Poll: Most Americans Want to Criminalize Pre-Teens Playing Unsupervised [View all]

[Silent3]

A whopping 68 percent of Americans think there should be a law that prohibits kids 9 and under from playing at the park unsupervised, despite the fact that most of them no doubt grew up doing just that.

What's more: 43 percent feel the same way about 12-year-olds. They would like to criminalize all pre-teenagers playing outside on their own (and, I guess, arrest their no-good parents).

Those are the results of a Reason/Rupe poll confirming that we have not only lost all confidence in our kids and our communities—we have lost all touch with reality.

"I doubt there has ever been a human culture, anywhere, anytime, that underestimates children's abilities more than we North Americans do today," says Boston College psychology professor emeritus Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, a book that advocates for more unsupervised play, not less.

http://reason.com/archives/2014/08/20/helicopter-parenting-run-amok-most-ameri

If you're thinking "but these days you can't be too careful!", well, yes, you can. "These days" are some of the safest for kids we've ever had, despite whatever distorted view of reality 24/7 sensationalistic news coverage has given you.