,
involving a stranger, only one in six
drawing on high profile public examples such as the case of resulted in an abduction. Overall,
Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in 2002, place the issue of almost a quarter of attempted
‘stranger danger’ and abduction prominently within the public abductions were committed by a
parent.
consciousness and encourage perceptions that children face
Newiss and Fairbrother (2004)
more dangers now than a generation or so ago.
Despite parental fears, the assault and abduction of children is relatively rare: fewer than 6 children per million are
abducted by a stranger each year.

Age affects risk: the average age of children abducted by parents is 6 years compared with 10 years for abduction by strangers.
This age difference no doubt reflects the fact that young children do not tend to encounter strangers on their own.

There are other risks associated with ‘stranger danger’, and an NSPCC survey91 found that 7% of young people said they
had been the victim of indecent exposure. ChildLine92 further notes that children indicated a stranger was involved in 6%
of the almost 12,000 instances of sexual abuse reported to their helpline. Although the majority of child sex offenders and
abductors are known to children93, and most incidents take place in the home of either the child or the perpetrator94, it is
likely that the occurrence of stranger annoyance or stranger danger is underreported.

Parents also worry that their child might be murdered by a stranger. The chances of this happening are less than one in a
million. Most child murders are committed by parents.

• The NSPCC claims that an average of one or two children up to 16 years is murdered each week in the UK and most of
the perpetrators are parents: this represents an annual rate of less than 73 murders per million children
• Fewer than six children a year are murdered by strangers95
• Infants under one year are most likely to be killed, and almost two-thirds of child homicides involve children under 5 years96
• The proportion of parent suspects is higher the younger the child

Some risks do seem to have increased. There is, for instance, a suggestion of some increase in child abduction over recent
years, although this may reflect changes in the reporting and recording of data as well as changes in the occurrence of
abduction. The Home Office97 has recorded information on prosecutions for child abduction since 1970, and reports an
increase from 43 in 1970 to 920 in 2005/6. Although numbers fluctuated over this period, there has been a general and
steady increase in prosecutions over time. A number of high profile cases in recent years may also have strengthened the
perception that risk in this area has increased. Nonetheless, as Newiss and Fairbrother98 note, this offence constitutes but
a very small proportion (0.1%) of all ‘violence against the person’ offences. There is no evidence for a significant change
in the rate of child homicides since the 1970s99.

89 Wortley, 2006
90 Joshi et al, 1999; Jones and Bradshaw, 2000 95 Backett-Milburn and Harden, 2004
91 Cawson, 2000 96 Home Office, 2005a
92 ChildLine, 2007 97 Home Office, 2006
93 Cawson, 2000; Wortley, 2006 98 Newiss and Fairbrother, 2004
94 Cawson, 2000 99 Creighton and Tissier, 2003
30

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

According to the government’s

Accidents at home and at play
Home and Leisure Accident
Surveillance system (which was Accidents are one of the leading causes of death for children
discontinued from May 2003), over over the age of one, and boys under 5 years are particularly
one million children and young at risk. Boys are also more likely than girls to sustain injuries:
people a year in the UK injure
one study of children attending hospitals found that 70% of
themselves at home badly enough
to go to hospital - representing those with injuries were boys100.
an annual rate of over 178,000
admissions per million children The home is an important setting
under 15.
for accidents
By far the greatest accidental danger in the home comes from falling, generally
from a slip or a trip, but sometimes - particularly for babies and younger children – through falling from a height or
down stairs. Scalds and burns, such as from hot drinks, are the next most common form of home injury, and house fires
are the most usual cause of death in the home. Suspected poisoning is another important category of home accidents.
Nonetheless, although large numbers of children are involved, few injuries are serious. Accidents resulting from swallowing
small objects, from toys, or from playing in the garden also contribute to the statistics.

Although much of the discourse surrounding children and risk has focused on children’s play and playground risks, Ball101
iterates how accidents in playgrounds are uncommon and rarely result in death.

• A total of 17 children were killed in playgrounds between 1981 and 1999

• Several of these incidents involved cars
• In other words, the number of serious injuries in playgrounds was very small with the number of deaths
around one every three years102

This impression was confirmed by LASS, which reported around four hospital attendances per 100,000 hours of exposure
to playground activities103. For children playing in their neighbourhoods, those living in deprived areas, and those with no
access to unshared gardens or spaces to play, are most at risk of injury104.

Accidents in general are the most common reason for hospital admission among 5 to 16 year-olds, and also the greatest
single cause of deaths among young people. Socioeconomic background is influential. Children from disadvantaged
neighbourhoods are particularly likely to be admitted to Accident & Emergency hospital departments, whether this is
because they are more prone to accidents or because they are more likely to go to hospital.

While the average rate for visits
to hospital for children under 16 is
250 per 1,000 population, this rises
to up to 950 per 1,000 children in
deprived areas such as in some
parts of East London105 .
These figures do not indicate how many different children are involved and it
may be that some children in particular neighbourhoods attend hospital on a
regular basis. Overall, accidental deaths of all kinds show marked differences
by socioeconomic status106. Although dated, Alwash and McCarthy107 also noted
that children from overcrowded homes were at almost three times the risk of
injury at home compared to other children.

100 Towner et al, 2005 104 Towner et al, 2005

101 Ball, 2007 105 ONS, 2004d
102 ibid 106 Botting, 1995; Towner et al, 2005
103 ibid 107 Alwash and McCarthy, 1988
 31

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Accidental deaths of all kinds, including traffic accidents,

poisoning, falls and drowning as well as suicides and
homicides have, overall, shown a decline in recent years in
Great Britain
• Accidental deaths have almost halved for under-16s over the past decade, from 500 in 1995 to 300 in 2005108
• Accidents in the home have followed this trend, with serious or very serious accidents also declining by half
between 1982 and 1995
• Admissions to hospital following an accident have also fallen, from 2.5 million children in 1997 to just over 2 million in 2002109
• Children from manual backgrounds in England and Wales still remain somewhat more likely to die in accidents
than other children

Although accidents in the home have become fewer in recent years (see below), the DTI110 predicted that, given the
changing population structure, there was likely to be almost a one in five increase in accidents involving 0 to 4 year-olds,
and more than a one in three increase in those involving 5 to 14 year-olds in the period 1996 to 2010. This prediction of a
trend towards more, but less serious, accidents in the home has not yet been observed.

There is also no evidence that children have come to more harm in recent years while playing away from home. Indeed the
number of playground injuries has remained fairly stable over the past twenty years or so: accidents on climbing frames
have risen slightly, those on slides are unchanged, and those for swings have declined111.

Traffic accidents
Concern that their child might be knocked over by a vehicle was the number one worry for identified by Murrin and Martin112:
45% of parents said this was a prime area of anxiety. This worry is more ‘justified’ than many others as

more school-aged children are killed or injured from being

knocked over by a vehicle than from any other cause
Growing traffic levels have made streets increasingly hostile and dangerous for non-car users and led parents more and
more to restrict their children’s independent access to public space113. Research suggests that around two-thirds of parents
of primary school children have concerns about traffic114 although, paradoxically, this threat is in part generated by the
growing proportion of children travelling by car115.

Despite parental concern and greater restrictions for children, road traffic accidents remain one of the main causes of
death and injury for children.

• In 2006, 25,523 children aged 0 to 15 years were injured in road accidents (10,131 as pedestrians)
• Of these, 3,294 were seriously injured (2,025 as pedestrians) and 169 were killed (71 as pedestrians)116

108 Towner et al, 2005

109 Miskin, undated
110 DTI, 1999
111 Ball, 2007 114 Joshi et al, 1999; Jones and Bradshaw, 2000
112 Murrin and Martin, 2004 115 Rosenbaum, 1993; Tranter and Pawson, 2001
113 Valentine and McKendrick, 1997 116 DfT, 2007a
32

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Accident rates are particularly high
in the 88 local councils eligible for
Neighbourhood Renewal Funding
(NRF): 358 per million children
under 16 were killed or seriously
injured each year in road accidents
in these areas compared with 259
per million in non-NRF areas.
DfT (2007)a
Accident rates for children are, however, lower than those for adults: in 2006
those aged over 16 years were four times as likely as those under 16 years to die
in a road traffic accident117. This difference no doubt in part reflects variations in
exposure to the risks relating to traffic and roads.
Most fatal road traffic accidents tend to occur when children are out playing or
at leisure, and not when they are on their way to and from school, and boys are
more likely to be involved in accidents than girls: in 2005, boys accounted for
58% of all child road causalities.

The number of children killed or Accident rates also vary by age, and young people in their early teens (11 to 14
seriously injured on roads has been years) are most at risk whether on foot or on cycle118.
falling over the past 30 years, and
current government target aims
• In 2005, 6 to 10 year-olds were twice as likely as 0 to 5 year-olds to be injured
to reduce the numbers killed and
or to be killed or seriously injured119
seriously injured by a further half
by 2010. • Compared to the middle age group, 11 to 15 year-olds were more than half

Children from all ethnic minority backgrounds are most at risk of these accidents120, although at least in part this may be
since families from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be relatively deprived and live in neighbourhoods with greater
exposure to traffic (and hence to risk). These children are, in addition, less likely to have access to cars and more likely to
walk121. Children from lower social status families are also more at risk of accident, injury and fatality.

While an average of 6,860 children were killed or seriously injured (no separation of these categories is provided) per year
during the period 1994-98, total casualties were down to 5,202 (of which 244 were deaths) in 2000 and 3,472 (of which 170
were deaths) by 2005122. This pattern was repeated in London where figures show an overall reduction of 31% in children
killed or seriously injured on the roads between 1999 and 2003. The total number of child pedestrian casualties in London
went down by 34% over the same period123.

Recent research133 found that only 2 Going out and playing out
in 10 children regularly play outside
in the streets and spaces where Children are not playing out in their neighbourhoods nearly as much as in the past.
they live. This compared with the 7
in 10 adults surveyed who recalled These findings echo a large number of other surveys and reports, all of which stress
that they played out as children on the increasing tendency for children to stay at home with the television and their
a daily basis. computers at the expense of playing with friends in their neighbourhoods124.
Play England (2007)
Fewer children also go out or travel unaccompanied than in previous
generations125, and children are increasingly escorted. For example, the proportion of 10 to 11 year-olds undertaking
specific tasks alone (such as travelling by bus, crossing main roads) has declined over the past 30 years126 .

• Only 8% of primary school children walk to school alone127

• The proportion of primary school children walking to school (whether accompanied or not) has declined from 61% in
1988 to 52% in 2005128
• There has been a corresponding increase in the proportion of primary school children driven to school, from 27% in
1988 to 40% in 2005129

117 DfT, 2007b 121 Towner et al, 2005

118 Sentinella and Keigan, 2005 122 DfT, 2007a 126 Hamilton and Hoyle, 1999; Hillman, 1999
119 DfT, 2007b 123 Mayor of London, 2004 127 DfT, 2004
120 DfT, 2007b; Mayor of London, 2004; Senti- 124 Valentine and McKendrick, 1997 128 DfT, 2005
nella and Keigan, 2005 125 Hillman et al, 1990; O’Brien at al, 2000 129 ibid
 33

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Despite increasingly high levels of cycle ownership, few junior school children
In 2006 almost half the parents of
ride by bike to school130. Moreover, parents are often escorting their children
7 to 10 year-olds said that they did
up to a later age, with the transition to secondary school increasingly seen as
not let their children cross the road
a watershed in children’s independent spatial mobility131. London survey data
on their own. This compares with
also point to falls in the proportion of children walking or cycling to school, and
nearer four in ten in 2002.
increases in the proportion that travels by car132. These changing travel patterns
reflect concerns about ‘stranger
In addition, fewer children than in the past are allowed to cross the road on their own. danger’ and road traffic safety,
but may also be because children
Recent years have also seen a tend to travel greater distances to
school.
significant decline in school trips and DfT (2007)a

opportunities for outdoor adventure

following high profile incidents in
which children died.
The prosecution and suing of teachers at the same time led to an increasing
An accident in 1993 led to a new
reluctance for schools to put not only pupils but also staff at risk of adversity.
law and licensing system for
This culminated, in 2001, with the NASUWT calling for its 223,000 members to
activity centres. This resulted in the
boycott school trips. More recently, however, the climate has changed yet again.
disappearance of a large number
There is growing concern at the restrictions effectively placed on school trips,
of the 1500 similar organisations
and the reduction in opportunities for exciting outdoor physical activities, and
operating in the early 1990s because
last year (2006) Alan Johnson, the education secretary, pledged money to put
they could not meet the stringent
school trips back on the agenda. New measures will include an independent
health and safety requirements.
council to promote school trips, special training for teachers, ‘out and about’
Rogers (2007)
packs for schools, and Ofsted inspections of excursions.

Anecdotally, adults think children are more protected now than when they were children133.

In one study, great-grandmothers seemed to remember the past through ‘rather rose-tinted glasses’, and recall their
own childhoods as risk free. According to one, ‘We used to have nice times. Yeah. And you could go off, and nobody
ever used to touch you, or you never used to have anybody stop or anybody – no fighting or people nasty to you.
You know. It’s where I often wondered what’s gone wrong. You know?’ Grandmothers, too, compared the risks facing
children these days with the freedoms and ‘simple pleasures’ they themselves had experienced134.

Another study of teenage girls and their grandmothers in Canada135 found that risk was a considerable pre-occupation,
particularly among the older generation. There seemed to be a feeling that young people nowadays faced more stress
and hazards, and were more exposed to what could be risky situations. It seemed they felt that girls were particularly
at risk of assault or getting pregnant while boys were more at risk of getting into trouble, such as through drugs.

130 Hillman et al, 1990; DfT, 2005

131 Hillman, 1999; O’Brien et al, 2000; Lupton and Bayley, 2002
132 Mayor of London, 2004
133 Madge, 2006
134 Brannen, 2004
135 Raby, 2002
34

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Victims of crime or intimidation

Attacks on young people, some leading to murder, have been prominently reported over the
past few years, and have almost certainly heightened fears of assault among children and
adults alike.

