Abstract: A child-proof safety latch for a swimming pool safety barrier, or other stretched-panel fence, includes a threaded rod having an expandable nut, such as a toggle-wing nut, that can move to and fro along the rod between a movable stop and a fixed stop adjacent an end of the rod that is distal from a first fence pole to which the rod is permanently affixed. To fasten two adjacent fence panels together, an operator collapses the expandable nut and inserts it through an eyelet attached to a second fence pole. The operator then expands the nut so as to capture the eyelet and turns the expandable nut so as to draw the two poles together.