The Sex Offender List was created and then made public with the goal of keeping kids safe. Not only has it had no effect on child safety whatsoever (see this study, and this article), it has bloated to include all sorts of “offenders” who do not and never did pose a threat to children. Here’s a letter I just got from the wife of one registrant: My name is Carrie. My husband is on the registry because at age 20 he hooked up with a co-worker that he believed to be 18. After he broke it off with her,…
Author: lskenazy
Readers — I hope this strikes you as cruel and unusual (not the mom — the authorities): WJBF-TV ABC 6 Augusta-Aiken News, Weather, Sports\ As the anchor reports: “A North Augusta mother is in jail after witnesses say she left her nine-year-old daughter at a nearby park, for hours at a time.” And as I wrote at Reason: Hours at a time? During the summer. Gosh! That certain sounds normal and fun like a reason to throw a mom in jail — and place the child into state custody. Here are the facts. Read the rest here! …
Readers — The folks at Playworld Systems, makers of playground equipment, not only made this elegiac video about saving outdoor free play, they’re also keen on reminding us all about the importance of early childhood play. Me too, for a variety of reasons, including one you don’t hear that much about: How early childhood play can be eerily predictive of who we become as adults. Example? Here’s what one middle-aged woman remembered about the games she played in childhood: “We had all kinds of games, playing hard every day after school, every weekend, and from dawn until our parents made…
Here are two stories sent in by a reader across the pond named James. The first illustrates how if someone bad happens to any child anywhere ever, we should ALL hear about it! And be warned! Even if it happened once in a million trillion times: PARENTS are being warned to be cautious over the latest craze of loom bands. The warning comes as a seven-year-old boy was left temporarily blind in one eye by one of the brightly coloured plastic bands. And other children have alarmed parents by wrapping them so tightly they have cut off circulation to fingers.…
Readers — Trust me. This is one to share. it’s by Jennifer Newlin, at Clickhole.com: I Lost My Child In The Grocery Store And Every Parent Should Know How That Feels Parents: Read this. On Thursday evening, I was with my 4-year-old son, Jacob, at the supermarket. He was tagging along beside the cart. When we reached the salad bar, I turned away for maybe 10 seconds in order to gather ingredients. When I turned back, Jacob was gone. Nowhere to be seen. If you’ve never had kids, you couldn’t possibly understand the sheer euphoria I felt in that moment.…
Readers — This “incident” took place the other afternoon on Prince Edward Island, Canada. A bus from the Red Cross swim program arrived a little early to the bus stop (the local school parking lot), so the driver dropping off a brother and sister, 7 and 9, told them to wait in the shade. And then — gasp — he anbnhezink left them alone. Their parents, Nicole and Martin Rogers, arrived not 10 minutes later and were livid: “I was scared,” Rodgers said in an interview on Wednesday. “I’ve never been so scared and so mad at the same time…
Readers, the prosecution knows when to let it go. (Yes, yes.) According to the Associated Press: Police and prosecutors faced a wave of criticism following news media reports that they had obtained a warrant to take photos of the teen’s erect penis. Police wanted the pictures to compare against photos he is accused of sending to his 15-year-old girlfriend at the time. On Thursday, Manassas Police Lt. Brian Larkin said the Police Department will not proceed with the plan to take the pictures and will let a search warrant authorizing the photos to expire. I’m sure the teen’s guardian is…
Readers — This mom needs your advice. So do I! Dear Free-Range Kids: I am a long time follower and was doing Free-Range before I knew what Free-Range was. (We are also unschoolers a la Peter Gray – before he knew what that was lol.)I have 6 children, ages 20 yrs to 7 months. We live in a fairly larger metro of appx 2m (Kansas City if that is relevant). It is fairly diverse on an economic, racial, education, etc level. Our city is really struggling with what would best be described as large groups of roving…
Readers — Oh, the puns I will refrain from. (Though it’s…hard!) Suffice to say, there are many problems with America’s sex offender laws, but perhaps this case illustrates their absurdity best. As Robby Soave writes at Reason: The authorities in Prince William County, Virginia, are pursuing child pornography charges against a 17 year old who exchanged nude picture texts with his 15-year-old girlfriend. The police have even filed a warrant that would permit them to take the teen to the hospital, give him an erection-producing injection, and photograph his penis. Prosecutors want to compare this photograph to the one the…
Let’s hear it for Dear Prudence, the advice lady over at Slate, who was recently sent this letter: Q. Negligence or Get Over It? Our child recently flew to overnight camp, and we arranged for my in-laws to pick him up from the airport. He is 12 years old and is technically allowed to fly unaccompanied but is still very much a minor, albeit a tall one! Having flown many times before, we were comfortable with the idea of our son walking alone from the gate to the baggage carousel and were very particular to tell my in-laws to be…