Children in Utah have just been taken off the leash. It's all thanks to a new law that legalizes so-called "free-range parenting" and will allow the kids to do things like play at a park, bike to the store, or walk to school without parental supervision.
The bill redefines the term "neglect" in Utah law so that kids can participate in some unsupervised activities without their parents being charged with a crime.
"It’s not neglect if you let your child experience childhood,” state Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, who sponsored the bill, told Salt Lake City's KUTV 2News. "The message is you need to protect your kids but we are not doing kids any favors if we shelter them to the point where they are not learning how to function."
The bill doesn't make any mention of an age limit, but it does say that the children left alone should be able to display maturity and good judgement. The bill passed unanimously in both houses of Utah's state legislature and was signed by Gov. Gary Herbert on March 15th. It will take effect in May.
"As a society, we’ve become too hyper about ‘protecting’ kids and then end up sheltering them from the experiences that we took for granted as we were kids," Fillmore said. "I sponsored SB65 so that parents wouldn’t be punished for letting their kids experience childhood.”
Lenore Skenazy, president of letgrow.org and author of "Free Range Kids" started the conversation about free-range parenting after writing about allowing her 9-year-old ride the New York City Subway. She says on her blog that allowing children to assert their independence helps empower them to feel smart and capable.
Parents leaving their kids alone in Utah may be safe, but in other states, parents could still face legal problems. In Maryland last year, a couple was arrested after they allowed their 10 and 6-year-olds play alone at a park two blocks from their home. Rhode Island lawmakers have even proposed a bill that could jail parents up to one year for allowing their kids to wait in the car while they run errands.
Skenazy told ABC News that people will always disagree how old a child should be when allowing them to be on their own.
"I would definitely not let a 3-year-old play in the park alone, but I definitely would let their 10-year-old sister play in the park for an hour and come home," she said. "I definitely would let my 7-year-old walk to school, but maybe you won't let your 7-year-old walk to school."
But for now, children in Utah are set to have a bit more freedom to do what they want.