Children tell Sarah Wellard what keeps them from playing out and learning independence.

Going out to play is important to children everywhere. It provides them and their parents with relief from each other’s company, and gives children a space to spread their wings - to negotiate friendships and start to find their place in the public sphere, the world outside the family. Yet for some children growing up in cities, the freedom to get out of their homes to play is restricted by fears about traffic, crime and bullying by older children. Four children from an east London neighbourhood spoke to 0-19 about going out, the freedom and constraints imposed by parents and their own safety concerns.

Michael is a confident and gregarious 12 year old. He likes to spend his free time out with his friends, playing football or at an internet café in the high street. He tends to push at the boundaries set by his parents, often coming home later than they have asked him to. "Sometimes it’s not fair that they don’t let me stay out later after school," he says. "They start moaning if I get back after six. If my friends are still out, I’d like to stay out a bit later."

Michael would also like to be allowed to go further afield - he mentions the shopping centre further up the high street, where groups of young people hang out at the weekend.

But he’s cautious. He wants more freedom but he also finds groups of teenagers intimidating. "When there’s a big group of kids that’s older than me, I would kind of avoid them if I was on my own. Sometimes they look like they aren’t doing anything and they’re just waiting for trouble."

Michael’s father was recently mugged on the doorstep of their house. Although the family was planning to move house anyway, the incident has coloured the way they feel about the neighbourhood. Michael explains: "My mum and dad don’t particularly like me being out when it’s dark, like after football. Just the fact of walking home - I walk part of the way with other people and then I have to come the last bit on my own."

For Joe, aged 10, speeding cars and heavy traffic are the main constraint on playing outside. He wishes he could ride his bike near his home, but says the roads are too dangerous. "Sometimes, like when my ball goes out into the road, I feel a bit scared. I think my ball is going to get popped."

Joe is allowed to go by himself to play with a friend who lives about half a mile a way, but says he always has to ring his mum to say he’s arrived safely. Like Michael, he is quite confident out on his own but has had unpleasant experiences with older children. He says: "Once, a group of kids came up to me and one of them said, ‘I’m going to stab you.’ I knew he didn’t have a knife, but I would have been scared if I didn’t know my mum was coming."

Eleven-year-old Lucy says she has been allowed to play out in the local park for several years and is also expected to keep an eye on her nine-year-old brother. She enjoys being out by herself and has clear boundaries of where she is allowed to go - to two neighbouring parks and to friends but not to the high street. Even so, she feels safer when parents are in the park with younger children. "I like it best if the mums are there. [The teenagers] cause trouble. It’s quite dangerous if they have a big fight."

Lucy has relatives who live in Lowestoft and she relishes the extra freedoms she has when she visits them. "In the summer holidays we go to Lowestoft to see my nan. If I want to I can go down the beach with my oldest cousin. It’s safer there than in London. Me and my cousin Laura go bike riding. We can quickly go away if anyone starts. We cycle in the alleyway and there’s no weird people."

Like the boys, Lucy regards teenagers as a potential threat. She says: "Most of the [older] girls hang round the swings. If we want to play on the swings we just wait until they get off. They get nasty and rude. They say, ‘Don’t give me dirty looks’."

Stacey, also 11, adds: "I think my sister will look at them. I hit her if she stares at them because I think she’ll cause trouble on me." She finds it reassuring if her friend Leon is around. "If anyone starts on me, Leon will stop them. If feels safer when he plays out too."

The girls also mention speeding cars as a danger. Sometimes Lucy has to cross the main road to buy take-away chicken. She says: "If you’re crossing the road and speeding cars come along you feel really scared. There’s a zebra crossing but most cars don’t even stop." Neither of the girls travel by car often because their mothers, who are lone parents, do not drive.

Lucy is playing a game on her mobile while she talks. She says that she likes to carry her phone with her so she can keep in touch with her mother when she is out. "I always ring her up and tell her where I am. I keep it hidden so no one can see it." However, Stacey is keenly aware that carrying a mobile can makes you vulnerable to attack. "Down the market a boy got stabbed. It was near where my cousin works. She was at work when that boy got stabbed. He didn’t hand over his phone - they stabbed him and took the phone."

Lucy is worried now too. "If your mum wants to get in touch, you’re scared of getting out your phone. Then you can’t get in touch and something might happen to you."

Stacey starts talking about the danger of being attacked by an adult. "Sometimes we get scared when it’s just the two of us. Like what happened to Holly and Jessica [killed in or near Soham, Cambridgeshire last year]. We just talk to people we know who used to go to our [primary] school. We get the boys we know to walk us home." Given the very limited nature of Stacey’s independent activity, her anxiety is striking. The distance from the park to her house is less than a quarter of the mile. Neither of the girls is allowed out when it is dark, there are no main roads to cross and in good weather there are usually lots of other children around.

Stacey feels intimidated by people she describes as "weirdos" - people who seem drunk or drugged or are behaving oddly. They tend to hang around the high street, away from residential streets but sometimes wander down to the park. She says: "There’s loads of trees behind the park and you don’t know who might be there. There’s lots of weirdos - people who are all drugged." She adds: "If there were no weirdos around you could have more freedom. Sometimes you stay indoors and get bored because there’s not much to do. But if you go out you’re scared."