There's never been a safer time to be a kid in America

[gollygee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/14/theres-never-been-a-safer-time-to-be-a-kid-in-america/

"It's hard to say that much of the decline [in mortality and abduction rates] comes from stricter parenting," said Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University who's written about child safety statistics.

When it comes to child mortality, "crime and accidents were never that big of a deal to begin with," he said. And there are a lot of factors driving those trends downward -- better safety standards for cars and better pedestrian infrastructure, for instance. Declining rates of violent crime overall also likely play a role.

Asked about the Meitiv's case, Caplan said, "it's crazy, people are being persecuted for doing things that are extremely statistically safe just because other people disagree."

Bottom line: If it was safe enough for you to play unsupervised outside when you were a kid, it's even safer for your own children to do so today.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

1. Modern times are inhabited by assholes, busybodies, and chickenshits. Whatever happened

to the 'Land of the Free, Home of the Brave'?

[gollygee]

2. They're inside

playing video games and watching TV where it's "safe" instead of enjoying the outdoors and getting healthy exercise

[frazzled]

3. Unless

You are a young black male, say, reaching for your cell phone.

This is a stupid article. The statistics cited apparently combine mortality from disease as well as accidents or crimes. Maybe homicides are down because parents tend not to let their kids roam off unattended.

I watched a forum the other night with high school kids asking questions to the mayor of our city. One girl said she was unable to go out anywhere because her mother didn't let her go out after school alone or with friends. How was the mayor going to make her neighborhood safer? Maybe that girl was alive to ask that question because her mother, like so many parents in our city, have become protective of their kids' safety in neighborhoods riddled with gangs and crime.

[gollygee]

4. I don't think young black men are in more danger than they used to be

I think there's just more attention given to it recently. And if you read the article, you'd see that they respond to the "maybe they're down because parents tend not to let their kids roam . . ." Violent crime is down in general - not just violent crime against children - so it's much more likely due to general crime trends than due to parental involvement.