Kids left to find own way
WHO IN their right mind would bring a five-year-old boy – and one who has never been to a big city – to London, put a map in his hand and wave him off? Who would leave the child outside the Imperial War Museum and tell him to find his own way to the London Eye, by bus?
His only companion will be his cousin, who is also five.
It would be considered neglectful. London bus drivers are instructed to alert authorities if they suspect a child is travelling alone.
That they didn’t in this case was because it was a social experiment, for an ITV show investigating how much freedom we give our kids – and whether they could benefit from more.
In this particular case, seven children (three groups, aged from four to seven) were set the task of getting themselves across the busy capital unaided. Planet Child, hosted by doctor twin brothers Chris and Xand Van Tulleken, contrasts the freedom given to children in other parts of the world with the existence British children have. We are reminded that most are so heavily supervised that they spend less time outdoors than prison inmates.
In the show, we find out how other cultures do it. We meet a sixyear-old in Tokyo who travels alone across the city to get to school.
In Namibia, we are introduced to a seven-year-old and his five-year-old brother who walk kilometres from their village, not an adult in sight. They might not have to negotiate traffic, but they do have to be alert to wild dogs and elephants.
“We were interested in the fact that children get treated very differently around the world,” says Dr Xand. “We wanted to see if the assumptions we make about parenting in the UK could be challenged.”
Dr Chris adds: “It’s about kids and how they behave. We provoke them and put them in weird situations – and we’ve found it’s surprising how they respond.”
In Planet Child, children are asked to take part in experiments, from climbing trees to going shopping, to assess their attitude to risk and their ability to cope without adult supervision. The London experiment is the most radical. How do the children get on?
Kieran Robinson and his cousin Rita, who live on a farm in Yorkshire, almost fail at the first hurdle when they succumb to the lure of the play area in the museum’s gardens. At the point where the production crew think they should be boarding the allotted bus, the pair are having a whale of a time on the slides.
When they finally leave, your heart is in your mouth watching the two little figures heading into the heaving city streets, and trying to find a bus stop. They ask a lady at the bus stop for help. Clever? Or worrying, given our preoccupations with Stranger Danger?
The children were never in any danger during the filming – they are never entirely alone – although they weren’t told this.
The bus they was rigged with cameras to follow their every move. Adult “minders” were there, at a distance, posing as passengers. At the first sign the children were distressed, they would intervene.
Nonetheless, it makes for tense viewing. Perhaps the most astonishing thing is that the adults never have to step in. The children aren’t fazed by the task.