Children require an element of risk during play and if this is eliminated from the playground they will seek it elsewhere, according to an international expert.

“Children who are not able to push their boundaries are not going to develop the way they should,” David Yearly, head of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, told a conference on the safety of playgrounds yesterday.

The issue of child safety has lately been at the forefront of public debate after the father of Luke Micallef, a seven-year-old boy who last year suffered brain injuries after falling a height of five metres at Chadwick Lakes, called for safer playgrounds and recreational areas.

While the father, Robert, argued in favour of fencing off areas such as the place where his son fell, others pointed out that, apart from being impractical, most adventures involved risk.

Mr Yearly said children should have accidents when they played but it was the serious ones which had to be prevented. Accidents happened “all the time” with children and through them they learn and develop, he said.

Play was generally led by children and included an element of challenge and risk. If this element was taken away, children would try to find it elsewhere. That was why risk assessments had to be carried out, to determine whether or not the risk was acceptable, he said.

Minor injuries, he added, could be beneficial in terms of intellectual and emotional growth. Even witnessing an injury helped children grow.

This did not mean injuries were a good thing, he cautioned, and life-threatening or permanently disabling injuries were definitely unacceptable.

In the UK,about 38,500 accidents take place in play areas every year. Of these, 54 per cent require simple treatment without follow-up, 11 per cent need no treatment whatsoever, 34 per cent require outpatient referral and less than one per cent need hospital admission.

Deaths in playgrounds are rare, with one occurring every two to three years.

Mr Yearly said this statistic was exceptionally low to overcome and the number of deaths from television sets falling on children was six times higher, he said, pointing out that a risk-benefit assessment was essential to manage such areas.

Just last month the Malta Standards Authority announced it would be carrying out inspections of playgrounds managed by local councils after an agreement was signed between the authority and the Local Government Department in January.

More than 150 playgrounds will be inspected at least once a year to ensure they are safe. The councils would then carry out regular inspections and maintenance.