National Kidsafe Day 2014: Challenging Play - Risk It!

Megan Mitchell

National Children's Commissioner

Australian Human Rights Commission

Introduction to National Kidsafe Day 2014

Good morning everyone and thankyou Dr Julie Brown for the introduction.

Thank you to Kathleen Clapham for the acknowledgement to country this morning. I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and on which children and families have lived for thousands of years, and I pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

I would also like to thank Kidsafe NSW, especially NSW Executive Officer, Christine Erskine, for inviting me to speak today.

As we can see all around us, children love to play. In fact when I undertook a listening tour last year in my first year as National Children’s Commissioner and heard from thousands of children, one of the things they said made them most happy was being able to play.

What a pleasure it is to be here during Children’s Week - to help celebrate and discuss the right of children to play in safe environments.  I would also like to thank Dorothy the Dinosaur for brightening our morning with your songs.  

The theme for this year’s National Kidsafe Day 2014 is ‘Challenging Play - Risk it!’ This is an important issue for us to think about because we know that play which is challenging and involves taking risks helps children to learn about themselves, build resilience, and develop problem-solving skills.

The right to play

As the National Children’s Commissioner, my job is to advocate for the rights and interests of children across Australia. Promoting the right to play is an important part of my work because play is fundamental to children’s wellbeing and development. 

The right of children to play has been recognised around the world including through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Australia signed up to in 1990, almost 25 years ago. This Convention explains, in Article 31, that all children have a right participate freely in play and that they should be provided with equal opportunities to engage in play.

Why is it important for children to play?

Instinctively, we know that play is very important, but research also tells us that play is essential for the development of children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical wellbeing.

Physical play, for example, is vital for preventing childhood obesity problems. Worryingly, the Australian Health Survey in 2011-12 showed that only about one-quarter of Australian children aged 4-15 meet the national physical activity recommendations every day. (1)

It is also through play that children develop creativity, learn to cooperate, overcome challenges, test and defy perceived limitations as well as negotiate with others.

Play, both supervised and unsupervised, allows children to reveal themselves and let their imaginations range.  Play promotes healthy brain development by encouraging all those important synapses to fire and exercises different brain muscles. Through play children also learn by doing – and these early lessons are formative.

Play also provides time for parents and caregivers to engage on another level with their children, to bond with them, and to see the world from their perspective. (2)

Challenging play and taking risks

Whether kids are playing sport at school, climbing a tree, kicking a ball around, or hanging off the monkey bars at the local playground, there are good risks and bad risks that come with play.

During 2010-2011, 1411 0-4 year olds, and 4513 5-14 years olds, were hospitalised as a result of a fall from playground equipment in Australia. (3)

Though adults of course need to manage unacceptable hazards to children’s play, threats to children’s safety are best managed by empowering kids rather than by constraining them.

Parents and caregivers can empower children by helping them to:

• develop skills in negotiating the environment and identifying potential risks;
• learn how to use equipment safely and for its designed purpose;
• develop coordination and orientation skills;
• take acceptable risks; and
• learn about the consequences  - both positive and negative - of risk taking. (4)

Risk-taking does not always have a negative outcome. Many positives can come from taking risks. You can see a risk as either:

• A challenge: something obvious to the child where he or she can determine their ability and decide whether to take that risk, or
• A hazard: something unseen or not obvious to the child that often results in injury. (5)

Children have an almost endless appetite for experimentation, imagination and trying new things. Knowing this, while we need to protect children from the more serious inherent risks they will face in life, we can’t adopt a zero-risk approach to children’s play because this prevents children from having important developmental experiences. Nor is it possible. (6) (7)

Creating relevant and safe play spaces

However, we do need to ensure that play environments are as safe as possible. They also need to be relevant to children’s needs, and this means including children in the development and design of play spaces, including parks, local facilities and child-friendly communities.

In April 2013, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child - the expert body that monitors the UN Convention - recognised the importance of play for children by issuing what they call a General Comment. This international document known as General Comment Number 17, outlines the many challenges children face in realising their right to play and gives guidance to countries about what action needs to be taken to overcome these challenges.

In this comment, the Committee said that:

Children are entitled to exercise choice and autonomy in their play and recreational activities, as well as in their participation in cultural and artistic activities. (8)

I strongly believe that the child’s voice must be privileged in relation to play and all other matters affecting them, because by listening to children, we learn about their feelings, about their needs and what will work for them. After all, they are the experts in their own lives.

As well as the need to include children in the design of play spaces, General Comment Number 17 also explains the dangers of commercialisation and poorly designed built environments.

We know that when public areas are commercialised without considering children or their interests, they can be advertently or inadvertently excluded from those spaces, limited the ways and opportunities for children to play.

However, there are many fabulous agencies and individuals who are doing something about this by designing and building inclusive and innovative playspaces that encourage challenging, creative and healthy participation for all children.

And on that note, I very much look forward to presenting the 2014 Kidsafe National Playspace Design Awards, which recognise excellence and innovation of safe and creative playspaces across Australia.

Thank you.

(1) Australian Government, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australia’s Health 2014 (2014).

(2) D Mulligan, R Milteer, K Ginsburg, ‘The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bond: Focus on Children in Poverty’ (2012) 129(1) American Academy of Pediatrics 204. At http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/129/1/e204.full (viewed October 2014).

(3) Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Trends in hospitalised injury, Australia, 1999-00 to 2010-11 (2013). At: http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129544399.

(4) Kidsafe, Challenge Play – Risky! (2014). At http://www.kidsafensw.org/playground-safety/challenging-play-risky/ (viewed 20 October 2014).

(5) Kidsafe, note 4.

(6) J Gleave & I Cole-Hamilton, A literature review on the effects of a lack of play on children’s lives, Play England (2012). At http://www.playengland.org.uk/media/371031/a-world-without-play-literat… (viewed October 2014).

(7) S Rushton, A Rushton, & E Larkin, ‘Neuroscience, Play and Early Childhood Education: Connections, Implications and Assessment’ 37 Early Childhood Education Journal 351. At http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ876287 (viewed October 2014).

(8) Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 17 – on the Rights of the Child to Rest, Leisure, Play, Recreational activities, Cultural life and the Arts, CRC/C/GC/17 (2013), para 19. At http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/GC/CRC-C-GC-17_en.doc (viewed 15 October 2013).