A/N: This is an informational podcast about 5 minutes long. You can listen to it on Vocaroo by following the link. If for some reason you can't listen to it, the transcript is provided below. (But it would be nice if you'd listen to it.) It's for a school project, and as part of the project I was required to "publish" it somewhere and generate feedback. So any and all comments would be highly appreciated. They don't even have to be actual reviews.
(Real names and places are edited out for privacy reasons.)
Link: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1BrGqx5SFQr
Transcript:
[Opening sounds. Wind blowing, leaves rustling, children playing]
An image of the “ideal,” 60s-era childhood lingers in the American consciousness, reinforced through grandparent’s stories and classic movies. Through the lenses of nostalgia, it was wonderful, carefree time when children spent all afternoon outdoors, playing in packs and roaming the neighborhood, the only rule to “be home by supper.”
[Opening sounds fade. Background music starts]
Over the last four decades, this image has become little more than a memory. Outdoor play in suburban American homes has steadily declined. Children spend much more time inside and aren’t allowed to roam far without supervision. However, as little as twenty-five years ago, this type of childhood still lingered.
[Redacted] was born in 1977 and spent his childhood years growing up in [redacted] For him, childhood spent outdoors was not merely a memory, but a reality. This was his childhood, in his words.
[audio clip of interview]
“As a young child, I loved being outside, I loved playing games. I mentioned the small bits of forest and trees around our house. We would play hide-and-seek, we would pick up sticks that looked like guns and play “good guys and bad guys” and “shoot the bad guys” and that kind of stuff. We would play all sorts of tag, and Frisbee and soccer in the yard. The elementary school I went to was only a few minutes’ walk away, and we would walk down there sometimes and play on the playground or play basketball on the courts.”
[Background music fades out and changes to “A Piece of Peace”]
Unfortunately, stories like [redacted]'s are rapidly disappearing. The statistics are alarming. One third of American children have never climbed a tree, and one in ten can’t ride a bike. In fact, only half of America’s preschoolers have an opportunity to play outside every day. In general, children spend 50 percent less time playing outdoors than they did in the 1970s, and Children over age ten spend only twelve minutes a day doing physical activities.
There are many theories as to why children don’t spend as much time outside, but the two most common scapegoats are “helicopter parenting” and electronics. However, “helicopter parenting,” a term referring to overprotective parenting, is the more pernicious of the two.
Although the rise of television, video games, and the Internet is often blamed for children’s newfound propensity to stay inside, in reality, they are not replacing children’s desire to play outside, nor are they the main reason children spend more time indoors. One study found that 40 percent of the children surveyed would like to have more time to play outside - but their parents wouldn’t let them.
Considering that a common parental concern these days is whether or not their child is getting enough exercise, this reluctance may seem surprising. The answer: they are afraid. In one survey, most parents were reluctant to let their kids play outside, with 50 percent worried about traffic and forty percent fearing child kidnappers. Parents would rather rely on school and scheduled extracurricular activities to provide exercise, instead of simply letting their child play outside, where anything could happen.
However, the danger is not as high as these parents think. For example, in 2011, there were 61 million children under the age of 15 in the U.S. Of those, only 230 died from a car accident in which the child was a pedestrian. This number so small that it is hardly worth representing as a percentage. Add in some 11 thousand who were only injured, and the total is still under 0.02% of all children. Statistically speaking, the danger is negligible.
“Stranger danger,” the idea that strangers are likely to try to kidnap or otherwise harm a child, is also overblown. Violence against children 2-17 is steadily declining, and in fact, out of all the children under age 5 murdered since 1976, only 3% of the murders were committed by strangers. Much more common are abductions or murders by family members or acquaintances.
In reality, crime overall has been steadily declining for years. All violent crime is down 43% since 1993, and is expected to continue to decline. Unfortunately, public perception does not seem to match the data. In one survey, 74 percent of polled Americans said they felt America’s overall crime rate was increasing. While that number has fluctuated over the years, it seems to be increasing, despite the all-time lows in actual crime statistics. Clearly, the public’s perception of crime is grossly inaccurate, although it is unclear what causes this discrepancy.
