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.

Peters, Pennsylvania Police Chief Harry Fruch has ordered his police force to investigate middle school students who are taking and sharing naked pictures of themselves.

"If the photograph was taken by the individual, male or female between the ages of 12 and under 18, she's as much a guilty party as the person who received it. — Read the rest

After years of documenting instances in which parents and kids are terrorized by law enforcement and child welfare authorities because the kids were allowed to be on their own in public places, the Free Range Kids movement has gotten some justice: a new Federal law gives its official okey-doke to parents who let their kids get to school on their own.

"Health and Safety" is the all-purpose excuse for any stupid, bureaucratic, humiliating rubbish that officialdom wants to shove down our throats. In the Interests of Safety, from Tracey Brown and Michael Hanlon, is the antidote: an expert dismantling of bad risk-analysis and a call-to-arms to do something about it, fighting superstition and silliness with evidence.

Mark and I have rounded up some of our favorite items from our 2009 Boing Boing reviews for the second-annual Boing Boing gift guide. We'll do one a day for the next six days, covering media (music/games/DVDs), gadgets and stuff, kids' books, novels, nonfiction, and comics/graphic novels/art books. — Read the rest

In honor of the publication of her book Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry, Lenore Skenazy conducts a great, reasoned interview with Salon about child-rearing without fear:

David Finkelhor, the head of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, has discovered pedophiles don't want to waste their time just flipping through MySpace pages or Facebook pages.

Lenore Skenazy (creator of the Free Range Kids blog and an activist for allowing kids to take risks as they grow up) has just posted the first chapter of her new book (Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry) to Scribd. — Read the rest

Three German children under the age of 8 were caught trying to get to Africa so two of them could get married. In warm environs, no less.

When asked why they were going, groom-to-be Mika explained his seemingly simple plan.

I know Lenore Skenazy's terrific blog, Free-Range Kids, has been mentioned on BB before, but IMHO it's relevant, especially when our kids are home from school for two weeks and we as parents have to choose between letting them zone out for hours with the new videogame Santa brought them, or giving them the opportunity to explore the world around them and perhaps push their abilities with a difficult project. — Read the rest