The Revolution of Rising Requirements has many elements. The most onerous are the supervisory requirements on children. They have become, as Kelsey Piper recently documented, completely, utterly insane, to the point where:

A third of people, both parents and non-parents, responded in a survey that it is not appropriate to leave a 13 year old at home for an hour or two, as opposed to when we used to be 11 year olds babysitting for other neighborhood kids.
A third of people said in that same survey that if a 10-year-old is allowed to play alone in the park, there needs to be an investigation by CPS.

Whereas I think that if you don’t allow your 10-year-old to play alone in a park, that is a much better (although still quite bad) potential reason for a CPS investigation.

This is not an idle threat, per the common statistic that around 35% of American families get investigated by CPS. Even if you are confident that will ultimately turn out fine, and given the vagaries and insanities one can never fully be sure, the process is already the punishment.

As Kelsey Piper says [...]

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Outline:

(01:47) We Don't Let Kids Be Kids

(03:42) Let Your Children Play

(05:36) The Algorithm of Fear

(07:33) The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself

(11:48) No Means No

(14:20) Child Abduction Is Either Custody Disputes Or Government Intervention

(17:29) Stranger Danger Danger

(20:39) The Before Times

(21:33) Could It Be... Murder?

(22:30) The Long Road Home

(22:47) Either Bored Or Happy

(23:53) All Eyes on Me

(27:03) Screens From The Past

(28:50) Medicalization

(31:02) Television

(32:14) Suspiciously Large Effect Size

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First published:
December 26th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dkbE54ESRBW69P3cY/childhood-and-education-16-letting-kids-be-kids

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Aerial view of shopping center parking lots with cars and stores.

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“Childhood and Education #16: Letting Kids Be Kids” by Zvi

LessWrong (30+ Karma)