Despite all the statistics, the fact remains that children are getting less time to play outside than ever before, largely because as a culture, American parents are becoming overprotective out of fear. But children need to play - that is how they learn to navigate the world. It helps them build problem-solving skills and social skills, and has also been shown to increase creativity. In the long run, closeting children for their safety may cause more harm than good.
Bibliography:
Gray, Peter. "The Play Deficit." Aeon Magazine. Aeon Media Ltd., 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 Jan. 2016
Harris, Marlys. “Kids stay indoors: What happened to, ‘Go outside and play’?” MinnPost.MinnPost, 9 Aug. 2013. Web. 5 Jan 2016.
“How Stranger Danger Changed the Way Children Play.” BBC News Magazine. BBC, 8 Dec. 2009. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Keohane, Joe. “The Crime Wave in Our Heads.” The Dallas Morning News. DMNmedia, 26 Nov. 2010. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
McFarnon, Emma. “Is Outdoor Child’s Play Doomed to Extinction?” Independent. Independent Digital News and Media Ltd., 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
[Redacted]. Personal Interview. Aug. 2015.
Skenazy, Lenore. “Crime Statistics.” Free-range Kids. n.p., 2015. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Music
“Let’s Just Get Through Christmas” by Doctor Turtle. Copyrighted under Creative Commons. Licensed under an Attribution License. Downloaded from the Free Music Archive.
“A Piece of Peace” by P C III. Copyrighted under Creative Commons. Licensed under an Attribution License. Downloaded from the Free Music Archive.
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125,006 Literary Works • 672,809 Reviews
Hey!!
I didn't know all of the statistics you provided and they definitely helped solidify my views on this topic 
Let me know if you have any questions or if anything I said was confusing and let me know if you need anything else for this project! 
I really enjoyed listening to/reading this, and I agreed with all of your points. I studied psychology in college and am studying clinical psychology in graduate school and I cannot emphasize the importance of play enough. Free exploration without a grown-up telling them what to do is so important to development and I don't think it happens enough. You said it perfectly when you said that play is vital to the development of problem solving skills and social skills. Children learn through play and they learn a lot. It doesn't happen enough in schools because even when there is unstructured time (like free time or recess) there are still rules and there are still plenty of things a child is not allowed to do, which can hamper their play process.
I don't have children, so I'm sure I don't quite understand the parental fear of something happening to my child. However, I definitely agree that this is why we have seen a decline in play and especially outdoor play. Even beyond getting hit by a car or your kid being abducted, there are so many scary things that could happen to a kid outside that could deter an over-protective parent. Your child might eat dirt and get sick. Your child might fall out of a tree and break their arm. Your child might fall of their bike and skin their knee. Your child might get poison ivy. Your child might get his/her feelings hurt when the neighbor kid doesn't want to play with them. Etc.
I think nowadays, parents become overly consumed with trying to make their child have the "perfect" life free of hardships or difficulties or challenges. While that sounds nice, children need some challenges. Obviously a parent needs to protect their child from serious dangers (like not running out in the middle of the street when cars are coming), but riding too fast on your bike falling down and scraping your knee isn't going to kill you. There's a natural consequence there that the child can learn from. But I think many parents are afraid to let that happen. And along these same lines, day cares, schools, and other places kids play have to put strict guidelines in place about what kids can and cannot do when they play because we live in such a litigious society now. If a kid gets hurt at day care or school, parents can sue or ruin reputations, and no organization wants to be responsible for potentially hurting a child (even if it was an accident) so extreme caution is practiced.
