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Extreme reporting

September 27th, 2007 · Posted by Skuds in Life · 3 Comments · Life

Looking through the Crawley Observer to write the last post, I spotted an amusing juxtaposition. I do hope it was done deliberately.

On page 8 there was a story about kids doing the amazingly dangerous trick where they use a motorbike to spin the roundabout in a kids’ playground really, really fast while someone tries to stay on it. The whole thing is inevitably filmed on a mobile phone and finds its way onto YouTube. I don’t think its an exaggeration to say that you could easily get killed or at least seriously injured doing it.

The paper was, quite rightly, taking a disapproving tone about it all – in contrast to the banner at the top of the page, right above the story. It said “Still to come: West Sussex extreme games picture special – page 20”

On page 20 all the BMX bikers were wearing crash helmets (but no other protective gear I could see) while most of the skateboarders were doing somersaults, loops and handstands on the concrete ramps with no helmets at all.

I do wonder exactly how we are supposed to tell the difference between a ‘dangerous prank’ and an ‘extreme sport’, described by the council as “fantastic” and “successful”.

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3 Comments so far ↓

  • Cllr Gavin Ayling

    So long as no harm is done to the equipment and no-one is forced to do it against their will and, finally, so long as it is done when children would not wish to use the equipment, I think this should be their own decision… Telling people they may not harm themselves is nanny-state-ish, no? 😉

  • Skuds

    The real target was the double-standards of condemning one example of reckless behaviour while promoting another.

    I don’t think there is a problem with trying to impose restrictions on what kids do – they are not always equipped to realise the risks in what they want to do. I like to think I was one of the intelligent ones but I did some really dangerous stuff as a kid.

    Succeeding in restricting what kids do is another matter… part of the fun of doing those things was the danger and the other part was that it was not allowed.

  • Rob Glover

    Is Cllr Ayling referring here to the motorbike / roundabout stunt or to the BMX bikers here? I presume he means both is equally acceptable, in which case that’s fine by me.