<story><title>Play deprivation is a major cause of the teen mental health crisis</title><url>https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/the-play-deficit</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caesil</author><text>I wonder if this doesn&amp;#x27;t have a lot to do with cars.&lt;p&gt;In surrendering utterly to the preeminence of streets, we have essentially taken our open, free world and overlain it with an immense grid of electric fences -- thick lines all over the map that, if children wander across them, might easily lead to their deaths.&lt;p&gt;So &amp;quot;hold hands everywhere&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t let your children run free outside&amp;quot; become the norms. The only safe place is locked inside or behind fences; the wider world is a death trap for children.&lt;p&gt;Play inherently requires a degree of freedom, but children have none. We are just prison guards eternally transferring them from one captivity to another.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alexpetralia</author><text>Routinely in New York City at least, you can kill someone using a motor vehicle almost with complete impunity.&lt;p&gt;The driver who led to Sammy&amp;#x27;s Law (which still hasn&amp;#x27;t passed) only received a 180 day license suspension a year and a half after the accident, even though he sped past a stopped vehicle on the righthand side (the vehicle had stopped for the child). Death by car is often considered acceptable.&lt;p&gt;There is really no disincentive to dangerous driving, to say nothing of the preeminence of driving more generally.</text></comment>
<story><title>Play deprivation is a major cause of the teen mental health crisis</title><url>https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/the-play-deficit</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caesil</author><text>I wonder if this doesn&amp;#x27;t have a lot to do with cars.&lt;p&gt;In surrendering utterly to the preeminence of streets, we have essentially taken our open, free world and overlain it with an immense grid of electric fences -- thick lines all over the map that, if children wander across them, might easily lead to their deaths.&lt;p&gt;So &amp;quot;hold hands everywhere&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t let your children run free outside&amp;quot; become the norms. The only safe place is locked inside or behind fences; the wider world is a death trap for children.&lt;p&gt;Play inherently requires a degree of freedom, but children have none. We are just prison guards eternally transferring them from one captivity to another.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pj_mukh</author><text>Absolutely, and America has double problem where denser neighborhoods are seen as unsafe due to crime. And less dense neighborhoods means kids can’t go anywhere without having an adult drive them.&lt;p&gt;So kids are stuck at home, miles from a playmate.</text></comment>