Utah Legalizes “Free-Range Kids”

What’s more notable than the fact that Utah has legalized “free-range kids?”

The fact that it had to be legalized in the first place.

What’s a free-range kid, you may ask?

Literally, a kid that plays outside. It is now EXPRESSLY legal to allow your kids to play outside in Utah. Otherwise, some busy-body might call the cops on you for letting your kids play in the front yard. It happens. This is real.

A sad, sad sign of the times, folks.

According to Daily Wire:

Utah has become the first state legislature to “legalize” something that should be a natural part of childhood: playing outside without constant adult supervision.

The law, called the “Free Range Kids Bill,” makes it clear that parents in Utah can allow their children to play outside in nearby parks, ride their bikes, and even walk a couple of blocks by themselves, without being charged with child neglect, according to USA Today.

It may sound insane — after all, why on Earth would a state have to legalize children playing outside with other children, riding their bikes in the neighborhood or walking a few blocks to the store? But it turns out, it’s a law that was desperately needed, as Utah parents have seen the number of calls to law enforcement to report their neglectful behavior soar in recent years.

OMG. BE A HELICOPTER PARENT TO YOUR OWN KIDS. LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE’S KIDS ALONE.

This is why millennials suck, people. Because they grew up with parents like this. Just saying.

People are going to be all like OMG KIMBER TIMES ARE DIFFERENT AND IT’S REALLY NOT SAFE TO LET YOUR KIDS DO THINGS LIKE EXIST IN THE WORLD OR WALK WITHOUT THEIR BUBBLE WRAP SUIT ON!

Yeah ok, call me and let me know how well bubble boy is doing when he’s 20.

Are times REALLY that different? Or are parents different? Is playing in the sprinklers across the street from your house REALLY a life and death situation?

USA Today cites a handful of examples, but there are plenty available. Parents in Utah, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, and elsewhere have all felt the wrath of local busybodies, and found themselves on the wrong side of the law for things like giving their own kids permission to play at local playgrounds.

This rash of complaints spawned the “Free Range Kids” movement, which seeks to defend parents who let their kids be kids. And Utah’s law — the first of its kind in the nation — could be a model for other states where parents have found themselves accused of criminal neglect.

GOOD.

“It’s not neglect if you let your child experience childhood,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, told local media in Salt Lake City. “The message is you need to protect your kids but we are not doing kids any favors if we shelter them to the point where they are not learning how to function.”

Slow clap for this guy… seriously… it’s time we turn this ship around.

Another Utah legislator said that the bill “is to prevent in Utah a problem that has happened in too many other states … where parents have been prosecuted, gotten in trouble for doing nothing more than allowing a child to play outside or go to the park.”

The law doesn’t render the existing abuse and neglect laws toothless. Those laws, legislators say, were intended to protect children but are now being used in ways that they did not anticipate — to punish parents for behavior that isn’t actually abusive or neglectful.

It’s something of a sad commentary, though, that this law even needs to be written.

Obviously this depends on your area. Do you live in a super sketchy area? Yeah. Maybe don’t let your kids roam…

But if you live in a safe area? LET YOUR KIDS BE KIDS.

IT’S TIME TO FIX THE YOUNGINS’. MY GENERATION IS A LOST CAUSE. LET’S MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE.