KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE NEAR SWIMMING POOLS: WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?

Existing safety devices

There are a number of different devices that provide different levels of protection:

• by securing the pool itself,
• or by equipment directly worn by the person to be protected (PPE = Personal Protective Equipment).

When you think about protecting your child from drowning, you may think more about pool protection and less about PPE. But they are perfectly complementary! Combining both significantly increases the level of safety.

Pool safety devices depend on the type of pool (in-ground, above-ground, semi-inground, indoor, etc.). Some of the best-known devices can even be compulsory in some countries, notably for in-ground or semi-inground pools:

• pool alarm
• safety cover
• barrier
• pool shelter

How do you choose between these different pool systems? It depends on the shape of your pool, the level of safety you want, the age of your children and, of course, your budget.

Pool alarms

Swimming pool alarms provide a warning that someone has gone into the water. They emit an audible signal (and sometimes a visual one too) to warn of unwanted entry into the water.

Image: pool alarm

They must be active at all times of the day and night, except when swimming. Different technologies are available (infrared, immersion, etc.). It must not be possible for the child to activate or deactivate the alarm alone.

Alarms are generally less expensive (around €200 for entry-level models) than barriers, safety covers and shelters. But unlike these other methods, an alarm does not prevent access to the pool! Instead of being a physical obstacle, you need to rely on adults to react quickly if the alarm is triggered.

Safety covers

The safety cover is a protective device that directly covers the surface of the water and prevents direct access in it. In addition to its safety objective, this device prevents leaves and other undesirable elements from entering the water, and limit evaporation and the drop in temperature, making maintenance easier. It is one of the most common means of pool protection.

Image: pool safety covers

There are several types of safety cover, such as roller shutters, net covers, bar covers and so on. The important thing is that the safety cover cannot be removed by a child and that it is strong and rigid enough (or taut enough) to withstand being stepped on by an adult without causing injury. It must also be impossible for a child to go underneath when the equipment is in place.

The price depends heavily on the technology used and the surface area to be covered. It can vary from several hundred euros for a simple tarpaulin, to several thousand or even tens of thousands of euros for models with motorised bars.

Barriers

Barriers (or fences) physically delimit the perimeter of the pool and prevent a child from entering unsupervised.

Image: swimming pool barrier

The minimum height is 1.1 metres, so that children under the age of 5 cannot climb over it. Logically, the entire pool should be fenced off, leaving no free passageways. The barriers must also be sufficiently far from the edge of the pool (at least 1 metre) to prevent children from falling straight into the water if they step over them.

They must also have a lock that is strong enough to prevent children from opening it by themselves.

The price depends on the length of the perimeter to be secured and the type of barrier (removable or fixed, mesh, glass, wood, etc.). The cheapest models for small pools cost at least €500 (assuming a linear price of around €30 per metre), but more generally the total cost is several thousand euros.

Pool shelters

Like safety covers, pool shelters are protective devices that cover the surface of the water directly, to prevent direct access to the water when the shelter is closed. Shelters also make day-to-day pool maintenance easier, by preventing leaves and other undesirable elements from getting into the water, while limiting evaporation and the drop in temperature.

Image: pool shelter

Pool shelters are structures that must be able to cover the entire surface of your pool. They take up more space and are more expensive than safety covers, but they provide a better seal against the elements and various types of pollution. If they are high enough, they can also transform your pool into an indoor pool (or almost)! The structure of the shelter must be strong enough to withstand major external disturbances such as strong wind or snow.

The price again depends very much on the surface area and shape of the pool, as well as the materials used, but you should nevertheless expect it to cost at least several thousand euros. But despite the high price, pool shelters are often considered to be the best type of pool protection from a safety and aesthetic point of view!

Although we speak of quality-controlled safety devices, swimming pool safety equipment is not infallible, especially when young children are involved. Barrier gates can be left open by mistake or incorrectly locked; covers and shelters can be left open because you want the sun to warm up the water during the summer; alarms do not provide direct protection and require quick adult intervention or can even be triggered by mistake... That is why the vigilance of adults and teaching children to swim from an early age remain essential to protect the youngest. To increase the level of safety, it is advised to equip the child directly with suitable equipment (PPE) such as an anti-drowning T-shirt.

The anti-drowning T-shirt

When you think of equipping your child with a suitable safety device, you might be thinking of flotation jackets, buoys or armbands? Well, you've got the wrong idea!

These accessories can help with floatability when learning to swim, but always with an adult within arm's reach. They are ineffective in the event of an accidental fall and are impractical to carry out of the water. Imagine a child playing near the edge of a swimming pool with a lifebuoy around his waist. If the child were to suddenly fall into the water, the buoy could rise to the level of the child's head, preventing the child from keeping a firm hold on the surface, and making the situation dangerous if there is no immediate supervision.

This type of equipment, considered to be an aid to learning to swim and designed to be worn in the water, is subject to the European standard NF EN 13138. Under this standard, the manufacturers of this equipment must explicitly state in their instructions that this equipment does not protect against drowning.

For real safety, think about a lifejacket or anti-drowning T-shirt.

For appropriate protection, you should rather consider equipment in the lifejacket category, such as Floatee's anti-drowning T-shirt. It is patented and certified according to a protocol based on the NF EN ISO 12402 standard for lifejackets, making it category III (the highest) personal protective equipment.

This anti-drowning T-shirt is worn by the child, is comfortable and does not hinder movement, and invisibly incorporates an inflatable lifejacket. The safety device is triggered automatically in the event of a fall into the water (unintentional or unauthorised, as the child is often unaware of the danger). In less than 3 seconds, the lifejacket inflates and brings the child back to the surface of the water, turning the child onto its back to keep the airways out of the water. This works even if the child is unconscious, whether it can swim or not.

This T-shirt stands out for its ability to act immediately and independently of adults, offering accessible and innovative additional protection for children not fully autonomous in the water.

Education of children on water safety

To protect your child, what could be better than ensuring that he/she can save himself/herself?

However, knowing how to swim is not an innate skill for your child, far from it. It's even more difficult when children are very young (under 3), as learning fine motor skills is a very long process. Before they can walk, babies and toddlers crawl, do 4-legged movements, stand up, fall down, get up again, try a few steps, fall down again... Moving independently in water is just as difficult, if not more so.

Fortunately, there are options for teaching children how to swim from an early age! Whether through sports clubs (in France, those of the Fédération Française de Natation), baby swimming associations or professional networks, your child can learn to be at ease in the water and then the essential life-saving skills through programmes like Auto-Rescue.

It's essential to teach children how to swim

Learn more about children's swimming

The only downside: what should you do if your child has not yet learned to save himself/herself or becomes unconscious? The vigilance of adults and safety devices remain necessary.

Vigilance of parents and adults

Regardless of the protective equipment installed and the child's level of autonomy in the water, adults must remain constantly vigilant in all circumstances so that they can act when needed. Unfortunately, "it does not happen only to others". In all too many cases, a brief moment of inattention has been enough to cause an accident, as we are reminded by a number of eyewitness accounts:

Here are a few more good practices you can apply to keep your mind at ease (but always alert 😉 ):

• never let children swim alone; an adult must always accompany them in the water and stay less than an arm's length away
• while swimming, designate a single adult to be responsible for safety, to avoid a "spectator effect" (which can occur when several people witness the same emergency situation)
• after swimming, activate the pool safety system and have the child wear an anti-drowning T-shirt
• after swimming, do not leave any toys or objects in the pool that might attract children
• store pool water treatment products out of the reach of children, as they can be dangerous when not used as intended
• keep a pole, emergency buoy and telephone near the pool