Are children today being harmed by overprotection?

Parental control: From sanitized playgrounds to organized playgroups, from street-proofing to netnannies ...today's children are being managed and tracked like no previous generation.Some worry they're not getting enough freedom to learn life's tough lessons ..to become independent beings.  What do you think?With guest host Suhana Meharchand....

CBC Radio · Posted: Jul 27, 2014 12:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 27, 2014

Parental control: From sanitized playgrounds to organized playgroups, from street-proofing to netnannies ...today's children are being managed and tracked like no previous generation.

Some worry they're not getting enough freedom to learn life's tough lessons ..to become independent beings. What do you think?

With guest host Suhana Meharchand.

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Introduction

Today we want to talk about judging the safety and well-being of our children. If you are a parent you know how deep the desire goes to ensure your children remain safe. Danger lurks in many forms, from injuries through falls at home or in the playground, from inattention around traffic, or regular play in sport and recreation ...and you can add the threat of abduction to that list too. Don't forget the regular dangers shared with adults in driving cars, flying planes etc. You probably have enough danger to leave parents cowering at home. Fortunately most don't cower at home ...though some critics say parents encouraging kids to turn to the computer for entertainment amounts to the same thing.

The dangers are real, as the stats and the emergency room visits demonstrate. And, we are getting better at keeping children safe ...but the standard of what constitutes 'safety' keeps getting higher too. And that is part of what we want to discuss today.

Are parents becoming over-vigilant, over-concerned? Are they over-protecting their children to the point that the kids are not learning the tough lessons -- and perhaps more worrying -- not learning how to independently evaluate the challenges that will come their way in life?

A recent news story offered an example of how standards have changed. A U.S. single mother found out the hard way when she was jailed for allowing her 9 year-old to play in the park while she worked in a McDonalds opposite. She lost custody of her daughter for doing something that a generation ago was commonplace. Today most parents wouldn't think of allowing their children to play unsupervised in a park for hours at a time. Fear of either injury or abduction has now ended that practice. But what are the risks ...and what is the price of increased vigilance?

Some say too much worry about safety is draining the fun and the learning out of childhood ..that a little danger is a good thing ...to learn life's tough lessons and become independent beings. What do you think?

Our question today: "Are children today being harmed by overprotection?"

I'm Suhana Meharchand ...on CBC Radio One ...and on Sirius XM, satellite radio channel 169 ...this is Cross Country Checkup.

Guests

Lenore Skenazy
Called "America's Worst Mom" after she allowed her 9 year old son in 2008, to take a New York Subway home by himself. Author of Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry).
Michael Ungar
Killam Professor of Social Work at Dalhousie University. He's also in private practice. He is author of 11 books on children at risk, including Too Safe For Their Own Good: How Risk and Responsibility Help Teens Thrive
Twitter: @MichaelUngerPHD

Dr. Louis Francescutti
President of the Canadian Medical Association. Has written extensively on public safety awareness and how to prevent injury in children.
Bernard Spiegal
Director of PlayLink, an organization that stresses a child and teenagers need to have the freedom to play, in just about any setting.