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

Posted by BeauHD on from the phone-fixation dept.

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.

22 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious solution by war4peace · · Score: 4, Funny

    Stop taking kids to the pool. Ain't nobody got time for that shit!

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  2. Must be multiple reasons ... by gordguide · · Score: 5, Interesting

    300 children drowning deaths over just a few months (summer) is an extraordinarily high number by my local and national standards. There must be more to it than just negligent parents using cellphones.

    Canadian parents use smartphones as much as anyone in a first-world country. Below is a comparison with Germany

    Note: I did not find specific data on children only in Germany, so we are comparing the news story's 300 over summer with Canada's annual numbers.

    Format: Germany // Canada

    Population (2018 estimate to Wed Aug 16)
    82,315,335 // 36,992,745
    Population Ratio:
    2.22:1

    Children Drowning Deaths Age 0~19
    300 (?) // 68

    Children Drowning Deaths Age 5~14
    300 (?) // 17

    **
    Expected number of deaths in Germany with adjustment for equivalent population (2.22 multiplier) at Canada's rate:
    Age 0-19: 151
    Age 5~14: 38

    Deaths per age group 5~14 by ype of waterbody:
    Unsupervised pools, lakes, rivers: 16
    Lifeguarded pools, lakes, beaches: 1

    So obviously it isn't just parents on smartphones that is the root cause. Canadian children have massive opportunity to enter water ... more freshwater than any country on earth, and using my city as an example* numerous city swimming / wading facilities. So opportunity for drowning certainly exists. Germany should explore overall water safety issues that obviously exist rather than focusing on a somewhat sensationalist "cause" that may or may not be valid.

    1. Re:Must be multiple reasons ... by gordguide · · Score: 2

      MIssing footnote from previous post:

      * A dozen indoor/outdoor municipal lifeguarded pools and about 80 non-lifeguared (two staff, but also indoor and outdoor playrooms and structures) municipal wading pools. An unknown number of private indoor and outdoor pools. Pop 230,000.

    2. Re:Must be multiple reasons ... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      It was not 300 kids, it was 300 people.

      And most of them drowned because of stupid accidents. One jumped into a river, which was only 60cm deep. Many just jump into the water instead of "cooling off" first. And frankly: many can not swim and are to dumb to just walk around close to the shore.

      If it was not so sad, I would say: evolution at work.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    3. Re:Must be multiple reasons ... by fazig · · Score: 2

      I can't answer that question in good faith.
      I can only tell you that swimming used to be a part of the mandatory sports curriculum in elementary, middle, and high school in Germany. Those children who couldn't already swim learned it in the 3rd grade at the age of 8 or 9. There might have been exceptions in areas where access to public or private pools was difficult. And then you had more stupid reasons like religion, where some parents denied their daughters the chance to learn swimming.

      At least this was the case in the 90's. I can also give you some anecdotal evidence here. Being somewhat of an immigrant myself I was one among two others of 30 students who couldn't already swim in 3rd grade. This should already tell you that only around 10% of the children didn't learn it from their parents and or other professionals before the age of 9. The other two happened to the children of Turkish immigrants. At the end of the lessons all three of us obtained the "Seahorse", which is the lowest degree of qualification for a swimmer, meaning that you've managed to swim at least a distance of 25m on your own. The next mandatory swimming lessons were in the 5th grade where all of us obtained the "Freischwimmer", which means swimming at least 15 minutes in a deep pool (at least 1.35m deep).

      I've got no clue how the situation actually is, but the news make it sound grim.

  3. Bad parents are bad. by bobstreo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. ACCESSORIES by xxxLCxxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is not exclusive to Germans, of course:
    I have noticed that more and more young parents see their children as 'accessories', much like toys. In fact, this very morning I was asking myself whether this was a man calling his dog or a father shouting out to his son. I find myself wondering often about this. They use the same tone, the same language.
    On the other hand, you see persons talking to their dogs like they were people, constantly asking them questions as if they would respond, dressing them up, hugging and kissing them.
    I think that the smartphone underlines the fact that they only look at their kids when they don't have anything "better" to do. Accessories become boring eventually...

    1. Re:ACCESSORIES by Kokuyo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

  5. So kids know how to swim, and parents swim? by raymorris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sounds like perhaps swimming is very popular in Canada? So kids learn how to swim, and therefore don't drown easily? Parents grew up swimming and enjoy it, so they get in the water with their kids?

