I hope the wood splitting picture was staged. Those girls are a few feet from a man swinging an axe splitting wood. That's an accident waiting to happen.
Anecdotally, my dad and I drove into the woods and cut down trees for the fireplace in my family's house. After he cut down the tree, he would cut the tree into 1 foot rounds and then split them with a maul. The cut, triangular pieces had to be loaded and stacked into the back of a pickup, and it was back breaking work.
However, every time the work was done, I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment and contemplating how it was the drudgery that ultimately created that feeling.
I think that we should not spare our children these enormously valuable learning experiences in the name of safety.
A little bit of gratuitous labor helps the lesson sink in. So maybe you set up a little contest with your victi-er, kid. You each take half the logs and whoever finishes first wins. You even let the kid get a head start. They're concentrating hard because they want to win. But behind their back, you're using a log splitter instead of a maul. When you yell out "done!" they look around, and see that you "cheated". Hopefully, they learn the value of appropriate technology over brow sweat.
That guy shouldn't be swinging that maul so close to his kids, not for safety reasons, because he should be using at least a lever-operated log splitter instead.
A lot of it comes down to family training. The older kids teach the younger kids what to do and not do. This doesn't protect from every little thing, but life is not that safe.
You do need training however. I was in Montana as a child with my dad on business. The client lived way out in the middle of nowhere. He was a big man (bigger than my father who's 6' 1"). He reached into a drawer, pulled out two bear size handfuls of .22lr, showed me how to load the riffle (fortunately I'd been trained by my dad and grandfather on hunting small game around the farm) and told me the adults need to talk. What he didn't tell me is that it was a modified .22lr: full auto. I was in for a surprise when 10 rounds cracked out at supersonic speed. I was fine and had fun. It could have been bad though.
They'll be fine.
Looking at the girls, the oldest could probably start chopping wood herself. Not, much, but she looks close to big enough.
The axe is moving, but it could be moving up. Shutter time might tell us something of its speed.
And standing square on. Where did he swing it from?!
Considering that when splitting wood you should at a minimum be wearing safety glasses, I'm pretty sure this can all be done much safer.
I could maybe see it if you're hammering in wedges or something.
>SUMMARY: Wood chopping is still present in many homes in rural regions. In some cases, it may lead to serious ocular injury and potential loss of vision.