The Offending, Crime and Justice
Survey in 2005136 reports that 27% of
young people aged 10 to 25 years, and
particularly younger males, had been
a victim of crime over the previous
12 months. This had most commonly
involved assault (18%), robbery (13%)
and personal thefts (9%).
Figures suggest that around one
thousand 11 to 18 year-olds were
victims of some kind of knife crime
in London between April and July
2006 149. If other young people
became involved at a similar rate
over the rest of the year, this would
represent a rate of 6,000 knife
crime episodes per million 11 to 18
year-olds.
Personal victimisation is
particularly common for young
people with certain characteristics.
Being male, committing an offence
themselves in the previous year,
having a bad perception of school,
and perceiving parents to have
poor parenting skills, were among
the characteristics that seemed
linked to victimisation among 10 to
15 year-olds in the OCJS 2005.
The overall proportion of young people who said they were a victim of crime
in the previous 12 months is only slightly higher than the 24% of adults who
gave similar reports. Nonetheless, the OCJS survey advises against direct
comparisons for methodological reasons.
Knife and gun crime have become increasing concerns in recent years.
An earlier survey in 2003 found no overall differences in the proportions of
young people from different ethnic groups who reported victimisation. This is
supported by the OCJS 2005 which reported that less than 1% of 10 to 15 year-
olds said they had physically attacked someone because of their skin colour,
race or religion in the past year. Generally speaking, however, neighbourhoods
with high levels of deprivation and social exclusion have the highest rates of gun
and knife crime138.
Young people are both victims and
perpetrators of interpersonal crime
and intimidation
The victimisation of young people by other young people is likely to be
underreported to avoid reprisal, particularly in areas of acute social deprivation
where victimisation is concentrated139. Young people, with similar social profiles,
tend to be both victims and perpetrators in these areas, and young people
may be at risk where an older person is not. Sometimes young people may be
members of a ‘gang’, defined by Hallsworth and Young140 as ‘a relatively durable,
predominantly street-based group of young people who see themselves (and
are seen by others) as a discernible group for whom crime and violence is
integral to the group’s identity’, but more often they may simply be members of
informal and transient groups. Even if belonging to gangs, they may be reluctant
members and at risk of coercion to carry out unlawful activities.

136 OCJS, 2006

137 Analysis of Weapons Use Across London, http://87.102.31.206/down-
loads/committees/ppr/060914-05-appendix03.pdf
138 Gun and Knife Crime in London: Summary Statistics, www.london.gov.
uk/gangs/docs/guns-weapons-report.rtf
139 Pitts, 2007
140 Hallsworth and Young, 2004
 35

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

School and the street are where much victimisation occurs141. Outside the home,
Pitts found that 25 of a group
children tend to see local spaces (e.g. streets) as semi-risky and public spaces
of 59 gang members were in
(e.g. parks) as more risky. Not surprisingly, the day is regarded as safer than
fact reluctant, and has recently
the night. While children can be apprehensive of the people they meet, they
graphically described how a 15
are also quite critical of the notion of ‘strangers’ as they recognise that some
year-old boy was beaten up, and
present a greater risk than others, and that some may need help themselves142.
his 14 year-old sister raped, after
Much of the risk outside the home is of being bullied by peers. Percy-Smith and
saying they did not want to carry
Matthews143 found that almost half of young people aged 10 to 15 years in an
out a robbery.
inner city location, and over a quarter in a suburban location, reported bullying
Pitts (2007)
by other young people in their neighbourhood. There were spatial patterns to
bullying which most often occurred in parks, local shopping parades and local
A survey of over a thousand 10 to
streets.
16 year-olds in the North East of
England identified young people’s
Despite a number of high profile cases main fears. Both girls (60%) and
boys (48%) most commonly said
in the past few years, and a strong they found places scary. Girls were

public perception that the victimisation

also more likely to report feeling
worried about crime when out and

of young people is on the increase, the about, and were more fearful of
being bullied. One in four boys and

evidence is less conclusive. girls expressed concerns about

being followed. Smaller numbers
reported having things stolen,
Official statistics, collected only from 2003, suggest that the overall trend
being attacked, approached by
since then has been a slight decline (as within the general population) in the
somebody who wanted them to go
proportion of young people who become a victim of crime (35% of 10 to 25 year-
off with them, or flashed at. Boys
olds in 2003 to 27% in 2005)144. The peak age for becoming a victim of crime
were much more concerned than
remains 18 to 19 years of age, with 38% of this age group reporting victimisation
girls about being attacked because
in 2003 and 29% in 2005. However, although the proportion of young people
of their race or religion.
becoming a victim of crime has fallen slightly, this age group remains much
Pain (2006)
more likely than others to be victimised in this way.

In London, the level of youth victimisation has remained fairly stable between April 2001 and March 2004, although it
is recognised that rates may be underestimated as young people do not always report victimisation to the police145.
Nonetheless, some data do suggest some increase in victimisation in London where there was a 4.5% increase in knife
crime victims aged 11 to 18 between April to July 2005 and the same period the following year. This meant an increase of 47
cases146. Where violence does occur, it is likely to have more serious consequences with the recent rise in gang culture147
and the fact that one in four 15 to 16 year-olds admits to carrying a weapon148.

141 Wilson et al, 2006

142 Harden, 2000
143 Percy-Smith and Matthews, 2001
144 OCJS, 2006
145 Mayor of London, 2004
146 Analysis of Weapons Use Across London, http://87.102.31.206/downloads/
committees/ppr/060914-05-appendix03.pdf
147 Beebee, 2004
148 Schopen, 2005
36

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Diet and obesity Rates of obesity

Almost one in seven children aged
There is widespread current concern that many children are 2 to 10 years is obese and almost
risking their well being because of their unhealthy lifestyles. one in three is overweight149
Diet (together with a lack of exercise) and its impact on Girls and boys under 16 are just as
growing obesity levels is a particular focus, not least because likely to be overweight or obese as
of the short-term risk of diabetes and the longer-term risks of each other

heart disease and other conditions. About one in three children of this
age is either overweight or obese150
There is no clear knowledge about exactly what children eat, but we do know • Obesity has increased two-fold
that considerable numbers of children are overweight or obese. among 6 year-olds and three-fold
among 15 year-olds over the 10
There is a clear link between obesity and poverty: it is more commonly found in years to 2001. By this date, rates
the most deprived, rather than the most affluent, wards in England. Childhood were 8.5% and 15% respectively153 .
obesity is also more common within lower rather than higher income families151. • Between 1995 and 2003, the
Also, the likelihood of obesity increases with age during childhood152, and adults prevalence of obesity amongst
are about twice as likely to be overweight or obese as under-16 year olds. children aged 2 to 10 years
rose from 10% to 14%, whilst the
percentage of those overweight
rose from 23% to 28%154.

Obesity has risen rapidly in recent years

149 ibid
150 Information Centre/NHS, 2006
151 ibid
152 Jotangia et al, 2005
153 The Health Survey England, 2001
154 Jotangia et al, 2005
 37

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Smoking
• In 2005, 9% (10% of girls and 7%
of boys) of 11 to 15 year-olds were
The risk of smoking increases between 12 and 16 years158 but
regular smokers155
then drops significantly after the age of 20159.
• 44% thought it was okay to

Around 82% of adult smokers started try smoking and 22% thought it
acceptable to smoke at least

smoking as teenagers160 once a week

• Those from minority ethnic

…and the younger that smoking starts, the longer it continues161. As tobacco kills
groups (5% of black and 3% of
and causes disability from cancer, heart disease, lung diseases and circulation
Asian young people) were less
problems, there is considerable concern for young people who smoke.
likely to be regular smokers than
white children (9%)156
Children from less advantaged • Children are also less likely to
backgrounds are somewhat more likely be regular smokers than adults:
25% of men and 22% of women
to start smoking than children who are are regular smokers as compared
with 9% of 11 to 15 year-olds157
more affluent162
Moreover, half the better-off young people have stopped smoking by their thirties while three-quarters of the less affluent
carry on. Woods et al163 also found that children of primary school age were more likely to have tried smoking if they came
from a relatively disadvantaged background.

DrugScope164 indicated that smoking (as well as general drug misuse) is particularly common among:

looked after children

rough sleepers
youth offenders
those excluded from school
children of drug using parents

Smoking is one of the few health-related

behaviours that has not seen increases
in risk-taking in recent years
Although smoking prevalence amongst teenagers hit a peak of 13% in 1996, is has remained stable at around 10% since
2000165.

155 Fuller, 2006

156 ibid 161 Chen and Millar, 1998
157 Information Centre/NHS, 2007b 162 Jarvis, 1997
158 DeWit et al, 1997 163 Woods et al, 2005
159 Thomas et al, 1998 164 DrugScope, 2001
160 Department of Health, 1998 165 ASH, 2004
38
4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?
• Excessive alcohol contributes to
both short-term and longer-term risk
• 220,000 in a million 11 to 15 year-olds
say they have drunk alcohol in the
previous week
• Drinking alcohol increases with age
and is more common among boys
than girls
• Alcohol use is less common among
children than adults
• While there is no clear change in the
numbers of young people who drink
alcohol, there is evidence that those
who drink tend to drink more
• 73% of adult men and 58% of adult
women drank alcohol in the week
prior to the survey, compared with
22% of young people171
• The same survey found that the
average weekly alcohol consumption
was 15.8 units for men and 6.5 units
for women (compared to 11.5 units
for boys and 9.5 for girls)
166 Maggs and Schulenberg, 2004
167 Fuller, 2006
168 See Appendix 1
169 Currie et al, 2004
170 Fuller, 2006
171 Information Centre/NHS, 2007a
Drinking Alcohol
High drinking levels among young people are also of major
current concern, largely because of the widely reported effects
on violent and antisocial behaviour. Patterns of alcohol use in
childhood are also associated with patterns in adulthood166,
and long-term drinking can increase the risk of conditions
such as cirrhosis and cancer of the liver, stomach ailments,
heart and central nervous system damage, and impotence.
Survey data suggest that adults are far more likely to consume alcohol than
young people, and that their average weekly consumption is also higher.
There is no apparent and consistent trend in young people’s overall drinking
patterns over the past 20 years, but there is a clearer trend in average weekly
alcohol consumption amongst young people, with a steady rise from 5.5 units
per week in 1990 to 10.5 units per week in 2005167.
• Across the HBSC countries168, 5% of 11 year-olds, 12% of 13 year-olds,
and 29% of 15 year-olds drink alcohol every week
• Weekly alcohol consumption increases with age (from 8.2 units for 11 to 13
year-olds to 11.8 units for 15 year-olds)169
• Weekly alcohol consumption is higher for boys (11.5 units) than for girls (9.5
units), and rates also vary by sex and country: those for boys in Wales, and then
in England, are highest
• An English survey170 found that 22% of 11 to 15 year-olds reported drinking
alcohol in the past week. Almost two-thirds of the young people thought
it was alright to drink alcohol at least once a week, and 18% thought it was
alright to get drunk once a week
 39

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Use of illegal drugs • Recent statistics172 report that

17% of 11 to 15 year-olds said
Drug misuse among young people, too, is a particular area they took drugs
of worry, especially where this is associated with other • 4% of these said they took them
problematic behaviours such as crime. at least once a month

Illegal drugs form part of everyday life for a small number of young people. • In the year prior to the survey,
10% reported taking cannabis,
Young men are more likely to be offered drugs than young women173, and there is and 5% volatile substances
clear evidence that access to and use of drugs often increases with age. • 39% of 11-15 year olds said
they had been offered drugs over
Children from ethnic minority groups are less likely to report taking drugs than the past year: cannabis, volatile
white youngsters174. substances, poppers,
magic mushrooms
The DrugScope175 report mentioned above found links between general drug
misuse and sleeping rough, looked after children, youth offenders, young • Of these, just over a third said
people excluded from school and children of drug using parents. This association they had refused drugs they had
between drugs and disadvantage was highlighted in a recent study that been offered: 40% said they
demonstrated how life experiences affect the consumption of drugs as well as didn’t want to take them, 32%
alcohol, tobacco and volatile substances176. The relationship between drug use said they thought drugs were
and risk was explored by asking young people why they started taking drugs. wrong or that they did not want
Five main reasons were identified: to get addicted, and 31% thought
they were dangerous
1. oblivion seeking • Only a small proportion thought
2. acceptance seeking it was alright to try cannabis
3. thrill seeking (12%), glue sniffing (9%),
4. seeking thrills and acceptance or cocaine (4%)
5. seeking oblivion and acceptance

Although the relationship was complex, it seemed that the most disadvantaged
Whilst a third of young people
in the sample were most likely to have started taking drugs at the earliest ages.
thought it would be easy to get hold
of drugs, this varied from 8% of 11
There is a less than clear picture on trends in drug use. Official statistics report
year-olds to 60% of 15 year-olds177.
that 17% of 11 to 15 year-olds said they currently take drugs, which was lower
than the 21% who reported similarly in 2001178. The implication from another Information Centre/NHS statistics
source was somewhat different. This found that the proportion of 11 to 15 year- on drug use suggest that 3% of 11
olds who report having ever taken drugs has risen from 14% in 1998 to 28% year-olds took drugs in the past
in 2005. Similarly, the percentage stating that they took drugs in the previous month, rising to 17% of 15 year-olds.
month has risen from 7% in 1998 to 11% in 2005179.

172 Information Centre/NHS, 2007a

173 Fuller, 2006
174 ibid
175 The DrugScope, 2001
176 Melrose, 2000
177 Fuller, 2006
178 Information Centre/NHS, 2007a
179 Fuller, 2006
40

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Gambling
Four national prevalence surveys on adolescent gambling by 11 to 15 year-olds have been
carried out between 1996 and 2006 and shown that gambling is highly prevalent among young
people. Linsey and Griffiths180 summarised over thirty studies in the area and concluded that
at least two-thirds of adolescents play fruit machines at some point in their adolescent lives,
with half of these having played in the last month.

