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It also depends on where you live. If you are a suburban or rural kid, playing outside all you want is fine. Let them explore the neighborhood. If you live near
by danjoredd 4y ago
It also depends on where you live. If you are a suburban or rural kid, playing outside all you want is fine. Let them explore the neighborhood. If you live near a highway though, or a high crime area, then you might want to reconsider what you want to allow. You still need common sense.
My main worry is people who live in relatively safe areas, like a suburban neighborhood, but with neighbors that will STILL call CPS on you for allowing them a little freedom. When I was a kid living in a trailer park we had neighbors like that. Never called CPS, but definitely complained about us being unsupervised despite the fact that the speed limit was a mere 15 MPH, and that we made a point not to bother the neighbors because our parents told us not to. They just saw kids playing and having fun, and decided it was a crime against humanity.
- Aeolun 4y ago> a high crime area What exactly do you expect to happen to your 6 year old? They’re not a very useful target for anything I can think of.
- cafard 4y agoRecently, it seems that every year in Washington, DC, there are a few bystanders shot by groups quarreling with other groups. Some of those bystanders have been very young.
- doubled112 4y agoGive me your lunch money! No, that doesn't sound right. Other than gangs recruiting young and something accidental (kid caught in crossfire), I agree, I can’t see the very young being targeted.
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoMost schools have lunch accounts these days, stealing lunch money is no longer possible. We have a lot of unhoused neighbors in our neighborhood. When they are on bad fent trips, they can get pretty irrationally violent, though I've never heard of a kid being attacked before.
- trpv 4y agoIs “unhoused neighbors” your term for homeless people?
- gedy 4y agoPerverts?
- bluGill 4y agoMostly kidnapped by the parent that doesn't have custody. Once in a while other aunts or uncles who don't approve of the way their brother/sister is raising kids.
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoIn China they might get kidnapped for adoption, at least that is what my (Chinese) wife thinks.
- slowmovintarget 4y agoAdoption, or far worse.
- bluGill 4y agoThat happens in places, but probably not in the places where people living here are. But if you are adopting from a foreign country beware that it is easy to kidnap some baby from a remote village. Some of the less ethical adoption agencies have done this in the past.
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoWhen China was adopting kids to abroad, I'm sure that happened. These days, I'm not sure if child trafficking is still a problem, I only hear anecdotes, and its all domestic (because China doesn't allow kids to be adopted abroad anymore except in very rare circumstances).
- bluGill 4y agoChina is not the only country adopting. There are places in Africa to watch out for. Though many have stopped adopting as abuse was too common for the benefits.
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoThe big issue for China is that they needed kids staying in the country not going out of it. Even in the 00s, they were adopting primarily disabled kids, and I think that has almost stopped now.
- geraldwhen 4y agoSuch extreme privilege right here. Kids that young will be pressured into using drugs and committing crimes, mostly vandalism and theft, but sometimes worse. That’s around the age when kids started dealing drugs where I grew up. I knew kids who threw bricks through windows and huffed paint when left alone. Bad areas are bad.
- junofan 4y agoCome on, it’s not extreme privilege. No gang is recruiting at 6.
- geraldwhen 4y agoI don’t know if it was gang affiliated but other 6 year olds were dealing where I grew up.
- nemothekid 4y ago>Kids that young will be pressured into using drugs and committing crimes This is DARE level propoganda. What person is spending real money to give a 6 year old drugs?
- ethbr0 4y agoAltruists?
- uoaei 4y agoWhere was this, and what convinces you this is widespread enough for concern? This entire article is about rebuffing the "it happened once somewhere so it might happen anywhere" scare tactic that people use to prosecute well-meaning parents for letting their children experience independence.
- gowld 4y agoWhy should it be a crime for a parent to allow there child in the same public where criminals operate? Why should the police punish the victims of crimes for the police's failure to do their one job?
- danjoredd 4y agoMostly pedophilia and ransom would be my main concern.
- QIYGT 4y agoThat basically never happens with strangers on the street. If you're worried about that, pay more attention to teachers ("nearly 9.6% of students are targets of educator sexual misconduct") and your partner ("of the girls living with a stepfather, 3.7% reported sexual experiences with him") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse#United_States_and_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse#United_Stat...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hef19898 4y agoI'd throw in sports trainers, coaches, uncles and doctors. And not to forget priests and the like, in case of frequent vhurch visits.
- jehb 4y agoThe use of the phrase "high crime area" in this context, when just referencing child safety, is itself problematic. Everyone who is reading that phrase right now is forming a mental picture of what it means, and I guarantee it's not a picture of illegally burning garbage in the yard while drinking raw milk, sitting on an unpermitted deck, listening to an illegally downloaded MP3 while making a trade on their phone based on an insider tip they heard from their brother.
- ethbr0 4y agoI was in a college class that had a mix of inner city and suburban kids. Ask the suburban kids to describe the inner city? Dangerous. Crime-ridden. Ask the inner city kids to describe inner city? Community. Know their neighbors.
- scruple 4y agoMaybe try asking the kids who didn't go to college in both places what their opinions are next time.
- ethbr0 4y agoWhy would their opinions differ?
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoBecause people have different opinions? And because college sometimes changes them? Mind you, I'm not necessarily with the GP. It seems like a question of only marginal relevance. But the parent reads like a low-effort dismissal that doesn't actually address the point.
- ethbr0 4y agoI just can't see college-or-not influencing perceptions enough to be relevant. As someone who grew up in the suburbs, and has since lived in a rough part of the city, it also resonated with my personal experience. In the suburbs, nobody generally knows each other. In the city, due to density, you just have more neighborhood interactions. Sometimes inner city interactions are uncomfortable or with crazy people, but they're generally non-violent. If I had to peg percentages, I'd say: Inner city: 30% awesome/interesting/helpful strangers, 55% ambivalent strangers, 10% unpleasant strangers, 4.5% crazy strangers, 0.5% potentially violent strangers Suburbs: 15% awesome/interesting strangers, 70% ambivalent strangers, 15% unpleasant strangers, 0% crazy/potentially violent strangers
- evancox100 4y agoNot to support the “what about the children” arguments, but 1) try thinking a little harder, and 2) probably a good thing that nothing comes to mind for you.
- zo1 4y agoWhat do you think the children of people committing said crimes do? They mimic their parental figures. Child on child violence is a real thing and ignoring it just let's them turn into adult versions of the bullies they are.
- ecshafer 4y agoThere is irony here in that a "high crime" urban area is much more likely to have kids walking around with relative freedom than a "low crime" suburban area.
- yunwal 4y ago“High crime” urban areas are still generally safer for kids than car-centric suburban areas because cars aren’t going as fast. Kids are far more likely to die getting hit by a car than from violent crime.
- jrumbut 4y ago> My main worry is people who live in relatively safe areas, like a suburban neighborhood, but with neighbors that will STILL call CPS on you for allowing them a little freedom. I think this is the real problem, a lack of a low stakes mechanism for resolving small issues surrounding children. No matter if these laws pass, society will have standards and sometimes (oftentimes) good people will fall short of them. Someone who can deal with a kid who gets a little overzealous at hide and seek or who decides to poke around an abandoned building instead of walking straight home from the store. Police and CPS type organizations seem to be too heavy handed for assisting with normal families that have had a dysfunctional moment, at the same time it feels like there is a need some something (neighbors just talking to each other would be nice, but it's apparently too big an ask). It's similar to the situation with mental health and substance use disorders. A lot of people need help, and it ends up falling to first responders of various kinds and while they want to help they aren't necessarily well equipped to do so.