The environment around a child can play an important part in improving their safety and reducing risks. This doesn’t just mean around the house, and reducing the likelihood of accidents happening at home, but covers everywhere children go and everything that’s around them.

From the home, neighbourhoods, parks, open spaces, beach and the city centre, the environment around a child can have significant impact upon their wellbeing and safety. Our environment can effect how children grow up and develop, it can affect the risks they could experience and affects the likelihood of them becoming a victim of crime or injury. The environment can also play a significant role in the fear of crime or fear that something bad may happen e.g. poor street lighting, dark alleys or back streets.

However, the issues are slightly different when comparing young children with teenagers. Young children spend far more time with their parents or supervised by adults, and the range and distance they are allowed to go without parental or adult supervision is a lot less than that for teenagers. As children get older their parents allow them greater freedom and range from home for longer periods of time. Parents judge these increases based upon issues like the amount of local traffic around the neighbourhood, the sex/gender of their child, the child’s ability and independence, and to the changing sense and judgment of risks parents feel their children face.

See the download below for more information about the relationship children and young people have with their environment. See also the ‘Independence & Growing Up’ and the ‘Risks & Dangers by Age’ pages on this website for further information.

How the environment can affect safety

In the home

Approximately half of all injuries and accidents to children and young people happen in the home, and the majority of these happen to under 5 year olds. Therefore the home environment, and how children interact with the things around their home, can have a big impact on the risks of accidents and injuries happening. For more information see the ‘Accidents and Injury’ page on this website.

In the community (neighbourhood)

As children get older parents begin to let them play further away from home and around their neighbourhood and community. This is an important part of child development and helps children develop independence and increase their experiences of different things and situations while still being close to their parents and adults who supervise them. It is understandable that parents may have concerns around their child’s safety, but by talking through decisions and limits with children and explaining the reasons for any decision, i.e. not to roam too far, parents increase their children’s self awareness of risks and ensure that children will listen and respond to their concerns.

The City Centre & Public Places

While young children visit the city centre with parents or carers, young people are allowed greater freedom and regularly visit the city centre alone or with friends. Visiting the city centre has become an important part of young people’s social interaction and while young people enjoy and have fun visiting the city centre and beach areas the risks to their safety increase. While, it must be stressed that most children and young people who visit the city centre never experience any crime, the majority of ‘reported’ crime experienced by children and young people in Brighton & Hove happen in the city centre and the most popular or social areas of the city. However, these are still comparably low compared to the amount of children and young people in Brighton & Hove.

Downloads

Physical Environment: This extract from Brighton & Hove’s Children and Young People’s Safety Audit 2004 provides you with more information regarding issues which can influence children’s safety in public places. Including social activity, leisure time, behaviours of different age groups and what young people look for and want from their experiences of public places.