I'm fascinated by the 'Freckle Phone' — a kids' smartphone with no social networks and tools to help your child explore the outside world — so I asked its creator my burning questions
I was a free-range kid before the term existed. Growing up before cell phones, my parents' chief communication device was a very loud voice, and one only used after the sun set and "dinner!!" was served. Freckle Phone creator Sam Terris tells me he, too, was free-range and, as he recalls it, had a lot of sovereignty.
The loss of that independence, the ability to wander over to your friend's house, play outside on a swing set by yourself, or go exploring in the creek that runs down the hill behind your house, has, researchers claim, played a significant role in children's growing anxiety and depression. It's something 'Free-Range Kids' advocate Let It Grow President Lenore Skenazy has built an entire advocacy group around.
In her TED Talk on the subject, she said that where there were once three worlds: "the kid world filled with bikes,...
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