Playing on fruit machines is a

• Between 10% and 20% (17% in the
latest 2006 survey) are regular fruit
machine players, playing at least once
a week
• Between 3% and 6% are probable
pathological gamblers and/or have
severe gambling-related difficulties
(3.5% down from 5% in the latest
2006 survey)
predominantly male activity
All studies have reported that boys play on fruit machines more than girls and
that as fruit machine playing becomes more regular it is more likely to be a
predominantly male activity181. Very few female adolescents have gambling
problems on fruit machines. Research also suggests that irregular (‘social’)
gamblers play for different reasons than the excessive (‘pathological’)
gamblers. Social gamblers usually play for fun and entertainment (as a form
of play), because their friends or parents do (i.e. it is a social activity), for the
possibility of winning money, because it provides a challenge, because of ease
of availability and there is little else to do, and/or for excitement (the ‘buzz’).
Problem gamblers appear to play for other reasons such as mood modification
and as a means of escape.

The most recent evidence does not

suggest that adolescent gambling
behaviour is on the increase
The latest prevalence survey182 reported that although adolescent problem gambling had decreased, it was still three
to four times higher than among adults. In addition, adolescent gambling is strongly linked to other types of potentially
addictive behaviour, such as smoking, drinking and drug abuse183, and fruit machines have been implicated in juvenile
crime184.

180 Linsey and Griffiths, 2006

181 Griffiths, 1995; 2002
182 Wood et al, 2006
183 Griffiths and Sutherland, 1998
184 Yeoman and Griffiths, 1996
 41

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Sexual health and teenage pregnancy Half of all under 18 conceptions

occur in the top fifth of the
Studies suggest that increasing numbers of young people deprived wards in England

are sexually active185, although this trend for young females Between 1998 and 2005, the under
under 16 years may have stabilised since the mid-1990s186. The 18 conception rate fell from 46 per
1000 females aged 15-17 to 41 per
implications are an increased risk of teenage pregnancy and 1000 population
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people.
Similarly, the under 16s conception
rate fell from 8.8 per 1000 females
Teenage pregnancy is more common in aged 13 to 15 years to 7.8 per 1000187

deprived areas and among members of Amongst the most vulnerable girls,
i.e. those excluded from school, the
some minority ethnic groups risk continues to be considerable
with the rate of teenage pregnancy
around one in three188
In 2005, the conception rate for 15 to 17 year-olds was 41 per 1,000 females. The
comparative rate for those aged 13 to 15 years was 8 per 1,000. Amongst the
most vulnerable girls, such as those excluded from school, the risk of teenage
Chlamydia: annual rates of
new episodes are over 9,000 per
pregnancy is one in three189. Half of all under 18s conceptions occur in the top
million 16 to 19 year-olds, 11,500
fifth of deprived wards in England, and rates of teenage motherhood tend to be
per million 20 to 24 year-olds
higher among minority ethnic groups, with the exception of those from Asian compared with less than 2,000
backgrounds190. Whilst early parenthood can be seen as a cultural norm in some per million for the overall adult
areas, or a rational choice made by young women to mark the transition to population
adulthood, it is also linked to a number of negative outcomes in later life, such
as low educational attainment and poverty. Gonorrhoea: annual rates of new
episodes are over 1,000 per million
Young people have much higher than average rates of a variety of sexually for 16 to 19 year-olds, 1,400 per
million for 20 to 24 year-olds, and
transmitted infections. These include Chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and genital warts
316 per million for the overall adult
(see box)191.
population

Whereas rates of sexually transmitted Genital warts: annual rates of

new episodes are over 5,000 per
infections appear to be on the increase, million for 16 to 19 year-olds, 7,500
per million for 20 to 24 year-olds,
rates of teenage pregnancy are falling and 1,400 per million for the overall
adult population192
Rates of gonorrhoea have risen considerably among both male and female 16 to
HIV infection: rates have also
19 year-olds over the past decade, and rates of chlamydia have gone up sharply
risen amongst 16 to 24 year-olds,
among young females194. Rates of HIV infection have also risen amongst 16 to 24
from less than 300 new infections
year-olds in the decade between 1995 and 2005195. Rates of teenage pregancy
in 1995 to over 2000 in 2005193
have, by contrast, fallen between 1998 and 2005 among all age groups196.

185 Moore and Rosenthal, 2006 191 Health Protection Agency, 2006; 2007
186 Wellings et al, 2001 192 ibid
187 Teenage Pregnancy Unit, 2007 193 Health Protection Agency, 2006
188 DfES, 2006b 194 Health Promotion Agency, 2004
189 ibid 195 Health Protection Agency, 2006
190 ibid 196 Teenage Pregnancy Unit, 2007
42

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Johnson et al report an analysis of Television and computer games

advertisements around children’s
programmes on UK terrestrial Murrin and Martin197 found that the fourth most common
television over two one-week
worry for parents was whether their children spent too
periods. This followed an earlier
study206 which suggested that over much time watching television or playing computer games.
95% of food and drink products Concerns are that they lack exercise as a result, become
advertised when children were ‘couch potatoes’198, run a greater risk of obesity, negatively
likely to be viewing were not
‘healthy’ and contained high levels
affect their sexual health199, are exposed to the pester power
of fat and/or sugar and/or salt. A of food advertising on television200, become deprived of
total of 113 hours of programmes sleep because they have television sets in their bedrooms201,
were examined in the later
watch unsuitable programmes202, and become influenced by
study, and 1,800 advertisements
examined. Just under a third were violent images203. It has been further claimed that children
for a food or drink product, usually who reported watching TV or playing video games for 2 or
breakfast cereals, followed by more hours a day were 73% more likely to be at risk of Type
sweets and snacks, and then fast
food services and restaurants.
2 diabetes204. A recent survey205 also indicated that around
The nutritional value of these 70% of 9 to 19 year-olds played online games and might
commonly advertised products in spend as much (or more) time on these activities as on their
no way reflected the constituents
homework.
of a recommended ‘healthy’ daily
diet. As the average child watches
a considerable amount of television
every week, it would seem that
The short-term impact of television
he or she is at risk of exposure to
an enormous amount of adverse
and computer games is unclear
consumer pressure.
Johnson et al (2006) Evidence is inconsistent on exactly how much time children spend watching
television and playing computer games.

One survey of children aged up A Childwise study of 1200 children Ofcom suggest that children
to 6 years suggested they spent reports that children aged 5 to aged 8 to 15 spend an average
an average of 2 hours 6 minutes 16 years spend an average of 2.5 of 13.9 hours a week watching
per day using different forms of hours a day watching television, television (1.99 hours per day), and
media, although they also spent and claim this is a reduction from a an average of 5.4 hours a week
an average of 126 minutes per peak of 3 hours a day in 2004. listening to the radio.
day playing with toys. The authors
concluded that most young
children undertake a balanced
spectrum of activities and are not
excessive users of media.
Marsh et al (2005) Childwise (2007) Ofcom (2006)

197 Murrin and Martin, 2004

198 Gard, 2004; Hancox, 2005
199 Eggermont, 2005 203 ibid
200 Carlisle, 2002 204 Urrutia-Rojas and Menchaca, 2006
201 Ward et al, 2006 205 Livingstone and Bober, 2004
202 UNESCO, 1999; Kline, 2005 206 Sustain, 2005
 43

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

The internet and mobile phones

It is clear that widespread use of the internet and mobile
phones is putting children at new kinds of risk. However,
it is unknown how many children are exposed to risk, and
what impact this has
There is little doubt that modern technology has made a
difference to children’s exposure to risk and risk-taking,
largely through the altered environments they now inhabit.
Adults show particular concern about young people’s use of
the internet because it can expose children to sexually explicit One study of 9 to 19 year-olds
found that 38% had seen a pop
websites207 and potentially lead to their sexual exploitation.
up advert for a porn site, 22% had
Ofcom208 reports that 64% of 8 to 15 year-olds have access to the (by mistake) viewed a site showing
internet at home, and Livingstone et al209 indicate that the rate violent images, 46% had given out
for 9 to 19 year-olds is 75%. Moreover, children are more likely personal information to someone
than other age groups to live in households with an internet they had met online, and 25% had
received porn junk mail by email or
connection (75% compared with 61% of all households)210. instant messaging211. Over two-
These high rates suggest that these adult concerns are very thirds of 12 to 19 year-olds said
real (as illustrated in the boxes accompanying this section). they had seen pornography on
the internet, which was more than
It is hard to know exactly how much time young people spend online. Livingstone those who had seen it on television
and Bober213 note that daily use of the internet varies, and suggest one in five (52%), in magazines (46%), or on
young people aged 9 to 19 spend 10 minutes a day, while half spend between video (30%). Boys were particularly
30 minutes and one hour. A further fifth spend about an hour on line, and the likely to come across pornographic
remainder (around 11%) spend more than one hour. Childwise214 reports that or violent/ racist sites, and it
children between 5 and 16 spend an average of 1.8 hours per day on line, while seemed that middle class children
Ofcom215 indicates 8 to 15 year-olds spend 6.2 hours per week. were exposed to a wider variety
of online risks than those from
Access to the internet varies with 88% of middle class but only 61% of working working class backgrounds212.
class children being able to use it at home. Overall, 29% of 9 to 19 year-olds do
not have this facility216. Boys and girls do not seem to differ in this respect, and
neither sex nor ethnicity significantly differentiate the amount of time that young
people spend online.

207 Cameron et al, 2005

208 Ofcom, 2006
209 Livingstone et al, 2005
210 ONS, 2007
211 Livingstone et al, 2005
212 see CAP Code for regulatory context, http://www.cap.org.uk/cap/
213 Livingstone and Bober, 2004
214 Childwise, 2007
215 Ofcom, 2006
216 Livingstone et al, 2005
44

4. How Risky
Are Children’s Lives?

Bocij217 outlines how young people
put themselves at risk, sometimes
inadvertently and sometimes
intentionally, through the internet
by becoming camgirls (who create
websites offering video links), and
producing blogs (writing online
diaries of thoughts and activities)
and wish lists (of material goods
they would like). All these actions
are most popular among teenagers,
especially girls, and have the potential
for harm. Some young people may
become identified, ‘groomed’, and
persuaded to meet an unknown adult
off-line, while others may exploit their
commercial advantage. Young girls,
for example, may accept gifts and
instant payments from strangers, and
might offer sexual inducements such
as revealing photographs or live sex
acts through a webcam in return218. In
some cases, camgirls advertise adult
sites on their own sites and receive a
commission for new subscribers. The
scale of these activities is unknown but
is without doubt on the increase. This
is another instance where improved
technology as well as commercial
enterprise has contributed to a new
and growing type of risk facing young
people today.
Bocji (2004)
The rise of the internet and other aspects of modern technology has led to great
changes in the production and distribution of child pornography219, and between
2001 and 2003 there has been a four-fold increase to 2,234 in the number of
people cautioned or charged in relation to internet crimes of this kind220. There
is also evidence that many young people may be at risk of ‘cybersexploitation’
which describes the process of grooming a young person in cyberspace in order
to abuse them subsequently in reality221. With these new kinds of risk there are
uncertainties about their prevalence, children’s exposure to them, and their
impact222. The media often play a significant role in bringing these issues to the
attention of the public and policymakers even if they are unable to comment on
their extent or the risks they may represent.
Mobile phones can create risks – but at the same time offer protection. First,
many of the functions of the internet can be reproduced through mobile phones,
including grooming young people prior to abuse as mentioned above. Second,
they can be used for ‘happy slapping’ or to enlist peers in a fight. Third, there is
some concern that mobile phones may constitute a health risk by the radiation
they may emit, although the evidence on this is unclear. On the more positive
side, they can be used to keep in touch with parents and summon help when
needed.
Despite these risks, many children feel safe using the internet. The report of the
2006 Buzz Survey of 4 to 16 year olds, with two-thirds in the 8 to 11 years group,
found that six in ten did not feel unsafe although almost one in four said they
had been contacted by strangers through the internet or their mobile phone224.

Smith et al report that more than one

in five 11 to 16 year-olds had been
cyber bullied during the previous
two months: similar levels have
been found by NCH223. The bullying
was most commonly through phone
calls, text messages and emails, and
least commonly through chat rooms.
Sending pictures or video clips was the
most usual form of bullying (reported
by almost half the sample), and this
seemed to have more of an impact on
victims than traditional forms. Bullying
tended to be perpetrated by other
students in same class or year group,
and girls were more likely than boys to
be targeted.
Smith et al (2006)

217 Bocij, 2004 221 O’Connell, 2003

218 Rowan, 2002 222 Chase and Statham, 2005
219 Creighton, 2003 223 NCH, 2005
220 Home Office, 2005b 224 4Children, 2006
 45

5. The Way Ahead

This report has so far highlighted a high degree of concern about the risks confronting children,
and an uncertainty about what should be done. The world is a risky place, and parents are
more worried than ever before about their children’s safety even though they are in many
ways safer225. All the same, children still need to grow into competent and confident adults
who have a measured view of society and its challenges. They need the opportunities to seek
excitement, and to learn how to identify and manage the risks in their lives.

The challenge for the way ahead is to offer

discreet protection while encouraging
healthy risk-taking
There is no limit to the suggestions that could be made to address dilemmas surrounding risk and childhood, but this
section restricts itself to six broad recommendations for future debate and action.

