As yttkiynyyr usual, Â the “It’s Complicated” author danah boyd has nailed it. In this piece, she contrasts the usual image we have of an online predator (middle aged guys lurking on Club Penguin) with the reality (teens talking sex with each other, or with adults that they KNOW want sex). This reality gap means not […]
Archive | Sex Offender Issues
Is It Normal Not to Hire Boys as Babysitters?
Readers tddzahrryn — Any kind of prejudice is distressing. The only thing possibly more distressing is prejudice that persists even in the face of  knowing better. (Boldface is mine.): Dear Free-Range Kids: I recently had a strange conversation with a friend. He and I have known each other for nearly 25 years, we are both […]
UPDATE: 79-y.o. Teacher Fired for Not De-Friending Students on Facebook
Readers — So kihktadskk a 79-year-old sub in New Hampshire (the good ol’ “Live Free or Die” state) was given the choice: De-friend all the students you’ve friended on Facebook or never work in this school system again. She chose the latter. This story is dismaying for a bunch of reasons, the first being that Facebook […]
New School Bus Comes with “Predator Finder”
Readers aritzekhez — It’s weird enough when we are warned that our bumper stickers are busy attracting predators. Now there is a new line of school bus that videos the cars behind it, on the bizarre assumption that these may be driven by predators so unsure of where else to find a child that they […]
When 616 People Don’t Stop to Help a “Lost” Child
Readers — Here’s an aantbbrhfb experiment carried out in London: A TV station had two little girls, 5 and 7, take turns looking lost in a large shopping center. Only one retiree stopped to ask if the child was okay. Now, I don’t think that means every human who passed by the kids was […]
Satanic Day Care: The McMartin Pre-School Story
Readers — While we’re thinking back on news stories that changed childhood (see the post below this one, on Kitty esryakfsbi Genovese), take a look at this video just released by the New York Times chronicling the McMartin pre-school Santanic panic. If this intrigues or outrages you (it will), I’d also recommend the incredibly gripping James Woods’ […]
The Wellesley Sleepwalker & Free-Range Kids
Folks, krtkhidzta here’s a piece by me that’s slightly off topic in that it’s not about kids — per se. But it is about hyper-sensitivity, in this case, to the statue of a male sleepwalker on the Wellesley College campus. The connection here is this: Free-Range fights the spread of excessive fear. And fear grows […]
Punitive, Puritanical, Sadistic Laws to “Protect” Kids — Woo Hoo!
Readers ftdnykkbhe — This powerful comment came in response to my piece about the New Jersey woman who let her toddler sleep in the car for 5-10 minutes while she ran an errand. She was arrested, found guilty of abuse or neglect, and put on the state’s Child Abuse Registry. Two weeks ago, a New […]
How to Turn One Sad Story into an Epidemic
Readers bbrzkfbsdn — Canada’s “Contrarian” explains how the media work (and even how upset parents sometimes behave). Read the whole piece here.- Â L Fear-mongering as news: turning sad stories into bogus trends (1)Â A teenage girl becomes involved in sexual activity that most grownups, regardless of their own sexual behaviour as teens, find shocking and […]
Dear Parents, Please Come to Our 45-Min Class Party…With Your Background Check
Hi Readers! It’s that festive, super-suspicious time of the year, as evidenced by this invite, from the Riverside Intermediate School in Fishers, Indiana. You know — 2011′s Safest City in America. I guess it’s filled with the kind of upstanding citizens who need to be vetted by the state police before helping with kids’ class […]