Cottonwool kids
UK parents most protective in the world - Scotsman.com News
In 1970 the average UK nine-year-old was free to wander 919 yards – a ten-minute walk – from home. By 1997, that figure was 316 yards, and by 2007, the boundary had moved to just outside the front gate – classed as a no-minute walk.Not allowing children to indulge in unstructured "free play" could harm their ability to form social relationships and hamper their chances of boosting creativity, the report said.
Sue Palmer, Edinburgh-based education expert and author of Toxic Childhood, said children not being given the freedom to play outside alone was "one of the most worrying factors of modern life".
"The potential effects of over-protecting our children are disastrous," she said.
"They need to develop independence during their childhood. That means developing social skills, confidence, resilience and being able to cope with what life throws at you."
With the press claiming there is a pædo round every corner middle class parents are over reacting, leaving the streets free for the feral kids from the underclass. And so the spiral descends. If kids can't wander down the street at the age of nine no wonder they never grow up, acting as teenagers until they are thirty in their jeans and trainers going from one drossy course at a drossy "university" to the next whilst sponging off the state and their parents.