After years of free-range kids campaigning, a state legislature has taken heed: Utah just passed the Child Neglect Amendments, affirming that common activities like letting your kid walk to school or leaving them in the car while you duck into a shop are not neglect or child abuse.
Rep. Brad Daw, who sponsored the bill, acknowledges that Utah parents have not faced sanctions for these sorts of activities — parents in other states have — but says that his bill will prevent prosecutors and cops from being tempted to invoke such sanctions in the future.
Utah lawmakers said they were prompted to pass the law after seeing other states where parents had been investigated and in some cases had their children temporarily removed when people reported seeing kids playing basketball in their yards or walking to school alone.
Headline-grabbing cases have included a Maryland couple investigated after allowing their 10- and-6-year-old children to walk home alone from a park in 2015.
Republican Sen. Lincoln Fillmore of South Jordan has said allowing kids to try things alone helps prepare them for the future, though some have raised concerns the law could be used as defenses in child-abuse cases if not carefully deployed.
Utah governor signs law legalizing 'free-range parenting' [Lindsay Whitehurst/AP]
(via Naked Capitalism)
