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Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

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Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#331

Post by civilized »

vuln wrote: post #101
swatcoder wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't be the only one that's seen the hundreds if not THOUSANDS of children (under 18) fighting, causing mayhem, attacking innocent people, and property destruction videos that circulate all over the internet. I can’t think of a worse way to assess the state of society than by consuming viral videos circulated online. This is a really disturbing way to form or justify opinions.

Really? You don't think social media, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, OnlyFans, 4chan, et al, is a mirror image of the current society as a whole? How do you assess the state of society? Without looking at the content said society produces?

The news makes money when you're engaged. The easiest way to keep you engaged is with anger and fear. That's why "if it bleeds, it leads" is a traditional maxim of television media. Social media is the same. They're trying to make money by keeping you engaged.

Neither the news nor social media is trying to give you a mirror of society. They are telling you the worst things that happen to keep you watching, not to give you a realistic picture of risk levels of activities.

Is this something you're not familiar with? Most adults have at least some awareness of this.

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#332

Post by yadaeno »

jehb wrote: post #276
ummonk wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing problematic about having a phrase for areas with high risk of crime that negatively impacts the quality of life of local residents and visitors. (And that includes neighbors illegally burning garbage in their yard)

I'm objecting to the parent comment where this originated, where the author juxtaposed the safety of a child growing up in a "suburban or rural" setting with living "near a highway though, or a high crime area." Crime is not an urban phenomenon, and when we describe it as one, we're flaming stereotypes. I don't think it was intentional and my point was not to denigrate the parent comment, but to encourage us to avoid…

Accidental construct of what exactly? Crime might not be an urban phenomenon in other countries but it certainly is more visible and prevalent in US cities.

At least in west coast cities, visible crime is just a fact of life. It borders on gaslighting to suggest that its not.

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#333

Post by paulryanrogers »

ummonk wrote: post #271
sfpotter wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel you, but this is clearly a “correlation is not causation” type situation. Infrastructure should be people-centric, and there’s nothing wrong with doing things to reduce car speed and make the built environment safe. It is unlikely that improved infrastructure resulted in people walking and biking less, which is what the wording of your post suggests. (Also, love your username… I thought I was the only one. ;-)…

The wording of their comment did not suggest that.

It did to me as well.

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#334

Post by HWR_14 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #26

The US seems to be the only country that has this problem. Children here (Norway) walk to school on their own at the age of five or six, some of them take buses. "Ashley Smith, a foster dad, testified about being investigated for neglect because one afternoon his daughter, 8, was doing her homework on the front lawn. A passerby reported an “unsupervised” child (not knowing Ashley was actually inside). The upshot: “We…

I don't understand what's either astonishing or even wrong about that sequence of events by the government. Person calls 911 and reports child abuse. The government takes the situation seriously and investigates. The government determines there was no issue. Person being investigated is upset.

Other than the person calling 911, who do you want to do something different?

You want the first responder to dismiss the case because they don't think it matters? A lot of abuse went on for years because of that.

You want the government to take the kid while investigating?

You want the government to just not investigate and take the kids?

You want the parents not to be worried going through the process?

I just don't know how else I would want the government to react. It was far too lax in the past in investigating credible accusations. And if we have to error on one side or the other it should be helping abused kids.

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#335

Post by throwaway892238 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #26

The US seems to be the only country that has this problem. Children here (Norway) walk to school on their own at the age of five or six, some of them take buses. "Ashley Smith, a foster dad, testified about being investigated for neglect because one afternoon his daughter, 8, was doing her homework on the front lawn. A passerby reported an “unsupervised” child (not knowing Ashley was actually inside). The upshot: “We…

I guess it's only natural that people outside the country aren't exposed to our local news, but this kind of crazy shit happens all over the US. You probably hear about our insane politics and people who don't believe in science, but there's so much more. People in the USA are really nuts.

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#336

Post by Sparkyte »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #26

The US seems to be the only country that has this problem. Children here (Norway) walk to school on their own at the age of five or six, some of them take buses. "Ashley Smith, a foster dad, testified about being investigated for neglect because one afternoon his daughter, 8, was doing her homework on the front lawn. A passerby reported an “unsupervised” child (not knowing Ashley was actually inside). The upshot: “We…

Police too busy chasing other problems than hunting down pedos.

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#337

Post by ecshafer »

HWR_14 wrote: post #334
kwhitefoot wrote: post #26

The US seems to be the only country that has this problem. Children here (Norway) walk to school on their own at the age of five or six, some of them take buses. "Ashley Smith, a foster dad, testified about being investigated for neglect because one afternoon his daughter, 8, was doing her homework on the front lawn. A passerby reported an “unsupervised” child (not knowing Ashley was actually inside). The upshot: “We…

I don't understand what's either astonishing or even wrong about that sequence of events by the government. Person calls 911 and reports child abuse. The government takes the situation seriously and investigates. The government determines there was no issue. Person being investigated is upset. Other than the person calling 911, who do you want to do something different? You want the first responder to dismiss the cas…

The sequence of events that is wrong here, is that if a person calls 911 claiming that there is child abuse going on, and the "child abuse" is a child playing outside or walking to the park alone, the person should be fined. There is a difference between "I saw little Johnny outside for hours in the cold, I think there is child abuse." or "I saw bruises all over little johnny, I think there is child abuse." and "A child was walking outside alone, there is child abuse".

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#338

Post by ryandrake »

45453836 wrote: post #280
kwhitefoot wrote: post #26

The US seems to be the only country that has this problem. Children here (Norway) walk to school on their own at the age of five or six, some of them take buses. "Ashley Smith, a foster dad, testified about being investigated for neglect because one afternoon his daughter, 8, was doing her homework on the front lawn. A passerby reported an “unsupervised” child (not knowing Ashley was actually inside). The upshot: “We…

Imo there's two factors at play only one of which seems to get much attention. There's the legality (and burden of compliance even when abiding the law) of leaving your children unsupervised but there's also the complete lack of penalty for being wrong. A person reporting abuse incorrectly is for all intents and purposes, an attacker. Why is attacking someone else with only a brief observation of the situation cost f…

Of course, the solution is criminal and/or civil penalties for people making false police reports. If you call to complain about your neighbor and it turns out there was nothing wrong going on, the neighbor should be able to 1. discover who made the complaint and 2. sue for damages. People need to mind their own business unless they are 100% sure there's abuse/crime happening.

Re: Making It Legal to Play Outside: “Reasonable Childhood Independence” Bills

#340

Post by gsk22 »

geomark wrote: post #279
danjoredd wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its been a genuine problem. I have heard people actually say that if a kid is playing outside by themselves, then the parent should be charged with child neglect because the kid could get hurt. Any time a kid gets hurt on YouTube the comments are filled with people blaming the parent for not being outside with them. Thing is, playing outside by yourself gives you a strong sense of independence. The kid might get hurt…

It's even in the YouTube algorithm. I've had a couple of videos taken down due to "potential child endangerment". They were videos of me and my kid doing things that are, realistically, safer than riding a bicycle. It's pathetic how fragile kids are being made these days.

Out of curiosity, what were the videos? The algorithm (advertisers?) is certainly picky...
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