US passes a law to allow kids to play outside unsupervised. Yes, really

Remember the days of your childhood where you’d wave goodbye to mum and dad and spend hours outside, playing with other kids in the neighbourhood and having adventures?

In the days before computers and video games, children were actively encouraged to play in the sunshine. Of course, the dangers of child abduction and crime weren’t as heavily publicised as they are now, so parents often didn’t have anything to worry about when it came to safety.

Times have certainly changed, so much so that in most American states, it’s illegal for children to roam neighbourhoods or play outside without adult supervision. Now, in a first for the US, Utah is set to become the only state to introduce a law that allows kids to be outside without adult supervision.

Under current Utah laws, parents who are found to let their kids roam around without supervision could be fined or jailed for child neglect, but the new ‘free-range parenting’ law, which has been signed off by the governor and is set to come into effect in May, will change that.

As reported in Business Insider, the new legislation will allow children who display sufficient maturity to walk alone to and from school. They will also be allowed to play outside and wait in a car without the parents being accused of neglect.

The US Child Welfare department lists what parental behaviours could currently be considered neglect in America, and most are sensible. The level of supervision required, however, appears open to interpretation.

“Neglect is frequently defined as the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child’s health, safety, and well-being are threatened with harm,” a message on the Child Welfare website reads.

The sponsor of the Utah legislation, Senator Lincoln Fillmore, told ABC News in the US that he was concerned that authorities had “become too hyper about ‘protecting’ kids and then end up sheltering them from the experiences we took for granted as we were kids”. “Kids need to wonder about the world, explore and play in it and by doing so, learn the skills of self-reliance and problem-solving they’ll need as adults,” he said.

The new law has gained a lot of attention online, with many saying it’s just what kids today need.

“Statistically, the biggest threat to children is sexual and physical abuse by someone they know,” one commenter wrote on Facebook. “A family member, caregiver or family friend. NOT a stranger. Free-range parenting is healthy and safe within reasonable limits.”

Another person said that so-called “do-gooders” were making parenting tougher than it needed to be. “I’m more worried about the ‘do-gooders’ than kidnappings and murderers,” that person said. “Not that I’m not weary of those too … but crimes such as those are DOWN compared to when I was a child in the ’90s … yet the way we’re forced to raise our kids now days you’d think the crime rates were much higher.”

A third simply said: “That’s how most children were raised. I’m not saying one way is ideal but we shouldn’t need micromanaging from the government”.

The law has faced some online backlash, however, with many saying the laws were put in place for a reason and that changing them was dangerous. One person noted that despite being allowed to roam the streets when he was younger, the world was now a different place.

“When I was a kid in the ’70s and ’80s we always walked to and from school without parental company and it wasn’t a problem,” the commenter noted. “But I’d be angry if my siblings allowed their small children to do what we did back then because the world really is far more dangerous today.”

A further comment read: “Free range parenting? Anyone with half an ounce of common sense knows kids under 12 need constant supervision”.

In recent years, there have been worrying child abductions and murders. In Australia, Queensland boy Daniel Morcombe was abducted and murdered on the Sunshine Coast when he went Christmas shopping alone in 2003. In 2014, toddler William Tyrrell disappeared from his New South Wales front lawn. He has never been found.

However, between just 2012 and 2014, 47 children were killed, including 14 babies under the age of one, in family domestic violence situations. And between July 1997 and June 2008, 291 children were killed by their own parents or step-parents.

What do you think? Should children be allowed to play outside without adult supervision, or should there be limitations in place? Did you let your own children or grandchildren walk to and from school alone?