Adults in Germany attach great importance to children playing and being outside.

This is the result of a survey carried out by the Forsa Institute on behalf of the German Children's Fund, as announced on Friday.

For this purpose, 1017 children and young people between the ages of ten and 17 and 1031 adults were representatively surveyed on the occasion of World Match Day on Saturday.

At 65 percent, around two-thirds of adults said they found it extremely important for children to play and be outside, another 30 percent thought it was very important and three percent important.

The children and young people see it differently: Only eleven percent find this extremely important.

For 29 percent, being outside is very important, for 32 percent it is important.

During the corona pandemic, many leisure activities outside could not take place at times or only to a limited extent.

The children were therefore asked to what extent the importance of being outside had changed for them since the beginning of the pandemic.

For 24 percent of those surveyed, it has become more important to be outside since the pandemic.

For 13 percent this has become less important, 62 percent stated no difference here.

At the same time, almost a third of adults (32 percent) think that children and young people are no longer outside as often because of the pandemic.

Only 14 percent of the young people surveyed saw it that way themselves.

Around half of adults - 54 percent - find that sometimes children and young people cannot play or be outside because of a lack of opportunities in their living environment.

According to the survey, 37 percent see the reason for this in the dangerous road traffic, 36 percent in the lack of time.

"Since the corona pandemic, it has become more important for children and young people to be outside," said the national director of the German children's charity, Holger Hofmann.

This underscores the importance of outdoor and outdoor spaces for children that can be reached quickly and independently "so that they are not slowed down here".

The interests of children and young people should be better taken into account, particularly in urban and regional planning as well as in construction and transport planning.

"Otherwise we run the risk of a generation of couch potatoes growing up," explained Hofmann.