Child Drownings In Germany Linked To Parents' Obsession With Mobile Phones (theguardian.com)

The German Lifeguard Association (DLRG) has made a direct connection between children getting into difficulty in the water and parents being too busy on their mobile phones to notice. More than 300 people have drowned in Germany so far this year. The Guardian reports: "Too few parents and grandparents are heeding the advice: when your children and grandchildren are in the water, put your smartphone away," Achim Wiese, the DLRG's spokesman, said. "We're experiencing on a daily basis that people treat swimming pools like a kindergarten and simply don't pay attention," added Peter Harzheim of the German federation of swimming pool supervisors. "In the past, parents and grandparents spent more time with their children in the swimming pool. But increasing numbers of parents are fixated by their smartphones and are not looking left or right, let alone paying attention to their children," he told German media. "It's sad that parents behave so neglectfully these days." The organization also put some blame on the school system for not making swimming lessons required from an early age. "Budget cuts have also led to swimming pools shortening their opening times," adds The Guardian.

Comments

Bad parents are bad.

[bobstreo]

Doesn't matter if they're watching TV or posting/reading facebook.

Other bad parents may leave their kids in a 120 degree car while they gamble in a casino, or attend a nice crack party.

Bad parents may also forget the kid at a store, or library, or just leave a 5 year old home alone by themselves, so the bad parent can go on a weekend vacation.

Re:ACCESSORIES

[Kokuyo]

I herd my kids like they were animals, too. Because it works.

Young children very much behave like animals. First step is training. The more they are able to profit from it, the more you switch over to teaching.

GP isn't very accurate.

[Qbertino]

Child drownings in Germany are linked to children not learning to swim anymore because baths are closing left, right and center and learning to swim isn't a collective basic skill anymore.
Also fugitives from Afrika often don't know the concept of learning to swim.

Parents addicted to their smartphone comes in on a far back 3rd or 4th on the list of reasons.

The German press is full of this in the last year or so. Federal level is thinking about making swimming lessons mandatory again and public baths closing down due to lack of money is a problem discussed at federal level too.

Re:GP isn't very accurate.

[thegarbz]

Hardly. The German statistics are not really much different from neighbouring countries where swimming lessons are still mandatory. Actually last year the Netherlands drowning deathtoll was higher.

Also worth noting is that drownings have been trending down for many years but his year was an outlier. Possibly something to do with also record setting warm days.

Natural Selection.

[Anonymous Coward]

'Nuff Said.

Please stop interfering with Nature.

Re: App idea

[Anonymous Coward]

What a mindblowingly stupid idea.

Of the 300 only about 20 were children

[gotan]

The Guardian headline makes it seem like parents distracted by mobile phones was a major factor in the drownings.

But according to the article:
"Among the drownings have been more than 20 children under the age of 15, and 40 young women and men between the ages of 16 and 25."

Here one can see statistics for 2016/2017:
https://www.dlrg.de/presse/pm-...
by age:
https://www.dlrg.de/fileadmin/...
by location:
https://www.dlrg.de/fileadmin/...

Note that most drownings happen in rivers and lakes. I think it likely that the nice 2018 summer led to more people swimming at outdoor locations, hence we see an alarming number of drownings. The statistics by age doesn't indicate that parents distracted by mobile phones are the major reason for drownings, and i doubt that changed in 2018.

Nevertheless it is good advice to at least keep an eye on your child while it is in the water.