We no longer see them playing alone in the streets of our cities. And when they dare to appropriate the public space, the children are very rarely alone: a parent, a teacher or an animator is never far away, keeping an eye on the many dangers which seem to lie in wait for the youngest. In a world where everything goes faster, the streets that once served as a playground have become the almost exclusive terrain of motorized vehicles, gradually driving out all the other occupants. While cyclists and pedestrians are slowly trying to reclaim some space in traffic, children continue to experience exclusion. While the ban on going out was once a punishment, it has become almost a dogma for parents who are increasingly worried about leaving their children outside. Where has the spirit of adventure gone? Should we blame the parents or our whole society?
These questions will be at the heart of a conference organized this Thursday in Rennes. Entitled “But where have the children gone? This meeting aims to decipher the reasons that have transformed the youngest generation into “indoor children”. “The evolution has taken place over time, particularly under the impetus of technological progress. With smartphones, a child no longer needs to leave home to interact with his classmates. Me, at 10, if I wanted to talk to a friend, I had to go to his house, ”explains Clément Rivière. The latter also cites “television, video games and before that the washing machine” as comfort factors that make people stay more at home. Lecturer in sociology at the University of Lille, he is the author from the book “Their children in the city”inspired by his thesis defended in 2014. He will lead the conference scheduled for Thursday in Rennes.
To finalize his work, the researcher from Lille conducted around 80 interviews with parents living in the 19th arrondissement of Paris and in Milan (Italy). If the two cities differ in certain aspects, the report drawn up with the parents is the same. “They have two big fears: the car and the bad meeting. They also have the feeling that a good parent does not leave their child alone outside. The police, the school, the justice system, other parents… Our society’s view is that a youth on the street is not considered a good education,” explains the researcher.
A real difference between boys and girls
Her work has also revealed significant differences in education between girls and boys. “When children are young, parents are more likely to trust their daughter. They are considered more obedient. The boys are seen as more airheaded and taking more risks,” says Clément Rivière. But in adolescence, the situation is reversed. “Young girls are more supervised from the onset of puberty. The perception changes, they are seen as potential victims, with the shadow of assault and rape hanging over them”. As they grow up, boys gain in freedom, being perceived as “capable of defending themselves”.
Beyond the sole perception of parents, the major problem of cities is that they have gradually chased children from their streets. By becoming denser, dirtier, less safe but above all by giving a very (too) important place to the car, they have made the public space more hostile to a small population, which does not always have the notion of danger. In 2007, the British doctor William Bird posed figures confirming this impression. In 1926, a boy from Sheffield (England) was allowed to travel nine kilometers alone. In 2007, his descendants were only allowed 300 meters around the family residence, as it recalls Release.
Cities that live up to children
In Basel (Switzerland), the decision was taken to lower the panels to 1.2 m to be seen by younger people. In Lille or Rennes, we have also created delegations of “cities at the size of children”. “It is a question of ensuring that in all the policies of the city, the particular question of children is taken into account. Does the public space as it is designed allow children to have a space for play, freedom? asked the socialist mayor of Rennes Nathalie Appéré when this delegation was created in 2020. It is not surprising to see most French cities adopting 30 km/h to calm traffic and make the streets safer. A gain for children but also for the elderly.
In charge of this new portfolio at the city of Rennes, the elected ecologist Lucile Koch considered that even the playgrounds normally designed for the youngest were contrary to the spirit of freedom. Deeming them “too sanitized”, the elected official campaigned for more open and wilder spaces giving free rein to the imagination, like what she had known during her childhood in Sweden.
In his interviews with parents, sociologist Clément Rivière also noted an anxiety-provoking feeling experienced by parents with the omnipresence of news items in the media. Already widely publicized, sordid cases involving children often act as an alert for guardians. “They feel like they’re bombarded with information. Even those who are not worried about it keep it in mind, ”explains the researcher from Lille.
Beyond the simple observation, is the desertion of public spaces in our cities bad news? Everything suggests yes. By staying at home, a child will have easier access to screens and will be more likely to lock themselves in isolation. A phenomenon that will also have an influence on his health by depriving him of physical activity and interactions with the external environment. In February, a study by cardiologist François Carré reported a chilling finding. In forty years, adolescents have lost 40% of their cardiorespiratory capacity.