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Douglas Todd: Faster, higher — kids gain from exciting, risky play

“Outdoor play doesn’t kill kids. It never has,” says UBC prof. Mariana Brussoni. “We need to move from making things as safe as possible to making them as safe as necessary.” She’s researching the negative unintended consequences of Canada’s new “safetyism.”

Drownings are in the news in B.C. this year because they’ve increased almost 50 per cent from the same point last year, according to the Lifesaving Society of B.C. So far 32 people have drowned.

The upsetting trend makes it a hard time to extol the virtues of the outdoors, especially when it comes to young people.

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