Video footage of a young child narrowly escaping being swept out to see at Ilfracombe making the news I see. She, along with others, was on a slip way as waves crashed about them and she was swept off by them. Very luckily, someone managed to save her. When will people learn?

I get the attraction of the power of the sea, I do and I get that ****age boys especially like to take risks and I have given my own a b ollocking for jumping off the quay (nick-named "danger point" because of the under-tow) into the sea where were used to live. But too many adults are similarly either ignorant or stupid or else forget they have parental responsibilities around water. How many lives have to be lost by kids drowning in rivers, lakes or the sea? Most of the time the dangers are highlighted but a 6 or 8 year old with no adult supervision isn't likely to take much notice. But it isn't just kids. Where we live both dredging and climate change has led to erosion of the beach and a sharp drop in the sand and has formed. Clearly visible when the tide is out, it's obviously hidden when the tide comes in (hence the warning notices)but if you are walking along the shoreline and you can see a seal swimming alongside you in the sea about 2 m away it's pretty obviously not doing so in about a foot of water! Even so, people continually go into the sea and continue to be caught out by the sudden drop in depth.

I know, as a generation thing, many of us on here were probably allowed to play out with our mates at a relatively young age and I'm sure we all got away doing so in potentially dangerous places (a local building site was one of our favourites) but water poses a particular threat and the dangers were always driven into me as a kid. Certainly, if we were at the beach, we were always overseen by adults.

Having said that, whilst I sometimes get a bit p issed off by the rather over bearing attitude of the local seal protection group when you see the stupidity of some people around them it becomes more understandable. From letting their dogs off the lead around birthing seals to placing their young children actually seated on the seals backs for a "selfie" their stupidity and lack of common sense can be astounding.

Just don't get what is wrong with people. As a HASAW rep I fully understand that many do not see the potential dangers in things until an accident actually happens and someone gets hurt. But how many reports on the news and social media of kids drowning do we have to have before people wake up and parents especially take notice? The deaths of those so far are tragedies but in too many cases, they were all to easily avoidable.