A lot of this has to do with parents' choices. Specifically, choices in where to live and how to raise their kids. It's still plenty possible to enable free,

A lot of this has to do with parents' choices. Specifically, choices in where to live and how to raise their kids. It's still plenty possible to enable free, and free-ish playtime in the US, but teaching kids to respect risk has to begin young. I live in a top 10 city -- San Jose -- with crazy commute traffic up and down the peninsula. But we chose to raise our kids on a two block long street with a church at one end and a park at the other. We get very little through traffic and they play outside largely unsupervised. As they get older, they bike to school independently, to their neighborhood schools (.75mi elementary, 1.2mi middle/high). When they're K-3rd, I bike with them to teach them safety rules. The older ones in middle & high school are on their own, commuting back & forth including staying after school for sports practices and events. We did buy them phones in 6th grade for our benefit, but I generally feel like by age 10 they're able to make pretty reasonable decisions on their own about most things, and know when to ask if they're unsure. It's critical, imho, for parents to focus on things like this in the early years because by the time kids are in middle & high school they're going to naturally start becoming more independent and must be able to assess situations and make smart decisions (or make stupid decisions and learn from them). Too much restriction on play and independence ultimately results in incomplete development, which can have cascading effects as adolescents transition into adulthood.