Naked children in the park - who is right?

[Oysterbabe]

We're currently enjoying the sun in the park with DD 4 months (who is enjoying it by being asleep in the shade) It is packed with families as you'd expect. In the group next to us there are two little girls, I'm going to guess about 4 and 5, who are having a lovely time running around and playing completely in the buff. I was saying to DH that I wouldn't let our DD run around naked at that age in such a public place. There could be any number of dodgy characters watching on and getting off on it. He thinks it's fine, that they're still young enough to get away with it. Also in the unlikely event there is a lurking paedo, they're completely oblivious and it's not going to hurt them at all, you can't live in fear.
Who's right? Am I being too Daily Mail paedo round every corner or is it correct to be cautious about such things?

Haven't read the full thread, but I wouldn't allow my dc to be nude in a public park for several reasons:

1. Little babies and children aren't really very reliable on the toilet training front. So, shit and piss. Pop a nappy on.

1. Sunburn. I was always taught to cover up shoulders and pop on a hat. UV rays are damaging to skin, especially children's skin. Pop on a T shirt or swim top, and a hat. The blindness charities also recommend sun glasses to protect your eyes from UV rays.

1. Litter, glass, dog shit, needles etc on the floor. Pop some shoes on.

Then there are also the issues of manners, social norms and safety.

I'm amazed at some of the oddly prudish answers.

I allow my dc's to be naked if they want to be and it's appropriate. As adults we get to deem what appropriate means. Surely, common sense dictates that eg, if your child is running around naked in a park they should have shoes on, and if they are using play equipment you should put their clothes back on.

I can't see the harm in nakedness on the grass, running around freely. As for peeing outside, of course you teach them what is and is not appropriate. Toddling off to a bush nearby (having screened it for paedos first of course ) seems fine to me if there are no toilets about, but peeing near someone's jam sandwich is not.

As for sunburn, I mean come on people, surely suncream is a given!

Nudity is not the end of civilisation as we know it.

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/11641096/Number-of-paedophiles-in-Britain-will-shock-public-warns-Deputy-Childrens-Commissioner-for-England.html

Child sex abuse is so rife in Britain that there is not enough land in the country to build the number of prisons needed to house the perpetrators, the Deputy Children’s Commissioner for England has warned.

Sue Berelowitz, who is currently chairing the government’s inquiry into the problem said the public would be shocked by the sheer scale of the problem when she reports in November.

She blamed the spread of pornography through the internet and social media for the growing problem of an increasingly sexualised society.

Child porn and the proliferation of indecent images of children, and all the stuff we are seeing on social media which is undoubtedly having an impact on young people growing up and their impressions of sex and sexuality.

“I want us to keep in mind that people who sexually abuse children are somehow another breed. They are here and in our midst.

I don;t think there's anything wrong with people having their own boundaries as to what is or isn't acceptable to them TBH. We have to make decisions for our DC every single day.
As long as you are happy with your choices.

I wouldn't let mine run about naked - I agree with the mixed messages response that Sparkling mentioned.

Also, 3yo DD2 strips naked in an instant, whenever and wherever, and we're trying to stop that as it can be exceedingly inappropriate. It's really not funny to realise that the small naked child streaking through a churchyard towards some tearful mourners is yours.

Plus - sun damage. My DCs are always sun-suited up when playing in water outdoors until DD2 foils us, in fact I'm very fair too so I also wear a rash vest if I'm in an outdoor pool/water area.

It must be quite alarming to have a child stripper.

Peppermint Pasty is spot on.

I am so glad I have teens and don't have to think about this in RL.

I am in agreement with Peppermint Pasty. Also Cheekygit the Telegraph? Really? Don't believe everything you read in scaremongering rags.

There's a lot of them about, Sparkling! I know several parents with the same problem. At least I've managed to drum it into her that she is not to strip naked and sit on the sofa

I think it's pretty disgusting to allow children to be naked in public places. I have no wish to see anyone's genitals thank you very much. I don't care if they are children or adults.
I also think it's rank because it's really unhygienic.

I can't believe that parents don't think about the fact that the pictures of their kids can easily end up all over the internet. why would you take that risk?

I agree with a poster earlier who said that these type of children are usually the ones parented by people who like to think of their children as "free range". These kids always look like they need a good scrub in the bath.

As for adults sunbathing naked in a park, YUK..
I don't care if it's legal. it's unpleasant, and why just why

I think that's interesting about a more sexualised society. I suspect that in the past it was more common when people had "deviant" urges they had no one to verbalise them to/with and they were much less likely to act on them unless they had personal learning history e.g. from having been abused themselves.

