←back to thread

Where do the children play?

(unpublishablepapers.substack.com)
409 points casca | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
Earw0rm ◴[] No.45952503[source]
It's cars. It was always cars.
replies(2): >>45952557 #>>45958364 #
api ◴[] No.45952557[source]
Plenty of cars in the 90s and we played outside all day.

The biggest change since then is two things.

One is that there’s way more to do inside now, mostly games and shows.

The second is that baseless kidnapping panics convinced society that children can never be unattended. The main vector was daytime TV and now true crime podcasts. The reality is that kidnapping is statistically extremely rare and more than 95% of all child sexual or other abuse is perpetrated by someone the child knows. Most kidnappings are also by someone the child knows.

replies(4): >>45952759 #>>45952904 #>>45953190 #>>45961604 #
throwawayffffas ◴[] No.45952759[source]
While I mostly agree with you, cars then and cars now in the US are not the same.

The typical car back then was a 5 door sedan, think ford crown, Chevrolet lumina, etc. These days almost everyone is driving pretty much a light truck.

replies(2): >>45952791 #>>45961647 #
1. SoftTalker ◴[] No.45961647[source]
You may not remember the "land yacht" sedans, or the gargantuan station wagons, which were common family cars back in the day. Longer, wider, and heavier than any modern SUV, crossover, or minivan.