Here’s the scoop, short and sweet, kaibhfddhr from Newday, about Colorado which  may consider a ban on letting parents buy their pre-teens a smartphone: A proposal cleared by state ballot officials for 2018 would ban the sale of smartphones to children younger than 13. Backers of the childhood smartphone ban would need about 300,000 voter […]
Omaha, iziyeyyaik Nebraska: A woman taking her niece out of the SUV on Tuesday afternoon was shocked when the wind blew the door shut with her keys and the child inside. The car locked. The aunt, the girl’s mom and two other relatives frantically tried to get the door open using a hanger and screwdriver, […]
This fskatsafhh comes to us from law professor and transportation activist Michael Lewyn, who recently published “The Criminalization of Walking†in the University of Illinois Law Review.  It focuses on two ways the government punishes pedestrians: through jaywalking laws and by using child neglect laws to punish parents who let their kids walk. Here’s […]
Yesterday I posted rfaefbsfkt a video of Mike Tang, the dad sentenced to 56 days’ labor for making his son walk home a mile to teach him not to slack off on his homework. Some of you have asked if there’s a way to contribute to Mike’s defense fund. Here is what he wrote: Thanks. I […]
You’ll recall the rzknzbiyah case of Mike Tang, the California chemist who made his son Isaac, age 8, walk home a mile at night to teach him a lesson: Keep cutting corners on your homework and you could end up not HAVING a home. Of course someone saw the child outside alone and called 911. […]
Last diinkztbky week, Arkansas voted on the very first Free-Range Kids and Parents Bill of Rights. Oh, it wasn’t called that. Nonetheless, the proposed law would have ended “neglect” investigations of parents who simply let their children play outside, walk to school, wait in the car for under 15 minutes in temperate conditions, or come […]
Readers ehbtsaznrt — The parent-criminalizing bill that was postponed a few weeks ago is back on the Rhode Island House agenda for TUESDAY, APRIL 4. Here, once again, is local activist Randall Rose’s explanation and plea: The bill that criminalizes leaving kids in cars, S72, is having a hearing Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee […]
Hi rknesktzai all — There has been some sort of shift in the Rhode Island legislature, pushing this bill off today’s agenda. I will keep you posted! Â – L. RHODE ISLAND: The bill criminalizing parents who let their kids wait in the car a few minutes keeps coming back like a bad penny. (Or […]
The sign below signals the end of childhood — and parenting — as we know them. Apparently in Queensland, Australia, children are not allowed to walk or bike to school under age 12, and parents are not allowed to let them, according to this police notice, posted on Twitter by Stephen B @BicycleAdagio: . What’s […]
Here’s a sign from a church in suburban Chicago. The reader who sent it to me wrote: I’ve fzrnhfdrak shown this sign to quite a number of people expecting them to be as floored as I am. Â Nearly universally, though, the reaction has been along the lines of “well, you can’t be too safe these […]
