Interesting to read this from outside the US.

Growing up in the former Soviet space in the 90s, unsupervised childhood was simply the default – not a parenting philosophy. Kids walked to school alone at 6, spent entire days outside with no adult in sight. Nobody called it "free-range", it was just... childhood.

What strikes me about the American situation is that the risk perception seems almost entirely detached from actual statistics. The article mentions stranger abduction fears driving this, yet abduction rates are extremely low. Meanwhile the documented harms from over-supervision – anxiety, depression, inability to handle conflict independently – are well-documented.

The Georgia mother arrested for letting her 10-year-old walk a mile into town is a remarkable data point. A mile at 10 would have been considered a short distance where I grew up.

I wonder how much of this is specifically American vs. a broader trend in wealthy countries. Anyone from Western Europe seeing similar patterns?