1. Getting the balance right between encouraging excitement and challenge, but
also protecting children from danger Sensible?
2. Finding ways to give children the experience of making their own decisions
about risk-taking as soon as they are competent to do so As Palmer226 points out, parents
3. Providing both boys and girls with more male role models in their lives do need to be sensible about
4. Encouraging calculated risk-taking among young people their children’s safety, but there
5. Providing cushioned social spaces where they can do so is a limit. She mentions how an
6. Promoting greater neighbourliness and trust in local areas to enable children American journalist felt that this
to live their lives more independently and safely limit had been over-stepped by an
advertisement for a 71-piece child
5.1 Getting the balance right between challenge and risk safety kit that contained everything
including tape to lessen the impact
It is pointless to think that children can grow up without facing any risks, and of sharp furniture edges.
it is essential to accept that, whatever we do to prevent them, accidents will Equally ‘over the top’ are the
happen. Children survive better by learning to deal with potential hazards than restrictions at school reported in a
by never encountering any. survey of 500 young people. These
included not being allowed to do
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls227 recently maintained that the government is ready handstands, play with yoyos or
for a serious debate about the need to balance concerns for children’s safety with make daisy chains. Some children
their need for freedom to play outside. The opportunity to engage in this debate also said they were prevented from
should be taken up as widely as possible, and should involve the government, using bicycles or skateboards,
the media, the consumer industry, the community, the general public, and young climbing trees and playing with
people themselves. If we are really to change ethos and attitudes surrounding water at home.
children and risk, there is need for open discussion, widespread commitment,
and consensus about everybody’s responsibility. Agencies and individuals need The Children’s Society and
to ‘decide together how serious risks are, how they should be managed and Children’s Play Council, 2002
who should take responsibility for managing them’228.

225 Adams, 2000

226 Palmer, 2006
227 Ed Balls, August 2007
228 BRC, 2006
46

5. The Way Ahead

Measures the Government
could take forward include:
• Progressing with the
Compensation Act 2006 to
remove the fear of litigation for
those taking pupils on school trips
• Establishing more traffic-calmed
neighbourhoods
• Thinking seriously about the
pricing of alcohol
• Improving child protection policy
and practice
• Countering the negative effects of
consumerism
• Promoting and educating adults
on internet safety
• Improving community
surveillance
• Implementing stronger measures
to stamp out the victimisation of
young people in public places
not justified . Second, they are also influential in dictating the lifestyles that young people may choose to adopt. As
232
One message for government is that it is time to stop reacting before thinking
to any well-publicised incident involving a child, and instead concentrate on
developing protection strategies in areas where intervention is likely to be
effective. Ball229 discusses how government, local authorities or agencies
should develop a philosophy or strategy so it can support individual providers
in their decisions about dealing with risk involved in play. Wheway230 adds how
developing opportunities for children to take part in their activities should take
priority over rigid adherence to health and safety guidance which often curtails
activities pointlessly. These general messages are relevant to many areas of risk
in childhood.
There are many other things the government could be doing. Children in the UK
engage in riskier behaviour, have poorer health and relationships and are more
likely to live in poverty than many of their European counterparts231.
Complacency is no answer
There is also a call on the media, at both macro and micro levels, to ensure that
they act responsibly in reporting the risks that exist for and from children. First,
they have a potentially important role in making policymakers and the public
aware of real and widespread hazards and dangers, and this is often exercised
to effect. Nonetheless there are also times when the media are undoubtedly
responsible for increasing perceptions of risk by inducing moral panics that are

young people, and particularly girls, often turn to magazines for messages and information on their health and lifestyle233,
it is important that these messages are responsible. The BRC234 report advocates closer cooperation between government
and the media to determine and implement the best ways forward in these respects.

Other agencies, too, have a part to play. WHICH?235 presents evidence on how 12 leading food companies are engaged
in questionable tactics to market junk food to children, and clearly the consumer industry has to change its practices.
Furthermore, as already mentioned, measures to reduce the blame and litigation that occurs when accidents happen is
also called for. We have to recognise that not all risks can be eliminated and, if we want our children to enjoy themselves
and have interesting lives, they will have to be allowed to take risks that might occasionally result in injury. As Ball236
remarks, ‘Even in the best-run playground, it has to be expected that accidents will occur and the fact that they do occur
is no proof that risk management has failed’.

In other words, intervening in children’s risk-taking behaviour needs to be justifiable. While some risks are clearly
acceptable or unacceptable, there is somewhat of a grey area in the middle. We may not like children watching so much
television, or eating junk food, but

at what point do we draw the line?

229 Ball, 2007

230 Wheway, 2007 231 Children’s Society, 2006; UNICEF, 2007
232 Olson, 2004
233 Haste, 2004
234 ‘Whose risk is it anyway?’ BRC, 2006
235 WHICH?, 2006 (N.B The food companies concerned challenged the findings of the report)
236 Ball, 2007
 47

5. The Way Ahead

One criterion could be whether reducing risk in one area is likely to increase it in another. There is clear evidence that this
can happen. Protecting children from the dangers of traffic and assault by driving them to school means there is much
more traffic on the road, and more risk of accidents, just as young people’s employment and greater disposable income
can encourage them to spend more on fast food, alcohol, cigarettes and gambling237. Similarly, worrying about dangers
in the neighbourhood may mean parents impose more restrictions on their children and put pressure on them to spend
more time at home. This combined with the seemingly addictive nature of television and computers can lead to more time
spent watching television – and a possible impact on obesity rates. Cyber-communities can replace ‘the street’ as leisure
spaces for young people: discouraging the occupation of real material space in the community has contributed to the new
‘cool places’ on the internet, and new concerns.

The list could go on. Giving children mobile phones so that parents know where
they are brings alleged risks of radiation poisoning as well as increased risk Burgess writes how ‘measles
of street robbery and tracking by strangers, while worries about the impact of is a potentially fatal disease,
MMR and whooping cough vaccines have led to reduced levels of immunisation highlighting the irony that some
and hence more chance of children becoming ill. parents find themselves exposing
their children to a proven deadly
Palmer238 suggests that the rise in asthma, and perhaps allergies, among risk because of concern over a
children is partly due to the increased emphasis on cleanliness in the home and disproved one. Risk anxieties
the elimination of everyday bacteria. can be particularly fraught in
such cases of competing risk
The ‘risk compensation’ argument239, which posits how measures to reduce risk where insulation against one risk,
can in fact lead to even more extreme behaviour, is also relevant in this context. exposes one to another (larger)
For example, safety gear can reduce injury (e.g. cycle helmets can reduce head one.’
trauma by 80%) but can also mean that parents are more tolerant about where Burgess (2008)
and how their children are allowed to cycle. Nonetheless, one study240 suggests
that risk compensation for children’s activities depends upon the specific The reality of balancing risks
activity. Although safety gear for cycling, swimming and ice skating gave parents in everyday life:
confidence in greater risk taking, this was not the case for trampolining, climbing
“Like, there was this article in the
or running.
paper this morning about the pill
and how it increased the risk of
The broader point is that it is important to consider the consequences of trying to
cancer. So, do you go on the pill
deal with risk. We should not, suggests Wheway241, concentrate on safety at the
and be safe, but get cancer, or
expense of health. Also, how should we best deal with risk? This in itself raises a
do you not go on the pill, not get
whole new raft of questions among which is the balance between reducing risks
cancer, but have a child? What’s
in the environment and encouraging children to deal with them.
better?” (Female, 18)

Children are the main stakeholders in this Rodham et al (2006)

enterprise, and we need to draw on their

experiences and expertise in framing
answers to these questions
237 Darling et al, 2006
238 Palmer, 2006
239 Adams, 1995
240 Morrongiello and Major, 2002
241 Wheway, 2007
48

5. The Way Ahead

5.2 Risk and growing up

As children grow older they become more competent in understanding, and being able to manage, an increasing range of
risks. Often, however, they are not provided with the opportunities to take these risks and so do not fully equip themselves
with the necessary skills for successful risk-taking. Limiting the risks that children are exposed to may also mean that they
miss out on the excitement of risk-taking and the satisfaction they may gain from it. The recommendation of this report is
that ways are found to give children the experience of making their own decisions about risk-taking as soon as they are
competent to do so.

A first step in a strategy of this kind is to provide parents with greater reassurance and guidance to encourage them to give
their children more freedom and responsibility. There is discouraging evidence that children travel unaccompanied, go out
to play, and cross the road on their own far less than in the past, and it is likely that parental anxiety and pressure are to
a large degree responsible. Furthermore, although most children own bicycles, few were allowed to use them as a main
means of travel over a decade ago242 – the situation is likely to be even worse now.

Not giving children the opportunity to be independent deprives them of the chance to learn how to calculate and take
risks. There has, for instance, been a simultaneous increase in the numbers of children not allowed to cross the road on
their own, and the numbers killed as pedestrians. Rob Gifford, Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport
Safety says that ‘Parents should consider whether forbidding their children from crossing the road unaccompanied is
exposing them subsequently to additional risk. They may not acquire the skills they need.’ This may be exacerbated by
the tendency for children to live in cul-de-sacs or traffic-free estates where they do not have the opportunity to become
‘streetwise’.

The media have played a considerable role in promoting the view that the world has become a riskier place for children,
and should now play an important role in redressing the balance. This report has shown how the incidence of different risks
varies enormously, and also how some children are at far greater risk than others. Depending on the risk in question, age,
sex, culture, social background and geographical location are among the factors influencing the possibility of occurrence.
This information should be clearly conveyed to parents to allay unnecessary fears and anxiety and provide a more objective
perspective on the reality of risk for children as well as the positive benefits of exposure to risk and risk taking.

This should primarily be the responsibility

of the media
Instigating a campaign to gain children’s views on what they should be able to do at any particular age, and the protection
they want, would be a good first step in reassessing age-appropriate behaviour and license. Such a campaign should take
account of parental perspectives as well as wider societal perspectives and concerns.

Public debate on what should be permissible at different ages would certainly be timely. The law is increasingly sending
out signals on what children can and cannot do at what age through, for instance, the allocation of ASBOs, dispersal
orders, and the purchase and use of alcohol, but decisions are seemingly made in a very ad hoc way. Much more cohesion
in this respect is called for.

242 Hillman et al, 1990

 49

5. The Way Ahead

Indeed, there are no current, formal and coherent prescriptions of what children
should be allowed to do at different ages, and no rite of passage to mark the
A rite of passage
transition between life stages. Practices such as those described by Margaret In ‘simpler’ societies, such as
Mead (see box) would clearly not be culturally appropriate in our society, but described by Margaret Mead, the
there might be some marker at both the beginning and end of adolescence to transition to adulthood not only
signify an achievement and entry into adulthood. Some young people may feel had a formal marker but often
they already have this, such as when they move on to secondary school, or included a particular challenge.
successfully complete their education and get their first job, but many certainly Among the Omaha Native
do not. The challenge is to determine how this transition might be managed in a Americans, for instance, young men
way that accommodates individual differences between young people including would go out alone into the desert,
fast and return telling stories of
their sex, capacities, interests and motivations, but yet incorporates risk-taking,
the visions they had experienced.
challenge and the opportunity to achieve.
The elders of the village would
pronounce on whether or not these
Various proposals to instigate markers of adolescence and adulthood have been visions were real and proclaim their
proposed and should form the basis for further discussion and development. status as an adult.
First are the Coming of Age ceremonies outlined in the Rite of Passage Margaret Mead (1932)
(Welcoming and Coming of Age) Bill in 2005243. This legislation proposes that
all young people should take part in a formal coming of age ceremony, linked to citizenship education and usually by the
completion of Key Stage 3, which gives 14 year-olds certain responsibilities and rights.

Citizenship ceremonies for 18-year-olds, to celebrate their transition to adulthood and improve community cohesion,
have also recently been discussed. These are somewhat different from the Coming of Age ceremonies in that they are
for groups of young people rather than individuals. Their purpose is ‘to support young people to take their place as
valued members of society’244 and they will begin with several pilot exercises around the country in which young people
will design and organise events to celebrate their transition to adulthood. Resources will be provided through local
authorities and schools for young people, parents and families to celebrate their transition to adulthood. These may well
not prove popular with young people, but they should at least be discussed with them.

Both minimising and dealing with risk are important in enabling children to achieve independence as soon as they are
ready to. On the one hand, authorities and communities should take responsibility for making things easier for children
to be independent safely, such as by providing:

• Better and safer public transport systems that meet the needs of young people
• Heightened neighbourhood security and surveillance
• More cycle tracks
• Further reduction in the speed of traffic in urban areas

Nonetheless, on the other hand, children need to gain experience in identifying and managing risk. Helping to ensure
they have good pedestrian, cycling, communication, self-protection and other important skills is one necessary step. The
point has already been made that eliminating all risks is neither feasible nor desirable, and one line of action has to be to
promote the calculation of risk-taking in children from an early age.

243 Rite of Passage (Welcoming and Coming of Age) Bill in 2005

244 DCSF, 2007
50

5. The Way Ahead

5.3 Giving children more male role models

Australian Labor Party
Campaign 2004
A policy document from this campaign
outlines how boys are struggling
with a crisis of masculinity, facing
widespread difficulties of all kinds,
and ‘need contact with men who can
offer positive role models and mentor
them in the right direction’. In addition
to encouraging more male teachers, it
proposes two important reforms.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that children tend to engage in more physical
and possibly ‘risky’ activities when supervised by men than by women, and it
is argued that boys (and girls) need men to help them overcome and manage
risks. This requires positive action as, in our society; men play a decreasing role
in bringing up young people. Mothers still tend to spend more time with their
children than fathers245, and there has been a decline in male teachers in both
primary and secondary schools during recent years. Over the 20 year period
between 1981/2 and 2001/2, the numbers of full-time female teachers in UK
schools increased by 4% while the numbers of full-time male teachers fell by
a third. Overall, women represented 85% of full-time teachers in nursery and
primary schools in 2001/2, and 55% of those in secondary schools.

