By Eve Pearlman
San Jose Mercury News
June 16, 2006

Excerpt:

Media coverage of accidents and crimes, says Stearns, amplifies our fears and distorts our perception of risk — and too, he says, more and more parents consider even the remotest possibility of harm to be unacceptable.

"We've developed this phobia about taking any risk at all," says Stearns. "Kids used to break their arms and we'd say, 'Oh well' and sign the cast. But now when they do, we assume as a society that if things had just been properly organized this bad thing wouldn't have happened."

As a parent of two young children, I know the worry. A car could hop the curb. A stranger might assault my child! But I also dislike assuming the worst in each person and every circumstance. And I regret that my kids have so little space in which to grow independent, to learn how to assess a stranger at a glance, to navigate the streets of our neighborhood and to learn to trust their own judgments and perceptions. They will need these skills to thrive as adults.

"The funny thing is that there are areas we as society tolerate a great deal of risk," says Stearns, citing the minimal instruction new drivers receive and the relatively young age at which kids in the United States get driver's licenses. Traffic accidents are by far the biggest risk to children of all ages yet we speed merrily along at 70 or 75 on multi-lane freeways. [More]

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