This was the provocative title of this story in the UK journal spiked. I had to click. We all know that kids' and teens' time has grown increasingly structured. This is a departure from my generation (X), where we were the "latch key kids," home alone after school while mom and dad were both at work.

Today's parents are spending more time with their children (even if they don't really know what they're doing online). At the same time, the media's constant coverage of child abductions (usually white child abductions) and lectures on keeping kids safe from everyone and everything may actually be denying children a chance to grow up, be in the real world alone, make mistakes and learn from them. We may be teaching kids to mistrust every adult stranger because you can never be too safe. I get it. And I'm sure when I do become a parent myself, I'll get it on an even more primal level. Still, these are interesting questions to consider. According to the piece:

The report argues that parents are denying children the freedom to mess around with friends, a freedom that we ourselves once enjoyed. Play is essential for children and young people, the report points out, because it allows them to practice making and consolidating friendships and dealing with conflict. That means being given the space to play away from adult supervision. Yet according to research by Play England, a campaign group sponsored by the National Children's Bureau which calls for kids to have access to good and free local play space, in 2003 67 per cent of 8- to 10-year-olds and 24 per cent of 11- to 15-year-olds had never been to the park or the shops on their own.

An NOP survey commissioned by The Children's Society found that 43 per cent of adults thought children should not go out unsupervised until they were 14 years old. Other research has found that in 1970 the average nine-year-old was free to roam 840 metres from his or her front door. By 1997, that had shrunk to 280 metres.

I've written here before that I think a lot of online communities have become the new virtual mall for teens since many overscheduled teens no longer have access to these types of unstructured hang out spaces in the "real world." I do think it's essential that parents are aware of where teens are hanging out and engage with them about what they're doing on these sites. I also don't think you can or should be with them online at all times, or monitoring everything they're doing online secretly.

As a parent you teach your child ethics -- play nice with others, don't cheat, etc. The goal is for your child to apply these lessons in the real world with others as a part of growing up. Parents should teach these same lessons as they apply to teens' digital lives emphasizing that the web is a public space, that anything you post (or someone else posts about you) can be copied and sent spread virally, and once this happens, it's hard to take down. People can hide behind anonymity or pose as other people. Technology can create a sense of emotional distance between people making it easier to be mean or for your tone to be misunderstood. Don't share your password with your friends or boyfriend or girlfriend. Don't talk to adult strangers online, especially if they give you the creeps.

Even after you've covered all of this with your kids, you have to do the hardest and most important thing a parent can do -- let go. Hope they will come to you if they screw up or something bad happens, and just try to remember, you somehow survived your adolescence -- they will, too.