It's silly to pretend that there are no people who might want to do harm to children, but as a father, I'm not really worried about them. I am, however, worried about the police hassling my kids and my family for the reasons presented in the article.

My kids are very very little now, but it's something my partner and I discuss how to handle in the future. We live in a typical suburb now, but we're planning a move to the city for several reasons. Counterintuitively, we think this will provide our children more freedom to grow. Our impression is that police authority goes unchecked in the suburbs, while the city resists police overreach (sometimes).

Conversely, some neighbors just moved in from Seattle (I'm in an east coast suburb). They are ecstatic they can just let their kids play outside now. Something they said they couldn't do when living back in the city.

Hope it works out better for them than the family in the article

> I think the main issue in this story is that most Americans wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving their kids outside by themselves

Father of 5 here and you are fully correct. Our kids are not meaningfully safer with constant supervision - and by mandating it, we're knee-capping their ability to develop problem solving skills.