Most children spend their weekends and holidays watching TV at home, as a majority of parents rarely take them outdoors because they either wanted to rest or couldn’t find a good place for their children to play, a survey released yesterday said.
The survey by the Child Welfare League Foundation of more than 1,000 children under the age of 12 found that three out of every four children said they watched TV on weekends and holidays, and 62 percent surfed the Internet or played video games.
SHOPPING
Those who said they went out and “played” usually visited places such as community recreational areas or shopping centers and supermarkets, the poll found.
The No. 1 reason cited by parents for not taking their children out to play was that they “prefer to rest at home” (38.5 percent), followed by “no appropriate place for children” (32.7 percent) and “too expensive to take children out” (26 percent), the survey showed
Foundation executive director Alicia Wang (王育敏) said the government had failed to provide adequate public facilities where parents and children could enjoy their leisure time together.
As of the end of last year, there were only 23 public amusement parks or recreational centers with child-friendly facilities, 12 of which are located in Taipei City, Wang said.
While the western part of the country has 20 public, child-friendly recreational centers, the east has only three, the poll found.
“Not only do we need more children-friendly recreational places, but there is also an unequal distribution of resources,” the director said.
HIGH COSTS
Wang said that as a result of the lack of publicly run recreational centers for children, many parents have to rely on privately run facilities, but high ticket prices have discouraged many families from visiting, especially large families, for which costs could get very high.
A mother surnamed Tsai (蔡) told the press conference yesterday that one of her family’s favorite amusement parks charged as much as NT$900 per adult.
“We want to take our children there, but spending as much as NT$5,000 to NT$6,000 each trip is too much for us,” she said.
Some of the privately run amusement parks do not set age limits for certain attractions or shows that include content that may be inappropriate for children, and many amusement parks have very few rides that are suitable for young children.
PLAY
The foundation proposed a solution, called PLAY — price, leisure, access and youth-friendly — to improve the situation.
Prices at privately run amusement parks should be lowered for families, parents should arrange outdoor activities to spend time with their children, children anywhere in the country should be able to enjoy access to public facilities, and recreational centers should have youth-friendly facilities, it said.
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