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Comment by wlesieutre | Hacker News Reader

The last arcade in my hometown hung on until 2003. Adults didn't like it because they heard someone bought weed there once.

Which was probably true, but the drug fear mongering was another big piece of making sure kids didn't have anywhere they were allowed to exist without adult supervision.

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What age ranges are you talking about? Assuming people go to college or university at 17-18, they can complete their teen years breaking free of childhood while learning adult skills. I did 8 years of that stuff back in ancient times, and my day to day existence and academic survival was up to me. Yeah, my folks paid the bills for the first half, then TA'ing people paid the second. The whole schmere was a pay to play deal but the good parts really outweighed the bad. Socially rich environment, it was.

Looking back, there is/was only one great difference - social networks. I played with computers from 13 onwards. Required going to a computer centre somewhere or finding a desktop minicomputer. In a car or on foot, but it was "elsewhere". The big advantage of that era is that it wasn't a solo activity. Weird society, yeah, but one had to be civil (enough) to be able to get help and access. Micro's ended that need.

Not having to be on line all the time gave me some slack until I got a handle on scheduling. In that I was (quite) lucky.

And I figure "joining the military" isn't freeing oneselves from supervision, rather the reverse. Is there still social agencies that let you go elsewhere and help out or have they all been branded NGO's and eliminated?

The term is helicopter parenting. Studies have shown children born after 1995 are significantly more stunted (they grow up more “slowly”) due to this. There are interesting consequences like, for example, the condition of college campuses and identity politics. There are also laws that punish parents for allowing their children unstructured, safe, adult-free time (the expansion of the definition of “neglect”). A great book called “The Coddling of the American Mind” covers this and more in great detail. These days, we have more than ever replaced the physical helicopter parent with devices.

Where did these laws come from, why do they exist? My childhood (independent playing outside, going to the park by yourself, etc…) is not literally illegal, or did these laws always exist and no one cared?

Keep in mind that ancient times (60's and 70's) also saw save-somebody's-ass politics. There's been a strong undercurrent of (counter)culture on campuses since then. Perhaps that was always the case, as the students would be the ones being shot on the barricades. At least that's why musicals and histories say.

Perhaps the lack of an external threat or insufficient motivation vs. failure leads to a lack of focus? Certainly, helicoptering does horrible things to the younger participants. Might that see-saw from generation to generation, or have we not seen those participants becoming parents yet?

I recall "good luck, we'll do all we can do to help you. F*ck up, and you're on your own...".

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