We can't let our children play out where we live due to neighbours complaining all the time. My kids aren't aggressive, noisy or anything like that, but certain neighbours don't like ball games in the cul-de-sac. So much so, one even sent a letter to all the neighbours stating it was illegal to do so. What can you do?
Laura, Sheffield

High rise blocks are not a problem - there are cities in Europe dominated by them where children play outside in all weather. Key difference: they have playgrounds - in the UK they don't. If there is nowhere to go and nothing to do, then high rises mean social problems and high crime. When developers in UK cities are forced by law to plan for families every time they build a high rise, then we might see functional inner-city communities and children playing outside. Far from isolating people, high rises can be a safe place to be, if the older generation is there to look after the young. A bigger problem is lack of cohesion between generations in the UK, as generations of families live far apart. There is not a community in may places where a child can run round the corner to their grandma's or aunt's, so being alone in the street is truly being alone. Stranger danger is a lot less of a danger when people around you are not strangers.
Polina, Manchester, UK

My children, who are now teenagers, always played in our street. We live in a cul-de-sac with very little traffic & everybody knew everyone else. All the children in the street played together, approx 8 children ages ranging from 5 to 12. My children say their childhood was great in that respect. The only reason they stopped was neighbours would whinge about potential damage to their cars from footballs - these neighbours whose own children played the same games in the street when they were younger.
Helen, Swansea

I grew up in Bradford in the 80s, and played out, even after people like Peter Sutcliff were around. There are some young lads who play out on the road near me now, much to the annoyance of the rat run drivers. I think also kids playing out are demonised as thugs/hoodies when kicking a ball is probably the only exercise they get.
Chris H, Sheffield

"Stranger danger" fears were not the primary factors in the decline of children playing on streets. Growing up in West Derby, Liverpool and later Sale, Cheshire, I well remember playing on the neighbourhood Roads with other children in the 1950s. We even had street parties too. What changed? The advent of a car or two for every household, at least one of which was generally parked on the road. If you played on the street you ran at least two risks - your ball might hit a car or a car might hit you. Many families I knew also had grandmothers living in the family home, who also kept an eye out for children. Eagle eyed grandmothers in residence tended to cease when more homes were built in the 60s and 70s and grannies had their own house again. Come to think of it, around that stage neighbourhood linkage also became weaker, as people dashed from their front door to their cars, without speaking to neighbours. Having raised my children in California and Vancouver, Canada, children still play on the streets. Often kitchen windows face the streets, where mums, childsitters and others all keep an eye on children, who still play ball games or roller skate. In winter they toboggan and build snowmen etc.
Pat van der Veer (Robinson), Wallasey, Merseyside

As a new parent, I am extremely nervous of the years ahead of letting my kids go outside and run as freely as I did in my childhood years. I personally have extremely fond memories of running around the street(s) playing hide and seek, tig and many, many more simple games. There used to be 7 or 8 of us local kids getting up to so many activities that, yes, the main thing it taught us was our early social skills. However, knowing how much I enjoyed and benefitted from playing from dusk 'til dawn, I view today's world as a totally different world. There have always been strangers out there, but the media have scared us all into this view of a "dangerous" world we live in.
Jimmy, Falkirk

I grew up in an incredibly middle class suburb outside Portsmouth during the 1980s. The road was a cul-du-sac with a wood at the end and I spent many years from the age of 6-12 playing in the road and the wood completely unsupervised. I also walked to and from school. When I go back now all the pavements are covered in moss - clearly so few people use them they are going green. In my day we spent all day every day walking running and biking up and down them, now everything is overgrown. I also never see a single child about. There are many reasons for this, perhaps like my mother many of the people who moved in when the estate was built are still there and the children like me grew up and moved away, but I find every return incredibly depressing, as if my happy childhood home is being eaten up by moss like disused Victorian mine.
Nich Hill, Portsmouth

I grew up in the 1950s, we played out from morning until night. Often only coming home to grab something to eat and then fly off out again. We played Fairy Footsteps, Kick Can, Hide and Seek, Can we cross your Golden River and many more. Skipping ropes were tied to the lamppost and we skipped until we were too tired. There was the marble season, the conker season, we would go fishing for stickle backs and scrumping for apples and pears. How sad that children stay in these days, and miss out on all the fun we had.
Sheila Banks, Sale, Cheshire