“Ban lists”: behavioural biologist sees worrying trend in German daycare centers
Home Panorama Stand: 25.08.2026, 05:16 PM Comments Follow us on Google All over Europe children play less and less, without being played by adults
- Center-left1
- Center-right1
1 agency rewrite / co-publication detected
Summary
Home Panorama Stand: 25.08.2026, 05:16 comments Follow us on Google All over Europe children play less and less without being watched by adults. He points to a 2012 meta-study that found that children with access to risky play have fewer injuries, anxiety disorders, and overweight, and more self-confidence. “The acquisition of risk competence is not possible without risk experience,” says Bensel. Around 77 percent of accidents in daycare centers were due to lack of exercise and lack of motor skills, not risky play. “It is not the climbing children who fall, but the movement-poor ones, usually on smooth floor in the group room,” says the behavioral biologist.
Furthermore, Because: “If children cannot have experiences with risk, their risk competence cannot develop.” If risky play is too often prevented or restricted in everyday life, it could be that children seek risk experiences in other places and thus more in danger. Fear then becomes the stop signal to the useful companion. The Danish educator Heidi Jensen spoke here of “competence scrapes”. (Sources: own research). His son had confusedly asked him why a broken swing was “at the doctor” – so it was on a playground sign.
Cross-referenced from 2 sources.
Factual coreconfirmed by several independent voices
Home Panorama Stand: 25.08.2026, 05:16 comments Follow us on Google All over Europe children play less and less without being watched by adults.
reliability low1/2 sourcesHe points to a 2012 meta-study that found that children with access to risky play have fewer injuries, anxiety disorders, and overweight, and more self-confidence. “The acquisition of risk competence is not possible without risk experience,” says Bensel.
reliability low1/2 sourcesAround 77 percent of accidents in daycare centers were due to lack of exercise and lack of motor skills, not risky play. “It is not the climbing children who fall, but the movement-poor ones, usually on smooth floor in the group room,” says the behavioral biologist.
reliability low1/2 sourcesBecause: “If children cannot have experiences with risk, their risk competence cannot develop.” If risky play is too often prevented or restricted in everyday life, it could be that children seek risk experiences in other places and thus more in danger.
reliability low1/2 sourcesFear then becomes the stop signal to the useful companion. The Danish educator Heidi Jensen spoke here of “competence scrapes”. (Sources: own research)
reliability low1/2 sourcesHis son had confusedly asked him why a broken swing was “at the doctor” – so it was on a playground sign.
reliability low1/2 sources
Disputedincompatible versions — to verify
No factual contradiction detected between sources.
Framing by sidesame fact, different words — loaded terms highlighted
No notable framing divergence.
Blind spotwhat one side keeps silent
No blind spot detected: every side covers the same facts.
Sources2 sources cross-checked
Center-left1
Center-right1
