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The Child Safety questionnaire has now been removed from the site. Many thanks to all of you who submitted a completed copy.
Over 305 parents took part in the questionnaire and their replies make interesting reading.
On this page you'll find an overview of the responses. Full details plus all the comments received will be loaded to the site shortly
If you would like more details please contact the site at admin@forparentsbyparents.co.uk
The overall findings were clear:
- 96% of all respondents said that they were concerned to some degree about their child's safety outside of the home;
- of this 96%, 72% said they were concerned 'often' or 'very often'.
Parents were also asked the age of the child whose safety most concerned them:
- over 50% picked the 2-5 year age bracket;
- 21% selected the 6-9 age bracket.
The key areas of concern for parents with children in 2-5 year age bracket were:
- abduction - almost 50% of respondents highlighted this area;
- getting lost - again almost 50% of respondents highlighted this area;
- being mistreated - 35% of respondents highlighted this area.
As children got older the causes of concern changed significantly:
- in the 6-9 age group 'Bullying' and 'Being led astray by other children' were raised as significant areas of concern alongside 'Abduction';
- both 'Bullying' and 'Being led astray' grew in significance in the older age categories,10-13 and 14-18.
Parents were also asked to consider if they would use technology to help keep track of their children outside the home.
An amazing 84% expressed the view that they were 'very keen' to know about products that would help them in this area. However, current products available met with a mixed response:
- 30% said they would consider electronic tagging for their children;
- 50% said they would consider mobile phone technology that allows a child to be tracked.
Other ideas that parents suggested were:
- personal alarms;
- US style school buses that pick up and drop off children from multiple stops;
- more police on the streets;
- and of course, the long term detention of child abuse offenders.
Some parents tried to reflect a reasonable approach to this issue and highlighted rational concerns to the protective view generally expressed:
"Children need to be taught to be responsible without being afraid - how can your child seek help (if lost) if they are not allowed to talk to strangers?"
However, overall, the level of parental concern in this area cannot be overestimated. One comment sums up the general feeling:
"I believe you cannot go too far where children's safety is concerned."
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