Discourses of childhood safety: what do children say?

This article will report on a project, which consulted children about their understandings of safety in relation to the people and places in their lives. Thirty-nine children aged between three and five years attending preschool and long day-care services reflected on their experiences of what is safe and unsafe in their world through dialogue, artwork and construction. The services were based in an inner city in Australia. The article will then examine discourses of safety to explore how children limit their own capacity and willingness to actively and independently engage with the world outside their family and home due to concerns of safety. This examination raises questions for educators, researchers, policymakers and families about how the effects of how adults observe, monitor and restrict children's play and movement to keep them in close proximity in order to keep them safe.