1. Improve employment and family
policies to give working parents the
opportunity to spend more time with
their children
2. Develop a national action plan to
give boys more contact with male role
models through a range of mentoring
and schools-based strategies
These proposals include recruiting
and training 10,000 mentors, and
establishing a school-based scheme to
put them in contact with primary school
pupils. These mentors would act as
positive role models and could include
sporting heroes, local community
champions or older secondary and
university students who wanted to
provide guidance to younger boys.
5.4 Teaching the skills of calculated risk-taking
A survey carried out by YouGov for the Training and Development Agency for
Schools246 has confirmed the impact of these patterns on children. It found that
39% of 600 8 to 11 year-old boys across England currently had no male teacher
for any subject including sport and music, and that 8% said they had never been
taught by a male. It was reported that, overall, about one in 10 primary schools
do not have any male teachers and the average number is three. Interestingly,
most boys said they were better behaved with male teachers, and four in ten
suggested they worked harder in the presence of men. Over eight in ten parents
said they would welcome more male teachers.
This report, along with others247, calls for more male role models in the community
as well as at school. We need to reduce the suspicion that men working with
children can often feel they are under, and ascertain that Criminal Records Bureau
(CRB) checks are really necessary before they are routinely undertaken.
An example from Australia (see box) might provide some ideas.
We also need to encourage more men
to undertake employment or activities
where children are involved

Children are always going to take risks, and the message of this report is that they should be encouraged to live their lives
safely but also provided with the opportunities to pursue excitement and challenge. The task is to ensure that they have
the skills for calculated risk-taking.

Ward and Bayley248 suggest that young people usually know how to be safe, and that they engage in ‘risky’ behaviour
because they want to. This is illustrated by a study of young drivers who enjoyed ‘taking risks’, but regarded a good driver
as someone who drove fast and aggressively but remained in control249. Young risk-takers make their own assessments of
the hazards they face, and tend to moderate their behaviour accordingly250. Most want to survive.

245 Fathers Direct, 2005

246 TDA, 2007
247 Department for Communities and Local Government, 2007
248 Ward and Bayley, 2007
249 Lupton, 2004
250 Abbott-Chapman and Denholm, 2001
 51

5. The Way Ahead

Knowing how to teach these skills more widely is easier said than done. First
MORI252 reported how teenagers
of all, young people often challenge adult perceptions of risky behaviours and
said they smoked because it put
the dangers they may be exposing themselves to. The case of smoking is a
them in a better mood, made them
good example. While most adult regular smokers agree that smoking can lead
more confident and helped them to
to lung cancer and heart disease, around a third of younger smokers believe
make friends.
that ‘smoking is not really dangerous, it only harms people who smoke a lot’251.
Young people may even see smoking as beneficial. The NHS website points to the myths
of smoking for young people as
Second, there is clear evidence that children are unlikely to change their ‘smoking helps me chill’, ‘smoking
predilections and activities simply because they are told to, or because they is sexy’, ‘smoking makes me look
are provided with information suggesting these activities or behaviours are mature’, and ‘smoking keeps me
somehow bad for them. The Portman Group253 concludes that alcohol education skinny’.
and health promotion programmes for young people in Britain are not effective Youth has an optimism of its own…
and suggests that more projects are needed to enable them to identify and
handle risky drinking situations. As Plant and Plant254 comment, taking risks is ‘It is a feature of many adolescents
a feature of adolescent life that can be difficult to restrain or curb, especially to believe that they can run and not
through mass media health education campaigns. Children will behave in ways be weary, drive fast and not crash,
that reflect their personal interpretations and motivations, and broader cultural stay up all night and be normal the
expectations. next day, and do dangerous things
without consequences. If there are
It seems, then, that more creative ways of encouraging calculated risk-taking consequences, adolescents typically
are necessary. This is as important for normal daily skills and judgements, believe that the consequences are
such as crossing the road and deciding what it is best to eat or drink, as it is for so distant that they don’t matter
thrill-seeking activities. One of the tasks for the way forward is to identify the now.’
motivations that seem relevant for individual children and young people when Brigham (1998)
deciding to expose themselves to risk. Wilson and Donenberg255 describe how
the manner in which parents talk to their adolescents about sex is more effective Filice et al found in an American
in reducing risky sexual behaviour than the frequency with which they talk study that young people were
about such matters, and the same principle is likely to stand in relation to other particularly susceptible to smoking
areas of risk-taking. Furthermore, there are lessons to be learned from the Truth in the first year of high school. It
Campaign in the US and Canada that was successful in getting young people to seemed that they felt smoking
stop smoking by exposing them to the marketing and manufacturing practices improved their social status in their
of tobacco companies and encouraging them to rebel against them256. There are new educational setting. Similar
also messages from ‘successful’ strategies to encourage a healthier lifestyle257 findings were reported from an
which include getting children to develop their own challenges, involving parents earlier UK study in which peer
to provide support and encouragement, and not expecting children to give up influence appeared powerful as
everything they enjoy. children made the transition from
primary to secondary school259. It
Finally, perhaps if young people realised more clearly how much their behaviour
seemed that ‘looking-tough’ and
can impact on adults, they might decide to make some changes. Although
‘being cool’ as a smoker could
a common view is that displeasing adults can be a strong motivation for how
positively encourage this behaviour.
children behave, it seems that this is not necessarily the case. Certainly many
have good ideas and intentions on how they can make the lives of their parents
Filice et al (2003)
and carers happier and more enjoyable258.

251 Foulds, 1999

252 MORI, 1999 255 Wilson and Donenberg, 2004
253 The Portman Group, 2003 256 Lavack, 1999 257 Kline, 2005
254 Plant and Plant, 1992 258 Madge, 2006 259 Lloyd and Lucas, 1998
52

5. The Way Ahead

The government acknowledges how children are exposed to an ever greater variety of experiences and risks, and highlights
the need for them to develop appropriate skills to negotiate and manage these260. It identifies these as becoming more
resilient, learning to manage impulses, building warm relationships, taking control of their own health, managing strong
and uncomfortable emotions such as anger and frustration, learning to feel good about themselves, managing anxiety and
stress, reflecting on longer term goals, resisting negative pressure from others, and feeling optimistic about themselves.
It is stressed that developing these skills is particularly important for children from poorer and more disadvantaged
communities.

All the evidence and weight of argument suggests that children should be encouraged to learn how to take risks reasonably
safely and happily and be able to evaluate their likely outcomes. The challenge is to find acceptable ways to do this that
satisfy children and their guardians alike which will meet children’s needs and not lead them to find ever more extreme
ways of getting excitement. There are positive benefits to be gained from well-
Case study managed risk taking activities: ‘If adults make decisions that deny children the
opportunity to engage in risky activities, children are also being denied the
The study carried out by Stenson and
opportunity to learn about risks and how to evaluate risks’261. Young people gain
Factor involved a group of Jewish young
from building resilience and knowing how to take risks as safely as possible.
people in North London in the 1980s
who did not want to spend all their time
5.5 Providing ‘cushioned’ social spaces
at youth centres, good as they were,
but preferred to frequent the streets.
Stenson and Factor262 coined the phrase ‘cushioned social spaces’ to describe
Parents, however, became concerned settings in which children are able to engage in what they regard as risky
that their children were easy targets behaviour while offered some degree of adult surveillance.
for drug sellers and other criminals,
and developed an agreement with the It is indeed better to cushion activities children enjoy than to cut them out.
Metropolitan Police that some of their ‘Complying with safety regulations through the removal of all potential hazards
number could be trained in unarmed from early childhood settings can inadvertently result in the elimination of
combat to work alongside out-reach significant opportunities for positive risk taking’ – and indeed may encourage
youth workers. They accordingly more negative risk taking (e.g. through boredom or restlessness)263. Young
became part of an under cover security children regularly seek out and enjoy physical challenges - doing something
force, on a rota basis, and also trained they have never done before - although increasing safety regulations make it
older young people (17 to 19 year-olds) difficult for parents, and particularly professionals working with children, to
to look out for the younger children. provide such activities264. Ball265 iterates how it should not be our goal to avoid
Not all problems were eliminated, risk, but that it should be managed to reduce the likelihood of poor outcomes.
and the possibility of gang warfare He goes further to say that ‘it could well emerge that, for example, greater
continued to threaten, but overall provision, while increasing the number of playground injuries, would make
this initiative provided an example of children safer, healthier and happier overall’.
a ‘cushioned’ social space in which
young people experienced risk but
were heavily protected. It seemed that
What could these cushioned
while some young people criticised the social spaces be?
scheme, most did find the availability
of protective adults helpful if needed.
Stenson and Factor (1994)

260 DCSF, 2007

261 Little, 2006
262 Stenson and Factor, 1994
263 Little, 2006
264 Stephenson, 2003
265 Ball, 2007
 53

5. The Way Ahead

Palmer266 recommends measures that

• Enhance safety in residential areas

• Make the local environment safe but exciting
• Mean better parks and green areas
• Provide ‘playworkers to supervise open spaces of all kinds and build a sense of community’
(which is happening in some places under The Children’s Play programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund)
• Involve good day care and after-care provision that includes fun outdoor activities that are properly supervised
• Provide interesting and exciting experiences in schools
• Establish procedures to deal with anybody who threatens children’s safety

Improved community surveillance, and the recent return of park wardens in many places, can help the process as can
opportunities (for the minority) to take part in adventurous activities such as through the Duke of Edinburgh award,
or those that may emerge following the government’s recent establishment of a parliamentary group on adventure and
recreation, in response to concern about prevailing attitudes to risk, and a campaign for adventure training. Young people
can also experience risk in relatively safe ways through road safety education schemes such as Kerbcraft for pedestrians
or Bikeability for cyclists which educate children and young people so that they can evaluate risks on the roads and
become safe road users267. The Scout Movement (which now provides for girls as well as boys) is another good example.
It is known for embracing the values of risk-taking but now also pays detailed attention to managing, assessing and
minimising risk. Children want the thrill of a risk, and even ‘safe’ but ‘out of your mind’ theme park rides go some way to
provide this. The picture268 of a 92 year-old grandmother abseiling down a tower building illustrates how risk-taking can
be an enduring human characteristic.

The message is, then, that society needs to provide young people with opportunities to express themselves in cushioned
social spaces of different kinds. These need to be in line with the sorts of things children like to do, and any cushioning
must be discreet but reassuring.

The challenge is to develop these, with young

people, to make them sufficiently attractive so
that they succeed in their aim
5.6 Involving the community

Children live and grow up in communities and this is where they are most likely to be exposed to risk on the one hand and
offered protection on the other. What should be done to make sure that their experiences of growing up are as positive as
possible?

A first and widely made observation is that people in neighbourhoods are much more anonymous than in the past. Wilby269
discusses how neighbours are far less likely to know each other than, for example, when Richard Hoggart described a
declining working-class community, or Flora Thompson talked about her experiences of rural England in the late 19th
century.

266 Palmer, 2006

267 DfT, 2007
268 Metro, 13 June 2006
269 Wilby, 2007
54

5. The Way Ahead

In the language of sociologists such as Putnam271, we have less social capital

Wilby270 claims that:
nowadays than almost ever before. Children and adults do not socialise
‘The street and the neighbourhood,
together as much, partly because children are less likely to play out in their
not supervised playgrounds
neighbourhoods: recent research suggests that just two in ten children regularly
approved by health and safety
play outside in the streets and spaces where they live272. As a result, adults are
officers, are the child’s natural
inevitably more likely to see children on the streets as ‘potential threats, which
environment. That is where they
they are powerless to control and foolish to encourage’273. Inappropriate risk-
should learn how to rub along
taking and antisocial behaviour is therefore passively condoned, and supportive
with each other and with adults
interventions do not take place. There is also a decline in small neighbourly
from outside the family; where
organisations running healthy activities, largely because of their inability to
they should learn the limits of
meet all health and safety requirements, which help to promote a sense of
acceptable social behaviour; where
community274.
they should learn to climb and fall
out of trees, to explore abandoned
Developing and restoring community cohesion is particularly important in more
buildings and scrubby bits of
deprived and disaffected neighbourhoods275, particularly as disadvantaged
unused land in which they can
families are less likely than the more advantaged to become involved in
invent games and let off steam.’
activities that widen their sphere of friends and acquaintances276. Coleman277
has suggested that increasing social capital can compensate for inequality in economic conditions. Certainly it seems
that the greater a family’s social networks within the neighbourhood, the more freedom their children are given. Weller
and Brugel278 compared patterns in five different types of location across the country and showed how parents were torn
between letting their children become ‘streetwise’ and protecting them, but were happier for them to be out if both they
and their children were more widely known in the community. Many initiatives incorporate the promotion of a sense of
community. These range from Sure Start for families with young children, and activities developed through community and
extended schools, to special programmes such as Families and Schools Together (FAST), that aim to bring children and
families together in the neighbourhood. A challenge for these and other activities is to ensure that the most disaffected
and at risk young people are included. It has been long recognised that strategies to capture the ‘hard to reach’ rarely
succeed, in part perhaps because they do not want to be reached, and there remains scope for ingenuity to guarantee
greater success in the future. This undoubtedly depends on whether or not service users are provided with what they
want, and whether or not they are given the opportunity to say what this might be279. Recent evidence certainly suggests
that many people would like to become more involved in their communities than they are at present. More than one in
three respondents to a YouGov survey felt a responsibility to become involved in local issues but yet felt powerless to
make a difference.

An important element of community cohesion is feeling safe. Improved neighbourhood surveillance that involves
members of the community is one important measure to reduce perceptions of risk. The potential of Police Community
Support Officers (PCSOs), who work alongside the police in a supporting role, is promising. These are members of Safer
Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) which The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) aimed to establish in each London ward by 31
December 2006. Teams provide visible policing in the local community, and recent reports indicate that 16 year-olds have
been taken on as PCSOs in some localities. The role of PCSOs is to patrol local areas, provide a visible presence and help
to reassure the public, and deal with any incidents of nuisance and anti-social behaviour that do not require full police
powers. Safer Neighbourhood Teams offer protection to young people as well as protecting everyone else from them.

