What the fuck.

A woman who saw him walking alongside the road—speed limit: 25 in some places, 35 in others—asked him if he was OK. He said yes.

Nevertheless, she called the police.

So it was all that Karen's fault...

I grew up in the 90s.

When we got to 2nd grade, we became eligible to take a road-sign test. (Left, right, stop). If you could demonstrate that you knew what that meant, and show them you owned a helmet, you could then ride your bicycle to and from school.

I was 7.

This was more than a decade after the term "stranger danger" had been seared into the American psyche.

I worry of the future.

Why aren't the kids going outside anymore lol

This is what 24/7 news does to the brain. It completely fucks up people’s sense of how risky things are.

As humans we tend to assume that the probability of something happening is proportional to the number of times we can remember hearing of it happening.

Many people think children walking or playing alone are at high risk of getting abducted because they hear about it “all the time” on the news. Yet they don’t think twice about sticking their kids in the car and driving somewhere.

Statistically though you’re orders of magnitude more likely to kill your child in a car accident, than have them abducted by a random stranger while allowing them to play or walk somewhere unattended. Car accidents are common so they rarely make the news, Child Abductions are extremely rare And frequently make the news. The mom in the story could have literally driven the child to the town and put the child at a greater risk in doing so then letting the child walk there alone.

Both the cop in the story, and the Karen that called him, Have a completely distorted sense of how much risk this child was in, And it’s all because the news media makes us think the extremely rare is relatively common.

In recent years, the media has told stories in fear mongering ways in order to drive more ratings, Which is only the amplifying this effect.

What the actual hell is wrong with... Ah wait, its USA so why am I even surprised...

your kid goes for a walk? believe it or not, straight to jail.

"I will not sign," she says.

Very good idea. I wouldn't sign anything.

Btw, what did they even charge her with? I mean, don't you have to commit some crime in order to be detained?

Gen-X reading this.

As a middle aged father of two grown boys, one of the things I wish I had done better was encourage them to go out on their own more. Their mother would always be so worried, and knowing she has the best intention for them I would give in.

Also there was a couple of years when they were young I would try to force them to go outside and play, but they would quickly become bored and come back in the house. This was so frustrating at the time and then I realized that there were no other kids playing outside either. When I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s, I practically lived outside with my friends.

My boys are significantly more dependent on us, much less capable and their development seems stunted or slowed, which I am sure is partly due to the pandemic, but also due to the sheltering that has become normalized in our culture. Allowing this to happen is one of my biggest regrets as a father, which all things considered I guess isn’t that bad while keeping things in perspective.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the abundance of information has a side effect of over protectiveness. This makes some sense as it would be evolutionarily beneficial to protect against potential threats, however media is tricking our brains to believe that these threats are both abundant and persistent.

Children need unsupervised freedom as part of their development, it allows them to learn how to navigate the world in a healthy regulated way, and how to deal with challenges, like problem solving or social interaction. The perception that the world is a dangerous place that children need constant protection from is flawed. If that were true, we would have never have survived as a species.

"I was not panicking as I know the roads and know he is mature enough to walk there without incident," she says.

The sheriff disagreed.

"She kept mentioning how he could have been run over, or kidnapped or 'anything' could have happened," recalls Patterson.

Even if his mother was walking there too, it's not likely going to do much to stop a car from running him over. She'd just be some extra mass to fling.

Kidnappings -- and a number of other serious crimes -- are usually done by people who are known, not random strangers.

kagis

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/zmldiz/til_there_are_only_between_150300_kidnappings_of/

There are only between 150-300 kidnappings of children by strangers each year in the US. The other 200,000 kidnappings each year are by relatives.

Even more lopsided than I'd expected.

And as for "anything" happening, I'd imagine that "anything" could have happened at home, too.

In Japan I saw like 5 year olds taking the morning train by themselves to school

Reason.com is a libertarian propaganda mill. This story is meant to pit you against the state so you can swallow their other bullshit.

Free country where a 10 year old kid can’t even walk alone. Meanwhile in Germany parents of 6 year olds are heavily encouraged by school to let kids walk to school alone and stop being such a cry babies because nothing is gonna happen and they should learn to be independent.

Also why did they arrest her? In my country when the state thinks you committed a smaller crime and there’s no reason to believe you’re gonna fly they just send you a letter.

Land of the free.

Only in the US of A.

Only restriction a 10 year old has is 23:00 curfew. Kids here(SE EU) go to school on their own from first grade. Being out 'till curfew without adult supervision is normal.

When I was 12 or 13 I'd walk into town to check out the used cd stores all the time. Seems pretty normal.

I was waiting for the part of the article where something tragic happened to the kid to warrant the mom’s jailing.

Not… him just going for a completely normal walk…

I grew up on 10 acres in the country in the 90's/early 00's. My mom would literally lock my younger brother and me out of the house to get us to spend time outside and so she could get some work done uninterrupted.

You bet we'd be foraging through the woods, going for 10+ mile bike rides, skipping rocks at the river, catching garter snakes, etc, all day with no supervision and we never had a single problem. We were raised to watch out for "stranger danger" and to let my parents know what we were doing in general, and that was enough.

I was like 3 towns away when I was 10. At this rate we will raise adults that can't think for/do anything themselves. Let the kids live.

Lol, back when I was a kid, getting grounded was a punishment. Not a legally binding rule parents must enforce at home at all times. Lol, America is fucked.

lol yeah traumatize her family by showing up unannounced to take their mother away, while also undermining their mother's authority as a parent. Just another day in the line of duty.

I used to walk all over my home town (and around my first home's block) starting at age 5. Like, the fuck is this?