The days are long gone when kids were allowed to roam freely from house to house and playground to woods to local shops with no parents keeping track of them for whole afternoons. Modern parents keep their children close, seldom letting them walk to school or ride a bike unsupervised. Instead, American boys and girls are kept busy with organized sports, dance classes, art camps and an array of other organized activities practically from the moment they can walk.
One big reason independent childhood play has nearly disappeared is plain old fear. Even though the chances of kids off on their own being abducted or abused in some way are very remote and likely not much greater than they were in past decades, no one wants their child harmed by a creepy stranger lurking somewhere outside.
Perversely, those odious strangers seeking to draw kids into trouble are far more prevalent in a place more intimate than a city park: cyberspace. A parent who would never allow their son or daughter to roam the neighborhood alone often sets their child free to roam on a computer or iPad or phone. And those devices make it very easy for kids to wander into dangerous places.
Free porn sites are instantly accessible to anyone who can type the words “naked boobs.” Other sites invite young people to delve into content promoting self-harm, suicide or white supremacy. A gaming site named Roblox has lured children as young as 8 into an online world where, according to a lawsuit brought by the state of Louisiana, sexual predators thrive and find easy victims. “Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety,” the state alleges.
Roblox now claims to have cleaned up its act, but there will no doubt be many other online entities eager to make billions of dollars from the exploitation of kids. The biggest of them all, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has, for years, shown reluctance to take steps to protect children if such precautions threaten to cut into profits.
The reality is that letting kids play outside once in a while is a healthy choice that gives them a sense of independence — and it is a lot safer than spending hours slouched in front of a screen.
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