I had a Sociology lecturer at university who told us paedophilia was the last taboo of the Western world.

We were outraged - but I understand what he was saying better now.

It's hard when most of what people read and believe about sexuality paints it as something that is knitted in the womb in ways that suggest if you don't choose to live in accordance with your sexual desires, you are not living a full life - because I'm sure that paedophiles believe similar things as distorted as their lens might be.

I am bisexual but ultimately I don't pursue women not because I don't fancy them but because I chose to be married and have kids and to do so would likely cause harm to them.

I wonder do paedophiles who would have made a conscious effort not to engage in harmful sexual conduct feel emboldened now to act on their proclivities because of the general way sexuality/sexual preferences and desire is now seen as so central to someone's overall identity?

Wow.

MissDirection my mother is Head of a large school and he told her that within a twenty mile radius of the school there were 360 registered sex offenders. It really is fairly scary out there.

Sorry, that was to petitpois.

Yabu. They are little children. Suncream is a factor of course.

The parts that you cover with underwear/swimsuit are private line is great but they will understand you mean usually cover. And it is no one should be touching you there, asking to see it etc not that it should never be seen.

Peppermint that, sadly doesn't surprise me at all. A friend of mine is a probation officer. Some of the things she has told me about serial child sex offenders and how they secretly film children in parks and on beaches would make your hair stand on end.
My DD is a teen now. I never ever let her run around naked in a public place when she was little.

So, posters who are going on about the paedophile on every street corner thing...are you saying that if a paedophile saw a naked child in the park and a fully clothed child in the park, it would always be the naked child who was first at risk? Because if you are that's patently nonsense.

Unfortunately the 'daily mail pea do' isn't the greasy looking chap sat on his own, or the old man wandering past staring, not necessarily. The majority of child sex offenders are quite often normal family men who may be sat with the family next to you, snapping a cheeky photo of your naked kid and then Photoshopping onto the Internet. I'm afraid with sex offenders, there's no such thing as too paranoid. How much do you know about the dad you're sending your child on a sleepover to? (I work for the police). No nakies kids here, or FB accounts etc etc 😕 Seen too much

Gunting, you are right, it was the old fart with the camera who needed to be nailed, and instantly. I do hope the police got him? Unfortunately these pervs are everywhere, children are rarely aware of them thank goodness, but if we remain properly observant, adults can generally spot them immediately. When we do we need to act quickly so that the suspect is, at the very least, warned off.

I remember the freedom, the sense of liberty I felt when running about starkers. Our problem, and for the boys as well, was that it was at school where the school Dr himself was the paedophile! He really was a ghastly, dirty old man, filthy fiddling old sod. It took too long to pluck up the courage, but we well and truely busted him in the end.

Well the naked child is more at risk of having surreptitious photos taken to share with his online paedo friends.

I was 'wowing' really at your use of the word disgusting in this context.

As for filming of children, I'm not so naive as to think it doesn't go on. When I practiced criminal law I defended various teachers and social workers accused of such crimes and worse.

The hard truth is though, unless you catch them at it, how is the fact that someone films your child for their own gratification going to affect your child or you?

If someone says to me that we shouldn't go naked for fear of the child's nakedness being provocative in that situation, I say that's a step too far. There is provocation(or whatever the most suitable word is) in almost every situation in society if you are a paedophile. Early sexualisation is everywhere. I don't include innocent nakedness in that.

Yes, the thought of someone doing that is revolting, of course it is. But in carrying out my risk assessment of that situation, in the park, surrounded by any number of different people, I would not conclude that my child, happily playing naked or whatever, should be covered up.

The naked child is far more at risk - I'm shocked at the naivety on this thread tbh.

This thread is

What stands out is a lot of the people who are happy to lets DC run around in public. Are the ones who are calling names and doing the most judging of others.

So people who state thier personal preference for putting pants on and their personal reasoning why they do. Have been called arseholes, prudes, wierd, odd, have issues, paranoid........

As for the people who don't want to see a shitty arse bent over near them whilst they eat or even just sit. It happens because as demonstrated from this thread, those parents think nothing of being gobshites who will do as they please and fuck anyone else.

I never judged people who let their DC run naked, but after this insight into their mind set and rudeness to others. I won't help but thinking them quite scummy now.

HTH

I personally always went along with your privates are your privates, not for any tom dick and harry to see.

Me too Random.