Rear facing in a car seat is safer for everyone not just a child. It is however much safer for children since they are not physically as developed as an adult. A child's skeleton is is still immature, thus making it easier to suffer serious injuries if they are forward facing, such as internal decapitation.
Internal decapitation occurs when the skull pulls away from the spine. This can occur as little as being pulled 1/4in away. Some autopsies have shown the skull being pulled away as much as two inches in young children.
When a child is forward facing in a crash, the head flies forward while the rest of the body is restrained by the car seat straps. If a child is rear facing, their body is cradled by the back of the car seat, thus making the impact more distributed and not as traumatic.
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