  6. Immigration brings lots of non-swimmers by ffkom · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Over 2 million immigrants came to Germany since 2015, and relatively large part of their children never learned to swim - the rate was 21% vs. 12% in 2016, and probably did not improve since then: https://www.armut-und-gesundhe...

    But it is not only the children, also the adult non-swimmers are a problem - the press in Germany covered this topic repeatedly, for example: https://www.welt.de/vermischte...

    In addition, an estimated 2% of parents do not want their children to be educated in swimming at school for religious reasons, as they consider their visibility to others in this context as "sinful".

    1. Re:Immigration brings lots of non-swimmers by dave420 · · Score: 2

      Two points:

      1. Germany received far less migrants than that
      2. These weren't immigrants.

      Your racism is especially lazy.

  7. GP isn't very accurate. by Qbertino · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:GP isn't very accurate. by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:GP isn't very accurate. by xxxLCxxx · · Score: 2

      You are comparing apples and oranges. In the Netherlands, swimming is far more common. There is water everywhere, they go swim everywhere.

    3. Re:GP isn't very accurate. by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      You are comparing apples and oranges. In the Netherlands, swimming is far more common. There is water everywhere, they go swim everywhere.

      Errr no. Sorry not even remotely. The vast majority of the country is perfectly dry as far as ability to swim is concerned. Most people do not swim in the canals, and large numbers of lakes are off limits in summer due to algae, but rather people swim at a few usually crowded public pools or at a select few beaches, beaches where you will see a large number of cars with white licenseplates with a little D listed under the EU symbol.

      The Dutch do engage in a lot of water activities, but most of those do not take place in the water, rather on the water, or my favourite: trying to jump over water without getting wet.

    4. Re:GP isn't very accurate. by xxxLCxxx · · Score: 2

      This correlates with the heat/drought, which means that people go to lakes and public swimming pools much more.
      The DLRG isn't making things up, though. We are seeing more children drowning while their parents are playing with their smart-phones (eyewitnesses). That's a fact. Maybe ten years ago people weren't that addicted. Maybe there is a new generation with little kids now... Whichever, they are stating FACTS.

  8. Re: App idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What a mindblowingly stupid idea.

  9. That is the worst idea I've ever heard in my life by grungeman · · Score: 2

    Yes, this is horrible, this idea.

    --

    Signature deleted by lameness filter.
  10. Re:I would sooner... by xxxLCxxx · · Score: 2

    That's not true. Locally, this is being reported. There was a recent drowning trial here (negligence) and those were very German Germans.
    At the lakes one sees relatively few foreigners. If, then these are usually in groups - together. This makes it difficult to drown unnoticed.
    The antisocial behaviour of swimming alone and letting children swim alone, is typical for Germans. If you send two Germans to the meadow, there will be a fence between them a short time later. ;-)

  11. Re:Front-Page Posts Out of Order by Whibla · · Score: 2

    That topic was originally posted yesterday, and stimulated a spirited discussion.

    One imagines that the editors re-posted the whole discussion back to today's front page to allow more posters to see it (rather than having to browse to "Older News"), revisit it, or contribute to it.

    Unusual, I'll admit, but not a completely daft idea - it does seem to have garnered a few more responses since I read through it yesterday.

  12. Of the 300 only about 20 were children by gotan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    "By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks
  13. HPV by sjbe · · Score: 2

    In addition, there are parents in the U.S. who do not want their kids vaccinated against an STD, papillomavirus (HPV), for "religious" reasons, not necessarily part of the Anti-Vaccers wing-nuts.

    This is true. This is a different brand of wing-nuts with different, though equally harmful reasoning regarding vaccines.

    Apparently, allowing your kid to get cancer because of this virus is for a "religious" reason, as if rape and incest doesn't occur.

    Who needs rape or incest? You just need a partner who previously slept with someone else already infected. Approximately 80% of people are infected with some strain of the virus during their lifetime. Evidently their "logic" is that they think horny teenagers will be scared off from having sex because of the modest risk of contracting cancer someday in the distant future and that if they provide the vaccine they are somehow condoning having unapproved sex. These are the same morons by and large that think teaching abstinence will somehow be an effective means to convince young people to not have sex.