The SNCF recently faced backlash for its offer reserved for those over 12 on certain TGV trains, sparking passionate debates on social media. The controversy raises a deeper question: what space do we leave for children in the public sphere?
In our video at the top of this article, we explore how children’s autonomy has decreased over the decades. “In the 1950s, children had four kilometers of autonomy,” recalls architect and urban planner Madeleine Masse. “They would go fetch bread in the nearby village completely on their own. In the 1990s, this perimeter shrank to 400 meters, and today we estimate children’s autonomy to be zero.” The first solo journey is now done at around 11 and a half years on average – a year later than their parents did at the same age. Outdoor playtime has also decreased from 3 to 4 hours a day in the 1960s to less than 50 minutes today.
Reasons for this decline are manifold: cities designed for cars, a perception of increased insecurity amplified by the media, competition from screens, and the disappearance of vacant lots where children used to invent adventures. Added to this is the proliferation of “No Kids” spaces – hotels, restaurants, cruises – whose number has doubled between 2016 and 2023.
However, solutions do exist. Italian researcher Francesco Tonucci introduced the concept of “children’s cities” in 1991, now implemented in about fifteen countries: walking school routes, children’s municipal councils, and “child-friendly” businesses. In Basel, signage is designed at the height of a nine-year-old. In Barcelona, a “Bicibus” ensures collective school pick-up by bike.
One undeniable fact backed by statistics: pedestrian-related accidents have decreased over the past thirty years, the crime rate remains stable in the long term, and most kidnappings are done by a family member, not a stranger on the street. As Francesco Tonucci puts it: “We cannot accompany a child to play. The verb ‘to play’ only conjugates with the verb ‘to let.’”