270 ibid 275 Sampson et al, 1999

271 Putnam, 1995 272 Play England, 2007 276 Lareau, 2003
273 Wilby, 2007 277 Coleman, 1988 278 Weller and Brugel, 2007
274 Wheway, 2007 279 Beresford and Hoban, 2005
 55

5. The Way Ahead

help to reassure the public, and deal with any incidents of nuisance and anti-social behaviour that do not require full police
powers. Safer Neighbourhood Teams offer protection to young people as well as protecting everyone else from them.

Other kinds of schemes, such as Neighbourhood Watch schemes, can also involve young people in both identifying and
dealing with problems. Neighbourhood Warden schemes provide a uniformed presence within communities in order to
promote quality of life for its residents. Among other things, wardens aim to promote community safety and community
well-being. Some schemes may have a special focus on helping young people.

Providing more and better cushioned social spaces for young people is also important. Parents responding to the 2007
Play England280 survey gave traffic as the number one reason why most do not let their children play out, followed by a
fear of strangers. Children were also worried about traffic but showed more concern about bullying than ‘stranger danger’.
Adults and children each said that more and better local play areas and less danger from traffic should be the main
solutions. These spaces need to be age-appropriate and include opportunities for children as young as four years to seek
out risky experiences281, and they need to be local and accessible. Community priority should be accorded to creating and
designing innovative ways in which such opportunities can be provided.

Male role models should also be provided within the community. Improving opportunities for young people to be active in
their neighbourhoods should be combined with the availability of approachable and respected male mentors.

All these measures will be most effective if social capital is high in a neighbourhood and people feel it is up to them to
‘look out’ for others, including children and young people. Better relations and trust between the generations will in turn
discourage suspicion of young people and promote the view that ‘appropriate’ risk-taking is a good thing. Burgess282
comments that just as recent years have seen ‘risk entrepreneurs’, campaigners, the media and officialdom highlight risk
and construct alarm, the next decade needs to witness some antidote. A more prosocial response within the community
would help to contribute to these various goals.

The question of leadership is important if community initiatives are to be coordinated and carried through. Jenkins283
suggests that there should be somebody accountable in each community and writes how ‘There are no municipal mayors,
block associations and village elders with money and power at their disposal to whom communities have customarily
turned in time of trouble’. In his view we need a ‘framework of local discipline in British communities’ to help to deal with
issues involving young people.

A final recommendation, therefore, is for further actions to develop structures to encourage community cohesion. Pitts284
says that we need to stimulate community ‘collective efficacy’ so that everybody is involved in providing informal social
control and reducing antisocial behaviour, and Wilby285 recommends giving any available money to ‘any neighbourhood
that can come up with a plausible idea to improve the quality of the environment for itself and its children’. This report
strongly endorses these proposals. There are already numerous national and local initiatives to promote neighbourliness
and help young people engage in their local community, and many organisations and individuals willing to provide evidence
of promising actions and develop new ideas.

It is important to capitalise on this expertise

280 Play England, 2007

281 Little, 2006
282 Burgess, 2008
283 Jenkins, 2007
284 Pitts, 2007
285 Wilby, 2007
56

6. Summary
and Conclusions

Risk in childhood is a complex topic that embraces unwanted and unanticipated hazards and
dangers as well as welcomed challenge and excitement that might mean taking chances. It
is not easy to reconcile these two aspects of risk and on the whole they have been treated
separately. They do both, however, reflect perceptions about outcomes, and they both have
consequences for the trajectory of young lives.

There are so many circumstances that could be defined as risky, and we cannot claim to have provided a comprehensive
overview. These risks that children face and engage in are very different and, as we have implied, there is little in common
between, for instance, child abuse and adventurous play. There are, nonetheless, things that parents worry about more
than others, and these seem to be first and foremost risks from traffic and ‘stranger danger’ – even if there is a much
greater risk that a child will have an accident at home, or contract a serious illness such as cancer. On the whole it would
seem that parents worry most about the incidents that could have the most serious consequences. There is little doubt
that their fears are also fuelled by government and media panic.

6.1 Risky young lives?

Children face all kinds of risks from the moment they are born. Some of these risks have always been present, while others
have changed or are new.

It is not possible to quantify all these risks facing children, and even available ‘evidence’ is subject to all the normal
qualifications about information collection and interpretation. While we can be fairly confident about mortality statistics
and admissions to hospital, there is much less certainty about reported rates of child abuse, victimisation or exposure to
pornographic images on the internet.

Considering children in general, it is evident that some childhood risks are greater than others. Although estimates are
approximate only, the evidence suggests that sustaining serious injuries in playgrounds, or being murdered or abducted
by a stranger are relatively rare. Murder by parents is more common. Accidents, sexually transmitted infections, child
sexual abuse, taking illicit drugs and pregnancy are more frequent still, and serious physical abuse, smoking, accidents
at home, and obesity are yet commoner. Regularly drinking alcohol, gambling, and becoming a victim of crime are, of the
behaviours we examined and can quantify, the most prevalent among 11 to 15 year-olds and affect one in five or more. The
majority of children watch television, use the internet and own a mobile phone, but it remains unknown how many of these
are adversely affected as a result.

6.2 Trends over time

Asking whether childhoods involve more or less risk than in the past is not an easy question to answer. The social setting
is never the same as ever before, expectations of childhood change, old categories of risk disappear while new ones
emerge, and priorities and perceptions show notable shifts. Furthermore, children in different generations grow up with
different histories, cultures, experiences and perspectives. Often it may feel that things have got riskier, even if they have
not really.

On some indices, it might be said that the world has without doubt become a more dangerous place. Much more traffic on
the roads than a generation ago, spectacular leaps in technology and the omnipresent internet with all its attendant perils,
and much greater and easier availability of drugs and other illicit substances, support this conclusion. The relentless
24-hour news reports, and intense media coverage of cases involving the abduction or murder of children, and stories of
‘gang’ violence affecting both rival gang members and innocent bystanders, also fuel the belief that everything is getting
much worse than ever before. Certainly parents are more worried than ever before about their children’s safety286.
The evidence does not, however, support this conclusion and the present review concludes that, apart from some
 57

6. Summary
and Conclusions

important exceptions including psychological risks which are beyond the remit
Sweeting and West reported on
of this report, the world is generally a safer place for children than in the past.
changes in patterns of leisure
Children live longer and are healthier, and they have fewer accidents of all kinds
including road traffic accidents. Furthermore, and despite extensive media activities, use of public space and
reporting about danger and violence in our communities, there is little evidence risk-taking in relation to smoking,
to confirm that either ‘stranger danger’ or victimisation has got markedly worse. drinking and drug use among 15
Children do, however, have less healthy lifestyles in terms of obesity, and year-olds in the West of Scotland
alcohol and drug misuse, and they face new hazards and dangers associated over a 12-year period between 1987
with modern technological developments. Recent years have also seen a rise and 1999.
in sexually transmitted infections even if they have at the same time seen a
reduction in teenage pregnancy. They found a noticeable narrowing
of the gender divide during even this
6.3 Do children face more risks than adults? relatively short time period. Females
became more likely to spend their
It is not very meaningful to ask whether, overall, children or adults lead riskier leisure time on the streets as males
lives: they have many age-specific illnesses, are prone to different types of increasingly stayed at home, and
accident, and are not subject to the same kinds of abuse or constraints on their females came to match males on
independence. Where they can be compared, however, adults often seem at a drinking and using illegal drugs,
higher risk. They have greater cancer incidence and mortality rates, increased and overtake them when it came to
levels of road traffic accidents, and are more likely to be obese, smoke, and smoking. In all these ways females
consume alcohol. Children and adults seem equally likely to be victims of crime could be seen to have increased
(although there are many differences within both broad age groups), and young their risk-taking behaviour more
people have a greater tendency to problem gambling behaviour and sexually than their male counterparts,
transmitted infections. a change which Sweeting and
West attributed to ‘the lifting of
6.4 Changing patterns of risk
constraints of respectability on
In many ways it seems that characteristics and patterns of risk-taking may be young women’s lifestyles’.
changing. It is interesting to note, for example, that while fewer young people Sweeting and West (2003)
seem to be drinking alcohol and taking drugs, those who do appear to be
consuming more. There is also some evidence that although, traditionally boys have been seen at greater risk, or more
likely to put themselves at risk by undertaking risky activities, than girls, these differences may be becoming less.

HBSC287 also notes how the proportion of girls smoking has increased over time, now surpassing rates of male smokers
and suggesting broader changes in the position of young and adult women in society. Clear trends have also been found
in relation to sex and the proportion of young women who report drinking alcohol in the past week. These have shown a
considerable increase from 17% in 1988 (compared to 24% of boys) to 23% in 2005 (compared with 22% of boys).

6.5 The distribution of risk

The overall picture of risk does, however, obscure the many differences between children and their circumstances.
This review has highlighted how risk is very unevenly distributed, and how risk is in many sense a proxy for inequality.
Aggregated figures for the population of young people as a whole say very little about the circumstances in which many
children live. Not only are there significant age and sex differences in risk exposure and risk taking, but there are also
enormous differences in the risks taken by young people growing up in different communities. There are some types of
risk, such as falling downstairs, that almost anyone may face but there are others that are much more pervasive and
reflect the inequalities in our society. Growing up in certain poor parts of the country, for example, can undoubtedly affect
life chances.

286 Adams, 2000

287 HBSC, 2004 - See Appendix 1 for information about the HBSC countries
58

6. Summary
and Conclusions

6.6 Future debate and action

Six key areas for future
debate and action
Some important and specific areas for further debate and action have been
1. Making an ideological shift identified. A first recommendation is for an ideological shift towards a more
towards a more balanced view balanced view of childhood which recognises that children must be both
of childhood which recognises allowed autonomy in their development and offered protection as necessary.
that children must be both The government has very recently pledged itself to these goals, even if it is as
allowed autonomy in their yet unclear how they will be interpreted and enacted, and should accordingly be
development and offered receptive to public discussion and suggestion in this area. Taking the opportunity
protection as necessary to engage in this debate should not be missed.
2. Letting children become
independent as soon as they are Any account of children and risk can be meaningful only if it takes age and
have the appropriate developmental needs into account. As children grow older they become
competencies and skills increasingly competent at making their own assessments of risk and developing
3. Providing more male role models their own strategies to deal with it - and should have more opportunities for
for children, particularly for boys encountering and embracing risk as a result. Parents need greater reassurance
but also for girls and guidance to encourage them to give their children more freedom and
4. Encouraging calculated responsibility, and the media and wider society can play an important role in
risk-taking reinforcing this message.
5. Developing cushioned
social spaces This report also recommends that opportunities should be developed to provide
6. Fully involving the community more male role models for children, particularly for boys but also for girls. Men
in providing opportunities for and women interact differently with children who benefit from opportunities
children to experience freedom to learn from both. All the same, partly because men who work with children
and excitement are often regarded with some suspicion, there are fewer male primary school
teachers than in the past, and fewer male volunteers engaging in activities with
children in other settings. Encouraging calculated risk-taking depends on fostering greater trust with adults and within
the community. Encouraging, and providing opportunities for, men to interact with and provide roles models for children
would be a good step in this direction.

Children need excitement and challenge and calculated risk-taking is part of this. Children cannot be protected from all
dangers and they need to know how best to deal with risk should they encounter it by chance or decide to engage in
activities that could be hazardous. Providing cushioned social spaces in which young people can pursue the things they
want, but with some element of protection, is also important.
A final, and overarching, recommendation is that the community and its members need to be fully involved in providing
opportunities for children to experience freedom and excitement, but yet to remain as safe as possible. Local attitudes
towards children and how they spend their time, opportunities for suitable age-related activities, appropriate male role
models, the encouragement of calculated risk-taking and the provision of settings in which this can be exercised, are all
best done close to home. Local understanding and ‘ownership’ of its young people, combined with extra child-friendly
measures to keep a discreet eye on them, will enhance a sense of neighbourliness and protection. It will also make it
easier for parents to be less protective of their children and let them better learn the art of risk-taking.
 59

Appendix 1

Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) is a cross-national research study conduct-

ed in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe.

