Several studies in the United States, Europe, and Australia have found that over the last 50 years the radius of children’s “independent mobility” has shrunk by as much as 90%; whereas the distance grandpa was allowed to roam from home was measured in miles, for the modern child, it’s measured in yards. According to one study in the U.K., while 80% of third-graders were allowed to walk to school in 1971, that number had dropped to just 9% in 1990, and is even lower today.

Between the 1980s and early 00s, the amount of time children had at their disposal declined by 9 hours a week on average. Kids empirically don’t have as much time for free, unstructured play as they used to — the kind of unsupervised play in which they’re most apt to take risks and explore their limits.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/04/03/origins-overprotective-parenting/