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Home / Lifestyle

Mum 'in shock' as child filmed easily opening pool gate using toys

Phoebe Loomes
news.com.au·
24 Jan, 2020 08:12 PM2 mins to read

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The kids then locked the gate behind them. Photo / Facebook

The kids then locked the gate behind them. Photo / Facebook

A mum has been left in "shock" after watching her young son confidently open her locked pool fence, letting himself and his little sister into the pool area of their backyard.

The mum, Krystal Hill, shared the shocking video of her son, three, climbing on top of his toy car and opening the locked fence in a matter of seconds.

"I watched my 3 year old who cant swim independently yet, climb up and open the pool gate and then let himself and his little sister into the pool area," mum Krystal Hill wrote, sharing the video on Facebook last week.

She explained she'd sat back and watched the incident unfold, as she wanted to see if her kids were capable of opening the fence. She said after watching her son quickly climb on the car and let him and his little sister into the pool area, she was left feeling "in a bit of shock" and "shaken".

The video has since gone viral and been viewed more than 1.7 million times, attracting more than 92,000 comments, and been shared more than 43,000 times.

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Ms Hill said she'll now be "padlocking" her pool fence, but doesn't think that can work as a guarantee that her kids won't be able to access the pool if left unattended.

"They can't be out the back without full supervision anymore and if I'm busy doing something else inside I will be locking the back door," she wrote. "I am a bit shaken up over this."

The boy quickly climbed onto his toy car and unlocked the gate in a matter of seconds. Photo / Facebook
The boy quickly climbed onto his toy car and unlocked the gate in a matter of seconds. Photo / Facebook

Drowning is the number one cause of death in one, two and three year old children in Australia, according to 2019 data from Australian Bureau of Statistics. According to Royal Life Saving, children under five are most at risk of fatal and non fatal drowning, and most of these incidents occur in private pools.

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The Annual Drowning Report from Royal Life Saving released this week said 19 children had died of drowning in 2019.

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