Why We Should Let Children Take More Risks When They Play
Outdoor play has halved in a generation and break times are shrinking. The instinct to keep children safe is understandable - but the research says removing risk from play might be making them more anxious, not less.
The youngest children in English primary schools now get 23 minutes less break time per day than children the same age got in 1995. Outside school, the picture is similar. Outdoor play has dropped by half in a generation, and 76% of parents say people are less accepting of children playing outside than when they were young. Something has shifted, and it goes beyond busy schedules.
We are raising children in an environment that has become steadily less tolerant of risk. Playgrounds are safer than ever. Supervision is tighter. The rough edges of childhood - climbing too high, running too fast, getting a bit lost - are being quietly sanded down. The intention is good. But a growing body of research suggests the consequences are not.
The key distinction the CPS makes is between risk and hazard. A risk is something a child can see and choose to take on - how high should I climb? A hazard is danger beyond what they can recognise or manage. The goal is not to remove adults from the equation. It is to shift from "as safe as possible" to "as safe as necessary." That single word change carries a lot of weight.
Take that away, and the fears may stick around longer than they should. Sandseter and Kennair suggest that preventing children from age-appropriate risky play could actually increase the likelihood of anxiety later on. This is not a fringe view. A 2021 conceptual model published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health made a similar case, proposing adventurous play as a mechanism for reducing childhood anxiety risk.
The link between overprotective parenting and child anxiety has been studied from multiple angles. A 2025 paper in Family Relations found that high levels of parental anxiety often drive overprotection - anxious parents see more threats, which leads to more restriction, which limits children's chances to build coping skills. Research from McGill University found that students who grew up with overly cautious parents experienced more anxiety during the transition to university, precisely when parental scaffolding falls away.
None of this means anxious children have overprotective parents, or that letting your child climb a wall will prevent a diagnosis. Anxiety is complicated, and genetics play a real part. But the pattern in the research is consistent enough to take seriously: children who get fewer chances to manage small risks may struggle more with bigger ones later.
The commission recommended a National Play Strategy, a dedicated Minister for Play, a ban on "No Ball Games" signs, and restoring break times in schools. They proposed funding it through the sugar levy. Whether the government acts on any of this remains to be seen, but the fact that a serious commission felt the need to call this a crisis tells you where things stand.
Meanwhile, 53% of children have a mobile phone by the age of seven. The competition for children's time and attention is not just coming from cautious adults - it is coming from screens that offer stimulation without any of the physical, social, or emotional learning that comes from real-world play.
A child who climbs a tree and gets stuck for a minute is learning something real. They are learning about their own limits, about problem-solving under pressure, about the gap between fear and actual danger. A child whose parent lifts them down before they feel any discomfort learns something different: that the world is full of things they cannot handle alone.
The Canadian Paediatric Society puts it plainly: the benefits of risky play for healthy development outweigh the risk of injury. That is paediatricians - people whose entire job is keeping children safe - saying that a degree of physical risk is not the enemy of safety. It is part of how safety is learnt.
Next time your child wants to balance on something too narrow, or jump from something too high, or wrestle with a sibling on the living room floor, it might be worth pausing before you say stop. Watch for a moment. They might be doing exactly what they need to do.
We are raising children in an environment that has become steadily less tolerant of risk. Playgrounds are safer than ever. Supervision is tighter. The rough edges of childhood - climbing too high, running too fast, getting a bit lost - are being quietly sanded down. The intention is good. But a growing body of research suggests the consequences are not.
What risky play actually looks like
When researchers talk about risky play, they don't mean reckless play. The Canadian Paediatric Society published a position statement in 2024 defining it as "thrilling and exciting forms of free play that involve uncertainty of outcome and a possibility of physical injury." They identified six types: playing at height (climbing, jumping), playing at speed (running, sledding, cycling), using real tools (hammers, ropes, even knives in supervised settings), playing near elements like fire or water, rough-and-tumble play (the wrestling and chasing that makes parents nervous), and play where children might get lost or be out of sight.The key distinction the CPS makes is between risk and hazard. A risk is something a child can see and choose to take on - how high should I climb? A hazard is danger beyond what they can recognise or manage. The goal is not to remove adults from the equation. It is to shift from "as safe as possible" to "as safe as necessary." That single word change carries a lot of weight.
The anxiety question
Norwegian researchers Ellen Sandseter and Leif Kennair proposed something that sounds counterintuitive: risky play may actually work as a kind of natural anxiety prevention. Their theory, published in Evolutionary Psychology, argues that when children expose themselves to things that scare them a little - heights, speed, separation - they gradually learn to manage those fears. The thrill of climbing a tree is partly about conquering the fear of falling. Over time, the fear shrinks.Take that away, and the fears may stick around longer than they should. Sandseter and Kennair suggest that preventing children from age-appropriate risky play could actually increase the likelihood of anxiety later on. This is not a fringe view. A 2021 conceptual model published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health made a similar case, proposing adventurous play as a mechanism for reducing childhood anxiety risk.
The link between overprotective parenting and child anxiety has been studied from multiple angles. A 2025 paper in Family Relations found that high levels of parental anxiety often drive overprotection - anxious parents see more threats, which leads to more restriction, which limits children's chances to build coping skills. Research from McGill University found that students who grew up with overly cautious parents experienced more anxiety during the transition to university, precisely when parental scaffolding falls away.
None of this means anxious children have overprotective parents, or that letting your child climb a wall will prevent a diagnosis. Anxiety is complicated, and genetics play a real part. But the pattern in the research is consistent enough to take seriously: children who get fewer chances to manage small risks may struggle more with bigger ones later.
A play crisis with real numbers behind it
In England, the Raising the Nation Play Commission spent a year investigating what it calls a national "play crisis." Their final report, published in June 2025, laid out some striking figures. Just 27% of children regularly play outside their homes, compared with 71% of the baby boomer generation. Over half of parents say their child plays outside less than they did at that age. Around 800 play parks closed across England in the decade to 2022.The commission recommended a National Play Strategy, a dedicated Minister for Play, a ban on "No Ball Games" signs, and restoring break times in schools. They proposed funding it through the sugar levy. Whether the government acts on any of this remains to be seen, but the fact that a serious commission felt the need to call this a crisis tells you where things stand.
Meanwhile, 53% of children have a mobile phone by the age of seven. The competition for children's time and attention is not just coming from cautious adults - it is coming from screens that offer stimulation without any of the physical, social, or emotional learning that comes from real-world play.
What this means at home
The research is not asking parents to be reckless. Nobody is suggesting you let a toddler play with fire or a five-year-old wander off alone. What it suggests is something more modest: that the instinct to intervene - to say "be careful" before anything has gone wrong, to hover at the bottom of the climbing frame, to redirect rough play into something calmer - might be worth examining.A child who climbs a tree and gets stuck for a minute is learning something real. They are learning about their own limits, about problem-solving under pressure, about the gap between fear and actual danger. A child whose parent lifts them down before they feel any discomfort learns something different: that the world is full of things they cannot handle alone.
The Canadian Paediatric Society puts it plainly: the benefits of risky play for healthy development outweigh the risk of injury. That is paediatricians - people whose entire job is keeping children safe - saying that a degree of physical risk is not the enemy of safety. It is part of how safety is learnt.
Next time your child wants to balance on something too narrow, or jump from something too high, or wrestle with a sibling on the living room floor, it might be worth pausing before you say stop. Watch for a moment. They might be doing exactly what they need to do.
Sources & Further Reading