Traditional playground games such as conkers and snowball fights could see a revival under government plans to prevent today's children turning into “cottonwool kids”.

Ed Balls, the Children, Schools and Families Secretary, said he was shocked by research suggesting that one third of children aged 7 to 12 were never allowed to play outside because their parents were so concerned about their safety.

“Three quarters of parents feel that children face increased risks compared with five years ago from playing outside unsupervised,” he said. “If children don’t play outside it’s much harder to be healthy. If children don’t climb trees, it’s very hard for them to learn about risk and the safe way to do it. Kids need to learn.”

Mr Balls, who has three young children, said it was not the Government’s role to tell parents, or schools, exactly where to draw the balance between protecting children from harm and giving them the freedom to take part in risky activities, such as climbing trees.

However, he hoped that by publishing a consultation document on the subject today, the Government could help by promoting a public debate and providing information on risk.

“We want [our children] to be protected from harm and abuse. But this does not mean we should wrap them in cottonwool. Childhood is a time for learning and exploring,” he said.

He did not agree with schools that had banned snowball or conker fights on safety grounds. “My assumption is that if it snows, kids go out and have snowball fights,” he said. Mr Balls said society in general needed to adopt a more “commonsense” approach to the compensation culture, which deterred schools from doing anything risky for fear of being sued.

He adopted a similarly robust attitude to school trips, admitting that these could never be risk-free, but emphasising their enormous educational value, particularly for children from deprived backgrounds.

Mr Balls said the Government would be mounting a public education campaign to encourage parents to let their children play outside.

At the same time, however, he cautioned parents about other risks posed by developments, such as the internet. Nearly half of children claimed to have given out personal information online but only one in twenty of parents realised this. One in three children had received unwanted sexual or nasty comments online but only one in 20 parents appeared aware of this.

Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent and author of the book Paranoid Parenting, welcomed Mr Balls’s attack on the risk-averse culture, but warned equally against trying to institutionalise play. “Kids should feel open to play however they want. We should not regard play as part of the curriculum,” he said.

— The Government is to make £10 million available to help schools in the North of England deal with damage caused by recent flooding. More than 300 schools were forced to close temporarily as a result of flooding, and about ten may not be repaired before the start of the new school year in September.

— Grandparents, uncles, aunts and siblings should be drafted in to help children in schools. In a report today, Ofsted says that parents are often too busy working to take part in education. The study of 25 schools said that involving the extended family improved children’s attitudes.

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