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Comment by bilegeek | Hacker News Reader

Then the kids risk having the cops called, and the parents risk having CPS called from a neighborhood busybody.

That's exactly the problem - even if the kids AND the parents are willing, the wider society makes it such an enormous hassle and risk. And there's no guarantee you'd win a legal case, especially if you can't afford to.

[1]https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2018/09/05/mom...

[2]https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/13/living/feat-maryland-free-ran...

[3]https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/arreste...

[4]https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-mom-accused-of-leaving-ki...

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> Then the kids risk having the cops called

This examples are fairly extreme, but people calling the police isn’t a new thing.

A friend and I dug a hole that was pretty deep at the beach - police called.

We made too much noise late one night - police called.

We rode our bikes in places we weren’t allowed - police called.

We explored the haunted house - police called.

One kid pointed a cigarette lighter that looked like a gun and a helicopter - police called.

All in the ’90s. Children going too far and irritated neighbours have always been a thing.

Digging holes at the beach is very dangerous. Collapsing wet sand can get in the lungs surprisingly easily, and peope can sufficant long before getting it out.

The rule is no deeper than the knees of the smallest person who may be involved.

I'm not saying the police should be called for every hole. Just that it is a real risk. And generally I'd agree that people overreacting (sometimes myself included) is a tale as old as time.

Oh 100% we were idiots.

The hole was pretty deep - we could only just get out with an extended step ladder.

> The rule is no deeper than the knees of the smallest person who may be involved.

Absolutely not. You are welcome to apply it to your family but don't come applying it anywhere near mine.

I am so utterly bored of absolute risk aversion being preached on every street corner. I'll take some risk and the constituent rewards for me an mine, thanks.

I was replying to your other post, but I guess I can do it here... I would argue that there's a reason those articles were written about the incidents. They don't happen as often so when they do, news articles like to highlight the incidents and pretend that they're the norm. It's not.

You posted 3 incidents of it happening - do you know how many kids are out there with parents _not_ getting harassed? A lot more I would bet.

I've seen stories like this many times, sometimes accompanied by comments from police warning parents not to abandon their children. The problem is so bad that there's a whole movement dedicated to trying to stop or reverse this trend that is making (or has already made) it culturally unacceptable to let kids go anywhere or do anything https://www.freerangekids.com/

To turn your argument on it's head: are these types of articles rare because so many kids are out and about un-hassled, or are they so rare because so many people don't let their kids out enough for it to be a common occurrence?

I don't know if one group or another is in the _majority_ or not. I'm also not arguing it isn't still possible for some areas - an area I live some miles away from still has kids out and about - but for a great many people, it's an issue that exists, and it's not an issue that they can easily solve on their own without moving.

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