MOST children in the UK spend less time outdoors than prison inmates, a survey has found.
Three out of every four youngster aged six to 11 spend less than an hour each day playing outside compared to the minimum 60 minutes of exercise and fresh air recommended for prisoners.
A new global report released today shows that a third of UK children play outside for 30 minutes or less a day, while nearly one in five do not play outdoors at all.
Unreliable British weather, lack of time and children wanting to stay inside were the most common reasons give by parents for why their children spent so much time indoors.
The results emerged in a poll of 12,000 parents worldwide undertaken as part of the 'Play in Balance' report, commissioned by detergent manufacturer Persil.
Three quarters of parents also reported that their child preferred to play virtual sports rather than "real" sports outside, and that nearly four in 10 under-sevens have never played conkers.
Clare Logan, senior brand manage for Persil in the UK said: “We were shocked when we discovered that children today are enjoying as little time outside as prisoners."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here