I worked at a Boys & Girls Club for three summers and we gave them opportunities to play outside at least once a day. It broke my heart hearing kids say things like "I don't want to go outside.", "Can't I keep playing [whatever video game]" or "I'm bored, can we go inside yet?" When I was a kid (which really wasn't that long ago, I'm 23) I could spend hours outside with my friends playing elaborate imagination games or playing on the playground. I loved playing outside. I didn't grow up with video games like kids do now (I didn't even have cable or internet until I was older :p), so I do feel like the internet and video games and TV play a role in why kids don't want to play outside as much. But, kids also have to learn that other things are more fun than playing outside for them to develop that view, and if their parents have never given them the opportunity to really play outside, how would they ever learn that this could be a fun thing too?
I could go on and on because I love children and I've read a lot about children and their development and this play shift bothers me, but I'll stop there
Thank you thank you, this is exactly what I needed.
And yeah, it really is sad about the kids who never even want to go outside. I know I sort of grew up on the boundary between "play outside all day" and "stay inside" just because of how technology was taking off and because I often wanted to read a book instead of going outside. But I still have lots of fond memories of the outdoors and I wouldn't want kids to not have those.
Hey there, Alex here to review this article. *complimentary Happy Review Day*
. Although the statistics were very well done the second one talking about riding a bike is less effective to the reader as one in ten is a fairly small proportion and works against your argument as it makes the problem severe than it is. In my opinion there could be better examples to use to have a better effect. The other ones were perfect and effective but this one caught my eye.(Note, I did not listen to it on vocaroo and this is my second review in about 8 months so it may not be it's usual quality)
I was pleasantly surprised by this article. I was expecting some massive rant with no basis on how things aren't like "The good ol' days" blaming technology for it. Instead I found a well put together argument and it was an interesting read. You managed to keep the reader (myself) interested in the article all the way through. I was especially a fan of your opening few sections which really set the scene.
I struggled to find much to nitpick on in this article as it was very polished and well done. The first thing that caught my eye was the sentence that says
It was later on I realized that although you included a bibliography (nice touch by the way, rarely seen on YWS) you did not say where the statistics were from throughout the document. This makes it harder for the reader to understand where the statistics came from and also reduces the validity of your podcast. I do understand that this article was meant to be spoken but even a little "from Aeon Magazine" would go a long way.
Overall, this was a very well put together podcast and I really struggled to find kinks in the armour. Very well done Meandbooks.
-Sushi
Thank you! You made some good points.
I might as well write a review, even though I don't have much to critique on.
Very interesting. In my own experiences, the reasons why kids don't play outside as much is due to one thing: technology, one of the "scapegoats" you said. I don't blame the parents - when I'm babysitting, I've found myself thinking that the television and their little Leapfrog tablets are the best inventions in the world. They're glued to those things, making my job (and their parents,' for sure) much easier. Realistically, however, they can be among the worst inventions in the world because they zap our time and make us so dependent on them that we're miserable without them. In a lot of ways I wish the world was like it used to be, more like the [redacted] guy's childhood, where kids are getting plenty of fresh air and exercise and living the exhilarating, adventurous life of a child.
Safety's definitely a prominent worry in the minds of parents these days, and that's why it's very rare to see children playing at a park without any adults around. But I didn't think it was as big of an issue as technology was until I read your "40 percent of the children ... but their parents wouldn’t let them" statistic, which I found very interesting. Are the parents being too lazy to take their kids to the park? That's a shame.
You brought up some really good points, supported them with ample logos, and hinted at a call to action - get kids outside. I'm also
jealous of your pretty voiceimpressed with a lot of those fancy words you used. Nice job!(Onto more Shaping Faith now
Thank you! Yeah, I probably understated technology's importance a bit, but I was trying to make a point. xD I totally get what you mean about babysitting, the best thing I can hear from the parents is "oh, and at x time feel free to turn on a show."
As an interesting tidbit that I forgot to mention, [redacted] is actually my dad, which is one of the main reasons I covered up his name.
Oh, your dad! Awesome.
Hey I loved the concept and the story too