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Children learned vital "life-long lessons" when they took risks playing in a natural environment and any injuries they suffered were all part of growing up, it added in a report.
The message comes a week after Britain's Children's Society found in a survey that parents were stopping their children from going out to play on their own because they were worried about their safety.
Could affect development
A total of 43 percent of parents in that survey thought children should not go out unsupervised until they were 14 because of fears they could be hurt or even targeted by predatory paedophiles - a precautionary attitude perhaps, but one which the study said could affect children's development.
"We need to ask ourselves whether it is better for a child to break a wrist falling out of a tree or to get a repetitive strain wrist injury at a young age from using a computer or video games console," RoSPA said.
"Parents and children must not be frightened about venturing outside," said Peter Cornall, RoSPA's Head of Leisure Safety.
"When children spend time in the great outdoors - getting muddy, getting wet, getting stung by nettles - they learn important lessons: what hurts, what is slippery, what you can trip over or fall from," he said. – (ReutersHealth)
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Child Centre
June 2007
