Kids and the Outdoors

• Posted on August 5, 2008 at 5:46 PM
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A couple of articles in recent news that (surprise!) paint a gloomy picture of the future of outdoor recreation. One from the UK indicates that scaredy-cat parents are keeping kids from participating in outdoor play of the sort that used to be completely common. “50% of children aged between seven and 12 were not allowed to climb a tree without adult supervision,” the article states. It also contrasts the 70% of parents who say they did most of their playing outdoors as kids, with 29% of children today.

Meanwhile, Down Under, children are too scared of crime to play outdoors. So rather than goof around in a park, “they prefer to hang out in shopping centres, play computer games or go to school.”

Now, I do chalk some of this up to:
> a) slow news days, and academics and journalists looking to get some ink (there’s always someone who did a study, somewhere, to support any perspective)
> b) the age old habit of elders looking at “kids today” (whatever day that may be), and remarking how things were better in their day

But at the same time, I can’t really say that increased attention to safety is bad. I’d never dream of riding my bike without a helmet now, though I always did as a kid. And is it bad to protect your kids from exposure to creepy strangers lurking in the bushes? Is it more dangerous today than before? Maybe it’s just that people are likelier to come forth now and file police reports against pedophiles, so we’re finally attuned to a danger that has always existed.

What do you think? Where do you draw the line between a kid’s safety and the freedom to explore and fall in love with the outdoors?