For the April cover story, Hanna Rosin described a new, less
constrictive playground style to highlight a societal shift: the
rising preoccupation with children’s safety has stripped
childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery. The
overwhelming majority of parents who responded to the article
agreed. The Huffington Post’s Philip K. Howard said the article
“should be required reading for all parents.”  I grew up in the
1960s, and played in the woods. So when my 10-year-old daughter
asked me whether she could play in the woods near our house, I
said yes. One day she was invited to a birthday party at a house
not far from ours. She walked to the party with a friend, and I
gave them permission to stop off in the woods on their way home,
provided they called me when they left. This did not sit well
with the birthday-party hostess, who called me in distress to
tell me that my daughter and her friend had left on their own.
“I know,” I said. “They were going to play in the woods,” she
said, her voice rising