The study aims to gain new insight into, and increase our understanding of young people’s health and well-being, health
behaviours and their social context.288

HBSC Countries

Austria Greenland Portugal

Belgium (French-speaking) Hungary Romania
Belgium (Flemish-speaking) Iceland Russia
Bulgaria Republic of Ireland Scotland
Canada Israel Slovak Republic
Croatia Italy Slovenia
Czech Republic Latvia Spain
Denmark Lithuania Sweden
England Luxembourg Switzerland
Estonia TFYR Macedonia Turkey
Finland Malta Ukraine
France Netherlands USA
Germany Norway Wales
Greece Poland

288 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Website - http://www.hbsc.org/index.html

60
References
Abbott-Chapman J and Denholm C 2001 Adolescents’ risk activities, risk hierar-
chies and the influence of religiosity Journal of Youth Studies 4(3) pp279-298
Adams J 1995 Risk Routledge
Adams L 2000 Children safer despite the worries of parents The Times 11 June
Alwash R and McCarthy M 1988 Accidents in the home among children under 5
Ethnic difference or social disadvantage? British Medical Journal 296 pp1450-
1453
ASH 2004 Young people and smoking: Factsheet no3 http://www.newash.org.
uk/html/factsheets/pdfs/fact03.pdf
Backett-Milburn K & Harden J 2004 How children and their families construct
and negotiate risk, safety and danger Childhood 11(4) pp429-447
Ball 2007 Risk and the demise of children’s play, in Thom B Sales R and Pearce
J (Eds) Growing Up with Risk Bristol: The Policy Press
BBC 2001 Call for New School Trip Guidelines http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
education/1470757.stm
Beck U 1986 Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity Sage
Becker H 1960 Notes on the concept of commitment American Journal of
Sociology 66 pp32-44
Beebee S 2004 Gang Culture Shabaab 39(January) pp22-23
Beresford P and Hoban M 2005 Participation in anti-poverty and regenera-
tion work and research: Overcoming barriers and creating opportunities York:
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Better Regulation Commission 2006 Risk, Responsibility and Regulation
– whose risk is it anyway? http://www.brc.gov.uk/upload/assets/www.brc.
gov.uk/risk_res_reg.pdf
Blanden J Gregg P and Macmillan L 2006 Accounting for Intergenerational
Income Persistence: Non-Cognitive Skills, Ability and Education London Centre
for the Economics of Education
Bocij P 2004 Camgirls, blogs and wish lists: how young people are courting
danger on the internet Community Safety Journal 3(3) pp16-23
Boreham C & Riddoch C 2001 The physical activity, fitness, and health of
children Journal of Sports Science 19 pp915-929
Botting B (Eed) 1995 The Health of our children, decennial supplement: the
Registrar General’s decennial supplement for England and Wales London:
HMSO
Bradshaw R and Jones P 2000 The Family and the School Run What Would
Make a Real Difference? Scoping Report to the AA Foundation for Road Safety
Research, University of Westminster London
Brannen J 2004 Researching children’s family lives from a comparative per-
spective: a dissemination project using video, in Hantrai L and Kutsar D (Eeds)
Researching Family and childhood from a European welfare perspective.
Cross-
National Research Papers 7 (4) Loughborough, European Research Centre
pp22-31
Brigham J 1998 Dying to quit: Why we smoke and how we stop Washington
DC: John Henry Press
Burgess A 2002 Comparing National Responses to Perceived Health Risks from
Mobile Phone Masts Health, Risk and Society 4 (2)
Burgess A 2008 Health scares and risk awareness in Wainwright D (Ed). A
Sociology of Health Sage pp57-75
Burtney E and Duffy M (Eeds) 2004 Young People and Sexual Health: Social,
Political and Individual Contexts London: Palgrave.
Cameron K Salazar L Bernhardt J Burgess-Whitman N Wingood G and DiCle-
mente, R 2005 Adolescents’ experience with sex on the web: Results from
online focus groups Journal of Adolescence 28 pp535-540
Cancer Research UK 2007 UK Childhood Cancer Statistics http://info.cancer-
researchuk.org/cancerstats/childhoodcancer/?a=5441
Carlisle D 2002 Do children need a commercial break? Health Development
Today 7
Cawson et al 2000 Child maltreatment in the United Kingdom: a study of the
prevalence of child abuse and neglect London: NSPCC.
Chase E and Statham J 2005 Commerical and sexual exploitation of children
and young people in the UK – a review Child Abuse Review 14 pp4-25.
Chen J and Millar W 1998 Age of smoking initiation: implications for quitting
Health Reports 9(4) pp39-45
ChildLine 2007 Child Line Case Notes: Calls to ChildLine about sexual abuse
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/publications/Serials/ChildLineCasenotes/
CLcasenotessexualabuse_wdf48189.pdf
Children’s Society and Children’s Play Council (2002) Research carried out to
mark National Playday on 7 August (reported at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/
education/2158711.stm)
Children’s Society 2006 The Good Childhood Enquiry http://www.childrensso-
ciety.org.uk/what+we+do/The+good+childhood+inquiry/home.htm
Childwise 2007 Childwise The Monitor Trends Report http://childwise.co.uk/
trends.htm
Coleman J 1988 Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital American
Journal of Sociology 94 (Supplement) S95-S120.
Creighton SJ 2003 Child Pornography: images of abuse London: NSPCC
Creighton J and Tissier G 2003 Child Killings in England and Wales London:
NSPCC
Criminal Records Bureau - http://www.crb.gov.uk/
Currie C Roberts C Morgan A Smith R Settertobulte W Samdal O Barnekow
and Rasmussen V 2004 Young People’s Health in Context, Health Behaviour
in School-aged Children study: International Report from the 2001/2002
Survey Health Policy for Children and Adolescents No.4, WHO Regional Office
for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark http://www.hbsc.org/downloads/IntRe-
port04/Part1.pdf
Cusick L et al 2003 Vulnerability and involvement in drug use and sex work
Home Office Research Study 268 London: Home Office Research, Development
and Statistics Directorate
Darling H Reeder A, McGee R and Williams S 2006 Brief report: Disposable
income, and spending on fast food, alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling by New
Zealand secondary school students Journal of Adolescence 29(5) pp837-843
DCSF (2007) Aiming high for young people: a ten year strategy for positive
activities http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/tenyearyouthstrategy/docs/
cyp_tenyearstrategy_260707.pdf
Department for Communities and Local Government 2007 The Reach Report
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/reach-report
Department of Health 1998 Smoking Kills: A White Paper on Tobacco London:
The Stationery Office.
DeWit D Offord D and Wong M 1997 Patterns of onset and cessation of drug
use over the early part of the life course Health Education Behavior 24(6)
pp746-758
DfES 2004 Every Child Matters: Change for Children http://www.everychild-
matters.gov.uk/_files/F9E3F941DC8D4580539EE4C743E9371D.pdf

DfES 2006a Referrals, Assessments and Children and Young people on Child
Protection registers, England. Year ending 31 March 2006 (Final) http://www.
dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000692/SFR45-2006V1.pdf
DfES 2006b Teenage Pregnancy: Accelerating the Strat-
egy to 2010 http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/_files/
94C1FA2E9D4C9717E5D0AF1413A329A4.pdf
DfT 2007a Transport Statistics Bulletin: Road Casualties in Great Britain Main
Results: 2006 http://www.dft.gov.uk/162259/162469/221412/221549/22786
4/252094/rcgbmainresults06.pdf
DfT 2007b DfT child road safety strategy 2007 http://www.dft.gov.
uk/162259/164386/195836/roadsafetystrategypdf
DfT 2004 Transport Statistics Bulletin: National Travel Survey 2003 Final
Results London: The Stationery Office http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/
datatablespublications/personal/mainresults/nts2004/nationaltravelsur-
vey2004
DfT 2005 Focus on Personal Travel London: The Stationery Office http://www.
dft.gov.uk/162259/162469/221412/221531/224097/224100/coll_focusonper-
sonaltravel2005ed/focusonpersonaltravel2005edition
Dorling D Rigby J Wheeler B Ballas D Thomas B Fahmy E Gordon D and Lupton
R 2007 Poverty, wealth and place in Britain 1968 to 2005 Bristol: Policy Press
Drugscope 2001 Is drug use mainly in deprived areas? http://www.drugscope.
org.uk/resources/faqs/faqpages/is-drug-use-mainly-in-deprived-areas.htm
DTI 1999 Research on the Patterns and Trends in Home Accidents London:
Department of Trade and Industry
Eggermont S 2005 Young adolescents’ perceptions of peer sexual behaviours:
the role of television viewing Child: Care, Health and Development 31(4)
pp459–468
Erikson E 1950 Children and Society New York: Norton.
Errington G and Towner E 2005 Injury Prevention, in Ewles L (eEd) Key Topics in
public health: essential briefings on prevention and health promotion London:
Elsevier.
Farrell C 1978 My Mother Said Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
FAST 2006 Families & Schools Together http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/fast/
Fathers Direct 2005 Mothers, fathers, time & childcare http://www.fathersdi-
rect.com/index.php?id=10&cID=38
Filice G Hannan P Lando H and Joseph A 2003 A period of increased suscep-
tibility to cigarette smoking among high school students Journal of School
Health 73 pp272-278
Ford N and Morgan K 1989 Heterosexual lifestyles of young people in an Eng-
lish city Journal of Population and Social Studies 1(2) pp167-185
Foulds J 1999 The psychology of tobacco addiction: why it is difficult to stop
smoking Monaldi Archives of Chest Diseases 54(6) pp495-497
4Children 2006 The Buzz Survey, 2006 http://www.4children.org.uk/uploads/
information/BuzzSurvey2006Report.doc
Fuller E (Eed) 2006 Drug use, smoking and drinking among young people in
England in 2005 Leeds: NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Furedi F 2001 Paranoid parenting: Abandon your anxieties and be a good par-
ent London: Allen Lane
Gard M 2004 Mashing the ‘couch potato’ Childrenz Issues: Journal of the
Children’s Issues Centre 8(1) pp17-21
Giddens A 1991 Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Mod-
ern Age Stanford University Press.
Gillen K Guy A and Banim M 2004 Living in my street: adolescents’ percep-
tions of health and social risks in Mitchell W Bunton R and Green E (Eeds)
Young people, risk and leisure: constructing identities in everyday life London:
Palgrave Macmillan
61
References
Griffiths M 1995 Adolescent gambling London: Routledge.
Griffiths M 2002 Gambling and Gaming Addictions in Adolescence Leicester:
British Psychological Society/Blackwells
Griffiths M and Sutherland I 1998 Adolescent gambling and drug use Journal of
Community and Applied Social Psychology 8 pp423-427
Gullone E and Moore S 2000 Adolescent risk-taking and the five-factor model
of personality Journal of Adolescence 23(4) pp393-407
Hallsworth S and Young T 2004 Getting Real About Gangs Criminal Justice
Matters 55 pp12–13
Hamilton K and Hoyle S 1999 Moving cities: Transport connections, in Allen J
Massey D and Pryke M (eds) Unsettling Cities: Movement/Settlement London:
Routledge in association with the Open University, pp49-94
Hancox B 2005 Growing ‘couch potatoes’: Television, computers and child-
hood obesity Childrenz Issues 9(1) pp32-36
Harden J 2000 There’s no place like home. The public/private distinction in
children’s theorizing of risk and safety Childhood 7(1) pp43-59.
Haste H 2004 My Body, My Self. Young people’s values and motives about
healthy living Nestlé Social Research Programme
HBSO 2004 Health Behaviour in School Age Children http://www.hbsc.org/
Health Promotion Agency 2004 Factsheet: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFEC-
TIONS http://www.healthpromotionagency.org.uk/Resources/sexual/pdfs/
STIs.pdf
Health Protection Agency 2006 A complex Picture: HIV and other sexually
transmitted infections in the UK: 2006 http://www.hpa.org.uk/publica-
tions/2006/hiv_sti_2006/young.htm
Health Protection Agency 2007 Diagnoses and rates of selected STIs seen at
GUM clinics: 2002-2006 http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_AZ/hiv_
and_sti/publications/annual2004/tables-stiregions.pdf
Health Survey England 2001 Health Survey England http://www.dh.gov.
uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Pressreleases/DH_4024722
Hillman M 1999 The Impact of Transport Policy on Children’s Development,
Canterbury Safe Routes to Schools Project Seminar, Canterbury, 29th May
Hillman M Adams J and Whitelegg J 1990 One False Move: A Study of Children’s
Independent Mobility London: Policy Studies Institute
Hillman M and Rosenbaum M 1993 Children, Transport and the quality of life.
Independent mobility and children’s rights London: Policy Studies Institute,
Chapter 4
Hoggart L 2007 Young women, sexual behaviour and sexual decision making
in Thom B Sales R and Pearce J Growing Up with Risk Bristol: The Policy Press
Home Office 2006 ‘Other’ Other offences against the person - Long-term
national recorded crime trend http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/
Page50.asp
Home Office 2005a Crime in England and Wales 2003/2004: Supplementary
Volume 1: Homicide and Gun Crime http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/
pdfs05/hosb0205.pdf
Home Office 2005b Internet Crime http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-vic-
tims/reducing-crime/internet-crime/
Information Centre/NHS 2006 Health Survey for England 2004. Updating of
trend tables to include childhood obesity data http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statis-
tics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/health-survey-for-england/
health-survey-for-england-2004-updating-of-trend-tables-to-include-child-
hood-obesity-data
Information Centre/NHS 2007a Statistics on Alcohol: England 2007 http://
www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/alcohol/
statistics-on-alcohol:-england-2007-[ns]
62
References
Information Centre/NHS 2007b Statistics on Smoking: England 2007
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/
smoking/statistics-on-smoking-england-2007-[ns]
Information Centre/NHS 2007c Smoking, drinking and drug use among young
people in England in 2006 http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/
smokedrinkdrug06/Smoking%20Drinking%20and%20Drug%20Use%20am
ong%20Young%20People%20in%20England%20in%202006%20%20full%
20report.pdf
Jarvis L 1997 Smoking among secondary school children in 1996 London: The
Stationery Office: Office for National Statistics
Jenkins S 2007 The state has only aided our seasonal spates of thuggery.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2153733,00.html
Jenks C 1996 Childhood London: Routledge
Jessor R (eEd) 1998 New Perspectives on Adolescent Risk Behaviour Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press
Johnson C and others 2006 The nutritional quality of foods advertised on UK
children’s TV British Journal of School Nursing 1(1) pp23-28
Jones A 2004 Risk Anxiety, Policy, and the Spectre of Sexual Abuse in Early
Childhood Education Discourse 25(3) pp321-334
Jones D 2007 Cotton Wool Kids London: Department of Trade and Industry
Jones P and Bradshaw R 2000 The Family and the School Run: What Would
Make a Real Difference? Basingstoke: AA Foundation for Road Safety Research
Joshi M MacLean M. and Carter W 1999 Children’s journey to school: Spatial
skills, knowledge and perceptions of the environment British Journal of Devel-
opmental Psychology 17 pp125-139
Jotangia D Moody A Stamatakis E and Wardle H 2005 Obesity among children
under 11 London. Joint Health Surveys Unit http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_con-
sum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_
4109410.pdf
Judge P 2005 Risk and Enterprise The Inaugural Lecture of the 252nd Session
of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce London
Kelley P Mayall B and Hood S 1997 Children’s Accounts of Risk Childhood 4(3)
pp305-324
Kline S 2005 Countering Children’s Sedentary Lifestyles: An evaluative study
of a media-risk education approach Childhood 12 pp239-258
Laming Report 2003 The Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report Sixth Report of Ses-
sion 2002–03 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmse-
lect/cmhealth/570/570.pdf
Lareau A 2003 Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press.
Lavack A 1999 Denormalization of tobacco in Canada This paper summarizes
the findings of the meeting of the Round Table on the Denormalization of
Tobacco from January 19, 1999.
Linsey A and Griffiths M 2006 Young people and gambling National Children’s
Bureau Highlight 222
Little (2006) Children’s risk-taking behaviour: implications for early childhood
policy and practice International Journal of Early Years Education 14(2) pp141-
154
Livingstone S and Bober M 2004 UK children go online: Surveying the experi-
ences of young people and their parents LSE
Livingstone S Bober M and Helsper E J 2005 Inequalities and the digital divide
in children and young people’s internet use LSE.
Lloyd B and Lucas K 1998 Adolescent Smoking: Images and Identities London
and New York: Routledge
Lupton D 2004 Pleasure, aggression and fear: The driving experience of young
Sydneysiders in Mitchell W Bunton R and Green E (Eeds.) Young People, Risk
and Leisure: Constructing Identities in Everyday Life Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, pp27-42
Lupton K and Bayley M 2002 Children - how they interact with the street envi-
ronment Traffic Engineering and Control
Lyng S (Eed) 2004 Edgework: The Sociology of Risk-Taking Routledge
Madge N 1997 Abuse and Survival: A Fact File London: The Prince’s Trust
Madge N 2006 Children These Days Bristol: The Policy Press
Maggs J and Schulenberg J 2004 Trajectories of Alcohol Use During the Transi-
tion to Adulthood Alcohol Research and Health 28(4) pp195-201
Marsh J (Eed) 2005 Popular culture, new media and digital literacy London &
New York: RoutledgeFalmer
Matza D (1969) Becoming Deviant Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall
Mayall B 2002 Towards a sociology for childhood: Thinking from children’s
lives Milton Keynes: Open University Press
Mayor of London 2004 The State of London’s Children Report http://www.
london.gov.uk/mayor/children/docs/state_london_children_full.pdf
Mead M 1932 The Changing Culture of an Indian Tribe New York: Columbia
University Press
Miskin undated Childhood injury in the UK - an overview
http://miskin-group.org.uk/injury.htm
Moorcock K 1998 Swings and roundabouts: The danger of safety in outdoor
play environments Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University Press
Moore M 2000 `Fixing It? Young People, Drugs and Disadvantages
Lyme Regis: Russell House
Moore S and Parsons J 2000 A research agenda for adolescent risk-taking
where do we go from here? Journal of Adolescence 23 pp371–376
Moore S and Rosenthial D 2006 Sexuality in Adolescence: Current Trends
London. Taylor and Francis
MORI 1999 Risk taking amongst young people http://www.ipsos-mori.com/
ycf/youth.shtml
Morrison B 1998 As If Granta Books
Morrongiello B and Major K 2002 The influence of safety gear on parental
perceptions of injury risk and tolerance for children’s risk taking: Why a “Use
the Gear” message may not be sufficient to maximize child-injury preventions
Injury Prevention 8 27–33
MPA 2004 MPA Chair calls for change in gun culture and engagement with
gunmen http://www.mpa.gov.uk/news/press/2004/04-008.htm
Murrin K and Martin P 2004 What worries parents: the most common concerns
of parents explored and explained London: Vermilion
NCH 2005 An investigation into cyberbullying, its forms, awareness and
impact, and the relationship between age and gender in cyberbullying
http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/downloads/pdf/cyberbullyingreport-
final230106_000.pdf
Newiss G and Fairbrother L 2004 Child abduction: understanding police
recorded crime statistics Home Office Findings 225.
O’Brien M Jones D and Sloan D 2000 Children’s independent spatial mobility in
the urban public realm Childhood 7(3) pp257-277
OCJS 2006 Young People and Crime: Findings from the 2005 Offending, Crime
and Justice Survey http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1706.pdf

