Why safe playgrounds aren't great for kids
Why safe playgrounds aren't great for kids
There’s a case for making playgrounds riskier.
This video is presented by Wix, sign up at https://www.wix.com/go/vox
Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO
The stereotypical modern playground — with its bright colors and rubberized flooring — is designed to be clean, safe, and lawsuit-proof. But that isn’t necessarily the best design for kids.
US playground designers spent decades figuring out how to minimize risk: reducing heights, softening surfaces, and limiting loose parts. But now, some are experimenting with creating risk. A growing body of research has found that risky outdoor play is a key part of children’s health, promoting social interactions, creativity, problem-solving, and resilience.
Some communities are even experimenting with “adventure playgrounds,” a format with origins in World War II Denmark, where bomb sites became impromptu playgrounds. Filled with props like nails, hammers, saws, paint, tires, and wood planks, these spaces look more like junkyards than play spaces — and parents are often kept outside of the playground while children are chaperoned by staff. Now, that question of keeping children safe versus keeping children engaged is at the heart of a big debate in playground design.
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.
Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H
We would just climb to the top of the domes
I wish i had this when i was a kid tho, like I bet id be more confident, playful and creative 😕
I remember my mother telling me stories about in the 1980s in Poland where she would play in construction sites and no one would care
The way we got creative when we were little wasn’t by going to a playground regardless if it’s “safe” or “dangerous”. We just played without/limited toys. By toy I mean sometimes, it’s literally a chalk or a stick, maybe a ball. We had no phones or iPads or game consoles (not that these existed at the time). Just using our imagination, playing with our friends, and making up game out of nothing.
**kid stabs other kid with screwdriver**
Me as a parent: *Welps.*
I’m sorry but I don’t want my 2 year old daughters head to get banged in
It’s all fun and games until…
-They start fighting with stuff involved
-Anti-vax kid steps on rusty things or play barefoot
-Build to the literal height limit, only to fall inside of one barrel or something.
Please expand this list, thank you.
*Builds Bomb Shelter*
It’s safe
The point about overly safe playgrounds leading to kids seeking out dangerous thrills the structure can’t provide is an important one – I remember as a kid that playgrounds were always SO BORING and me and my friends ended up balancing along the rails or climbing on top of the roofs or tunnels so we could jump down. "Safe" playgrounds arent actually safer, they’re just boring and unstimulating
0:15 guy in red shirt kneeling next to world’s smallest man
I think that a compromise between risk and safety should be used. You need a space where kids can invent, experiment and have fun while dads can rest assured knowing that their kids will come back home with their two legs intact
I have been to one of these and they are wayyyy more fun than regular playgrounds
I just kept thinking what if those kids had a fight with those hammers and tools. I couldn’t focus on any other logic besides that. 🙃
Yeeea right, half the kids parents here in murica got their tikes living in a bubble. They’d be all up in a tizzy about how they don’t want "their" children playing in such an "unsafe environment."
There was this one bully at my school, his name was Evan. He would have killed someone if was given a hammer ..but hey these look fun
*"there’s no evidence that this is better or safer for children"* THEN ACT LIKE IT
Yep. Reminds me when I was a kid.
This would be lit
America:more guns than people
Also America: _NaiLs ArE uNsAfE_
I’m 19 and I would still love to go to a junk playground
Basically real life Minecraft
Hey. Tis fun tho
Yeah I think this would fail in 2019 because we have phones and iPads and video games lol
Humans became so domesticated that kids can’t even have fun anymore
Things in the playground fandom are heating up
I used to have competitions with my friends to see who could keep their hands on the hot metal the longest
This is Sandra
👧🏻
👚
👖
👡👡
She has a baby
👶🏻 🍼
1 like= 1 vaccine for some kid who needs it
Honestly though the moment these types of safe playgrounds started popping up around my neighnourhood was the moment I stopped playing outside. I miss being able to ride my mountain bike through the bushes and climb. I’m 22 now and I would still play outside like that if places like this existed where i live.
*risky playgrounds are safe*
Me: Excuse me what?
Kids today are growing up too safe indeed and it’s dangerous
It would be cool to have a playground
Where you can maybe have a medieval war or such.
You gave to factor in minorities selling drugs the kids and stealing things that aren’t bolted in a white town tho sure it would work
So theres science behind why i hated the SAFE school playground! (I just got out of elelmenty school)
Kids need to get hurt, it’s apart of the expirience.
>:(
why is that one kid so big? 0:15
We need more By Design
I agree growing up I never enjoyed playgrounds, bur crafting and building was way more fun
Alright so the city museum in st louis meets all those requirements. Best museum ever
In the begning at the video: We have that in Denmark?
The video: In Copenhagen.
Me: Ha! I knew it!
Everybody gangsta until the mental kid crafts a gun
Mr Krabs predicted this
I love the edits in these videos
I agree 100%
Either way, I’m gonna injure myself and come back home to a bloody leg. Or a very roughed up hand with splinters and the occasional dirt.
I been telling u
Oh, so we gonna be in dangerous ones?
I wish I experienced it because I badly need some carpentry skills.
I live in England and my primary school had two adventure playgrounds hidden in different parts of the woods. It was amazing and so much fun as a kid because it felt like we were exploring the woods and discovering new activities
And then there’s video games