Free-Range Kids

The War on Free-Range Kids Makes The New York Times

For too long, the government has acted as if any child venturing out unsupervised is in danger—and has negligent parents.

Lenore Skenazy | 8.14.2026 3:55 PM

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The Meitiv family (left), Mallerie Shirley with her son (center), Shirley's son (right) (Courtesy of the Meitiv family and Mallerie Shirley)

Thursday's edition of The New York Times asked a question I've been asking here for over a decade: "Is Letting Children Out Alone A Rite of Passage or a Crime?"

Reason readers know it can, in some sense, be both: a rite of passage too often treated as a crime. One of the primary missions of Let Grow, the nonprofit I cofounded, is to make sure the parents who trust their kids with some reasonable independence are not investigated for neglect.

But they are. The Times piece opens with the story of Mallerie Shirley—a story first reported in Reason. Shirley is an Atlanta........

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