O’Connell 2003 A Typology of Cybersexploitation and online grooming prac-
tices http://www.uclan.ac.uk/host/cru/docs/cru010.pdf
Ofcom 2006 Media Literacy Audit: Report on media literacy amongst children
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/medlitpub/medlitpubrss/
children/children.pdf
Olson C 2004 Media Violence Research and Youth Violence Data: Why Do They
Conflict? Academic Psychiatry 28 pp144-150
ONS 2003 Adult mobile phone ownership: by age, 2001 and 2003
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D7202.xls
ONS 2004a Mortality Statistics http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Prod-
uct.asp?vlnk=620
ONS 2004b Consultations with an NHS GP: by sex and age, 2001/02: Social
Trends 34 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=7401
ONS 2004c Childhood Cancer: Improving survival and more adult survivors
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=854
ONS 2004d The health of children and young people http://www.statistics.
gov.uk/pdfdir/health0304.pdf
ONS 2007 Internet access http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=8
Pain R 2006 Paranoid parenting: rematerializing risk and fear for children
Social and Cultural Geography 7(2) pp221-243
Palmer S 2006 Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our
Children And What We Can Do About It Orion Publishers
Parkinson 2005 Bottling the Entrepreneurial Spirit www.markparkinson.
co.uk/entre.pdf
Parton N 1985 The Politics of Child Abuse London: Macmillan
Pavis S and Cunningham-Burley S 1999 Male youth street culture: understand-
ing the context of health-related behaviours Health Education Research 14
pp583–596
Percy-Smith B and Matthews H 2001 Tyrannical spaces: Young people, bullying
and urban neighbourhoods Local Environment 6(1) pp49-63
Piper H Powell J and Smith H 2006 Parents, professionals and paranoia. The
touching of children in a culture of fear Journal of Social Work 6(2) pp151-167
Pitts J 2007 Reluctant Gangsters: Youth Gangs in Waltham Forest http://www.
walthamforest.gov.uk/reluctant-gangsters.pdf
Plant M and Plant M 1992 Risk Takers: Alcohol, Drugs, Sex and Youth London:
Tavistock / Routledge
Play England 2007 Latest figures show dramatic reduction in children playing
in their local streets http://www.playengland.org.uk/Page.asp?originx_
5589tx_93461909704922t80w_20077305256b
Portman Group 2003 The annual code report 2003: The Portman group’s code
of practice on the naming, packaging and promotion of alcoholic drinks http://
www.portman-group.org.uk/assets/documents/ACR%202003.pdf
ON OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
Prnewswire 2006 Nurture Vs Nature Role in Creating Drive for Success- Aver-
age Entrepreneur was Youngest Child with Paper Round and Competitive at
Sport http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=163166
Presdee M 2000 Cultural Criminology and the Carnival of Crime London:
Routledge.
Prout A 2005 The Future of Childhood London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Putnam R 1995 Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital The Journal
of Democracy 6(1) pp65-78
Putnam R 2000 Bowling Alone: The collapse and revival of American commu-
nity New York: Simon and Schuster
63
References
Raby R 2002 A tangle of discourses: girls negotiating adolescence Journal of
Youth Studies 5(4) pp425-448
Regis (2001) Feeling good? Mental health and risk-taking Young Minds Maga-
zine, no.50 (Jan/Feb) pp14-15
Rodham et al 2006 Adolescents’ perception of risk and challenge: a qualitative
study Journal of Adolescence 29(2) pp261-272
Rogers L 2007 The end of risk New Statesman 30 July pp334-37
Rosenbaum M 1993 Children and the environment London: National Children’s
Bureau
Rowan D 2002 The Observer: Teenage internet camgirls at risk http://www.
davidrowan.com/2002/07/observer-teenage-internet-camgirls-at.html
Sampson R J Morenoff J and Earls F 1999 Beyond Social Capital: Spatial
Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children American Sociological Review 64
pp633-660
Sandman P 1993 Responding to Community Outrage: Strategies for Effective
Risk Communication Fairfax, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association
Schofield M 1968 The Sexual Behaviour of Young People Harmondsworth:
Penguin
Schopen E 2005 Lethal weapons Young People Now, no 291 13 July pp14-15
Scottish Executive 2004 Children’s Social work Statistics 2003 http://www.
scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/10/20121/45472
Seabrook T and Green E 2004 Streetwise or safe? Girls negotiating time
and space, in Mitchel W Bunton R Green E (edsEds) Young People, Risk and
Leisure: Constructing Identities in Everyday Life Cambridge: Open University
Press pp129-141
Sentinella J and Keigan M 2005 Young adolescent pedestrians’ and cyclists’
road deaths: analysis of police accident files Prepared for the Department for
Transport, Road Safety Division TRL Report No. 620 Crowthorne, Berkshire:
Transport Research Laboratory TRL
Shanahan D Elliott B and Dahlgren N 2000 Review of Public Information
Campaigns: Addressing Youth Risk Taking NYARS Report Hobart, Australian
Clearinghouse for Youth Studies
Sharland E 2006 Young People, Risk Taking and Risk Making: Some Thoughts
for Social Work British Journal of Social Work 36(2) pp247-266
Skolbekken JA 1995 The risk epidemic in medical journals Social Science &
Medicine 40 pp291-305
Slovic P 1987 Perception of Risk Science 236 pp280–285
Smith P et al 2006 An Investigation into Cyber Bullying, its Forms, Awareness
and Impact, and the Relationship Between Age and Gender in Cyber Bullying
Report to the Anti-Bullying Alliance January
Starr C 1969 Social benefits versus technological risks Science 165 pp1232-
1238
Stephenson A 2003 Physical risk-taking: Dangerous or endangered? Early
Years 23 pp 35-43
Stenson K and Factor F 1994 Youth Work, Risk, and Crime Prevention Youth and
Policy 45 pp1-15
Sure Start - http://www.surestart.gov.uk/
Sustain 2005 The Children’s Food Bill: Why we need a new law, not more
voluntary approaches London: Sustain
Swann S and Balding V 2001 Safeguarding children in prostitution: guidance
review London: Department of Health
64

References

Sweeting H and West P 2003 Sex differences in health at ages 11, 13 and 15
Social Science and Medicine 56(1) pp31-39
TDA 2007 Primary school boys call for more male teachers
http://www.tda.gov.uk/about/mediarelations/2007/20070731.aspx?keyword
s=male+teachers
Teenage Pregnancy Unit 2007 Teenage Conception Statistics for
England 1998-2005 http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/_files/
9E0C1F27DA3ED03D6D2E145891A9A9BD.doc
Wilson H and Donenberg G 2004 Quality of parent communication about sex
and its relationship to risky sexual behaviour among adolescents in psychiat-
ric care Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45 pp387-395
Wilson D et al 2006 Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Young People and Crime:
Findings from the 2005 Offending, Crime and Justice Survey The Metropolitan
Police Service
Wood M 2003 The victimisation of young people: findings from the Offending,
Crime and Justice Survey 2003 London: Home Office

Thomas M Wilmot A Walker A and Bennett N 1998 Living in Britain: results
from 1996 General Household Survey London: The Stationery Office
Towner E Dowswell E Errington G Burkes M and Towner J 2005 Injuries in chil-
dren aged 0-14 years and inequalities London: Health Development Agency
Tranter P and Pawson E 2001 Children’s Access to Local Environments: a case
study of Christchurch, New Zealand Local Environment 6(1) pp27-48
Truth Campaign - http://www.protectthetruth.org/truthcampaign.htm
Tulloch J 2004 Youth, leisure travel and fear of crime: an Australian study in
Mitchell W Bunton R and Green E (Eeds) Young people, risk and leisure: con-
structing identities in everyday life London: Palgrave Macmillan
Wood R Griffiths M Stevens J Bartlett H and Pye J 2006 Under 16’s and The
National Lottery Report with MORI commissioned by The National Lottery
Commission
Woods S Dughill L Milton B Porcellato L and Springett J 2005 The Longitudinal
Study on Smoking– The primary school phase: Executive Summary Liverpool
John Moores University: The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation
Wortley R 2006 Situational Approaches to Preventing Child Sex Offending
http://www.cscs.ucl.ac.uk/events-1/ecca/presentations/presentations/2007-
08-16.9790105332/download
Yeoman T and Griffiths M 1996 Adolescent machine gambling and crime (II)
Journal of Adolescence 19 pp183-188

UNESCO 1999 Violence on television and its impact on children. New Delhi:
UNESCO

UNICEF 2007 Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in

rich countries Innocenti Report Card 7. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre,
Florence.

Urrutia-Rojas X and Menchaca J 2006 Prevalence of Risk for Type 2 Diabetes in

School Children Journal of School Health 76(5) pp189-194

Valentine G 1996 Children should be seen and not heard: The Production and
Transgression of Adults’ Public Space Urban Geography 17(3) pp205-220

Valentine G and McKendrick J 1997 Children’s outdoor play: Exploring parental

concerns about children’s safety and the changing nature of childhood Geofo-
rum 28(2)

Ward J and Bayley M 2007 Young people’s perceptions of ‘risk’, in Thom B

Sales R and Pearce J Growing Up with Risk Bristol: The Policy Press

Ward et al 2006 Trouble in the land of Nod Times Educational Supplement,

no.4684 (5 May) pp4-5

Watt P and Stenson K 1998 It’s a bit dodgy around there: safety, danger,
ethnicity and young people’s use of public space, in Skelton T and Valentine G
(eds.) Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures London: Routledge.

Weller S and Bruegel I 2007 Children’s “place” in the development of neigh-

bourhood social capital. Unpublished.

Wellings K Nanchahal K Macdowall W McManus S Erens B Mercer C Johnson

A Copas A Korovessis C Fenton K and Field J 2001 Sexual behaviour in Britain;
early heterosexual experience Lancet 358(1 December) pp1843-1850

West Stevens 2002 Smart and sassy: the strengths of inner city black girls
Oxford: OUP

Wheway R 2007 Not a Risk Averse Society

WHICH? 2006 Food fables: exploding industry myths on responsible food

marketing to kids London: Which?

Wilby P 2007 Britain has lost the art of socialising the young http://www.
guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,2138860,00.html

Wildavsky A 1979 Speaking Truth to Power The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis
Boston: Little Brown.