[dopamean]

I got my first skateboard in 1996. I was 10 years old at the time. I grew up in a small town on Long Island and because I was obsessed with going out to skate with my buddies my mother let me walk into town on my own. Spend all afternoon doing whatever I decided to do (usually skate) and then come home. The only rule she had for it was to call her if I was going to be late and explain why. Sometimes I'd take the LIRR (local commuter train) to Montauk, which took about 30 minutes, to go to the skatepark there.

A month after my 16th birthday my little brother was born. He's 13 now and when I look at how little freedom he has compared to what I had when I was a kid I sometimes wonder how he's going to figure out how to do anything for himself.

To echo your point about the internet... My brother is online, often playing Minecraft, all the time. He loves the internet. He loves that he doesn't have to ask permission to look at anything. He enjoys meeting random people to chat with online about video games and weird youtube people that teenagers are into now. I think it's pretty awesome. He has a sort of digital version of what I experience IRL.

The contrast is actually kind of amusing when you consider that in 1996 I also got my first computer. A Mac running System 7. At the time the internet was considered dangerous for children and my parents heavily monitored my activity on it much like they monitor my brother's real life experiences.

I wonder what I'll be worrying about when I have kids.

[afarrell]

I'm worried that this will be even more the case when I am raising kids. I don't want my daughter taken away because I let her go camping.

[kordless]

> I don't want my daughter taken away because I let her go camping.

From the parent comment:

> The days of packs of children running around town or exploring the woods are long gone, due to fears of dangerous men and accidents.

Fear is fear. What you fear will manifest itself further if you and others continue to fear it.

[afarrell]

This is a collective action problem. My own lack of fear will have no effect of the actions of CPS if they decide I am a negligent parent because other people could have been afraid to let their kid go camping.