Cotton Wool Kids
About the programme
Adel, the father of 13-year-old Siad in central London, won't allow him to go out alone or with friends. Every day Sid is dropped at the school gates and collected again. Every evening, he plays on his computer but yearns to go and do things first-hand. His frustration is sparking rows within the family.
Adel recognizes that his son may want more freedom but feels that children should never be left alone: "Kids get stabbed. Kids get slashed. Kids attack adults. There are lots of things kids can do when they get together. It is tough to be a parent, not like the old days when it was safe on the streets. Maybe I am over-protective. It's just tough love."
But Siad feels Adel goes too far: "I don't like being spied on by my dad, it doesn't make me feel normal. He's always there, not just protective, but over-protective."
Sam is a self confessed worrier. Her two children, 3-year-old Lilly-May and 10-year-Harry are the centre of her world and the focus of the most of her worrying. "I just go completely off a scale sometimes", she says, like the time she insisted on all the windows on the top floor of the house were closed in case someone snatched her children in the night. High profile missing child stories, like the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, help to fuel her anxiety.
When nine-year-old Abi, goes shopping at home in Essex with her mum Toni, she is told that people they pass in the street may be potential abductors. Abi travels with her mother to see some new microchip technology that could offer a way to track her every movement for safety's sake.
The observational stories are supported by a chorus of interviews with children, interspersed through the film, that suggest the climate of fear goes beyond a small handful of families. As one child states: "I just want to be safe. So I hear what mummy has to say. And trust me, that can be hard."
There is a cautionary note to the film: 76% of parents believe there has been a dramatic increase in child murders but statistically there has been no such increase. (Families for Freedom, Advocacy group – 1998 Questionnaire). Yet, partly because of such fears, children today have less freedom than ever before; as Adel says: "My son doesn't have enough experience of the outside world" but for these protective parents, the perceived risks outweigh potential consequences.