Half of Australian parents are unaware that young children should always be within arm’s reach around water and falsely believe that it takes more than 20 seconds to drown.
According to a recent Royal Children’s Hospital National Child Health Poll, ‘Water safety warning: Australian kids at risk’, many parents have gaps in water safety knowledge, with misconceptions around drowning risks and supervision requirements.
The poll surveyed 2,036 parents in September 2022, who provided data on 3,351 children aged between one month and 17 years.
Key findings:
• Half of parents (49%) are not aware that young children should always be within arm’s reach of an adult in the water.
• Many parents hold misbeliefs about water safety, with almost half (44%) not aware that drowning is often silent.
• Almost half (47%) of children missed out on swimming lessons and opportunities to develop water safety skills due to the COVID pandemic.
• Parents from culturally diverse backgrounds have lower levels of knowledge about water safety.
Dr Anthea Rhodes, Paediatrician and Poll Director, said the findings show there is a critical need to improve water safety knowledge among Australian parents.
“With drowning the leading cause of death in children aged less than 15 years in Australia, water safety and swimming skills are critically important. Our report found that while most Australian parents believe that children are never too young to start learning about water safety, there were some concerning gaps in parents’ knowledge about drowning risks.
“Half of the parents surveyed (49%) falsely believe it takes more than 20 seconds for a child to drown and almost half (44%) don’t know that drowning is often silent. There were also misconceptions around flotation devices with a third of parents mistakenly believing that a lilo or inflated toy will prevent a child from drowning.”
Supervision is especially vital for younger children, as the report found that four in five pre-schoolers have ‘no swimming skills at all’ or only ‘beginner skills’. In the survey, parents said around half of children missed out on swimming lessons and other opportunities to build water safety skills due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions.
“We found that one in six Australian children have never had a swimming lesson. The leading barrier was cost, followed by convenience and family logistics. Only half of children have accessed catch-up swimming lessons following the pandemic, leaving many children vulnerable and at risk of water related accident and injury,” said Dr Rhodes.
