DailyDirt: Dangerous Playgrounds Are Fun!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

If you have young kids, you might have noticed that public playgrounds are a bit different than the ones you played on as a kid. Rubberized surfaces have replaced gravel or asphalt, and simple teeter-totters (or see-saws) have been re-designed using viscoelastic materials to prevent dangerous accelerations. You might have noticed it's hard to find monkey bars on playgrounds. The reasons for these changes are obvious: safety and liability. However, are kids still having as much fun outdoors? Here are just a few links on playground equipment. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: accidents, fun, injuries, kids, parenting, playgrounds, safety


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    John, 31 Mar 2014 @ 7:16pm

    Tough New Zealand kids

    I recently holidayed on the south island of New Zealand. Not only is it a stunningly beautiful place, all the play grounds have 1 to 1.5cm loose rocks for the kids to fall on, under the playground equipment.

    No wonder NZ rugby team as so good.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2014 @ 7:31pm

    This trend started when I was young enough to hang out on playgrounds. I knew what they were doing then and why, and I hated them for tearing down the equipment I loved and replacing with useless, safety certified crap that wouldn't amuse a five year old. I've never understood why states don't pass laws to limit liability in these situations.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2014 @ 8:12pm

    not the reason

    Parents don't slide with kids for increased safety. They slide with kids who are to scared to slide alone.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    zip, 31 Mar 2014 @ 9:25pm

    grist-mill-in-disguise

    The most insidiously dangerous of the "classic" playground equipment had to be the merry-go-round, a heavy steel structure designed so that small children who fell off would get trapped underneath and ground up like hamburger meat.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Gwiz (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 6:45am

      Re: grist-mill-in-disguise

      I always liked the eroded and exposed hunks of concrete sticking up around the legs of all the playground equipment in my day. They added a dangerous element to everything.

      Man, those were the days back then, when we used to let Natural Selection do it's thing to improve humankind.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        nasch (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 7:58am

        Re: Re: grist-mill-in-disguise

        Man, those were the days back then, when we used to let Natural Selection do it's thing to improve humankind.

        Natural selection always does its thing, only the nature of the pressures changes.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2014 @ 7:17am

    Battle scars all kids have them , embrace them .. because remembering that time when you hit the curb on your bike and brush burned your left leg, flipped over the handlebars and went home with blood running down your leg and gravel and dirt embedded in the wound .. those days are meant to remind you of a childhood that was both fun and daring.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    nasch (profile), 1 Apr 2014 @ 6:57pm

    The first article is long and very worth reading, I recommend it if you haven't read it. I haven't checked out the other two yet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.