Kids: 1)Kids Still Crave Free Play — So Why Does It Look Like They’re Always Online?; 2) Advice to feed babies peanuts early and often helped 60,000 kids avoid allergies

1)Kids Still Crave Free Play — So Why Does It Look Like They’re Always Online?

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Marie Gagne, October 24, 2025

If you think today’s kids would rather spend hours glued to a screen than play outside, you might want to take another look. Turns out kids crave free play.

A recent survey of US children ages 8–12 revealed that 45% prefer unstructured, unsupervised free play as their favorite way to connect with friends. Just 25% said they’d rather socialize online.

That might come as a surprise if your mental image of childhood involves “Minecraft,” “Roblox,” or TikTok dances. But researchers behind the poll — Lenore Skenazy, Zach Rausch, and Jonathan Haidt — believe kids aren’t addicted to tech because they love it more than real life. They turn to screens because real-world play has become too supervised, too structured, and too rare.

Why Kids Retreat to Screens

The survey also found some startling stats about how little independence children have today:

• About 75% of 9 to 12 year olds regularly play Roblox, drawn to its freedom.
• A majority of kids have smartphones. 
• About 50% of 10 to 12 year olds said that all (or most of) their friends are on social media. 
• Most kids say they’re not allowed out in public without an adult.
• More than 25% of 8 to 9 year olds aren’t allowed to play in their own front yard without an adult.
• Less than 50% of 8 to 9 year olds have ever walked down a grocery aisle alone.

These same kids were asked how they like to spend time with friends and were given 3 options: 

• 45% said they wanted “unstructured play, such as shooting hoops and exploring their neighborhood”
• 30% said “participating in activities organized by adults, such as playing Little League and doing ballet”
• 25% said “socializing online”

In other words, kids aren’t choosing tech because it’s better — they’re choosing it because it’s free from constant adult oversight. Online, they can explore, make up rules, and connect with friends without being monitored every second.

The Rise of the “Phone-Based Childhood”

Since the 1980s, a shift toward “safetyism” — fueled by parental fears — has dramatically reshaped childhood. 

In another Harris Poll, 60% of parents feared injury would befall two unsupervised 10-year-olds playing in a park and 50% feared abduction — despite actual risk being extraordinarily low.

Experts estimate a child would need to be unsupervised for 750,000 years before being kidnapped by a stranger. 

Certainly, parents need to assess risks related to their own neighbourhoods, but with so many overestimating the dangers, children are losing the chance to develop independence and experience opportunities to develop resilience, confidence, and problem-solving skills.

American childhoods today are defined by structured schedules, constant supervision, and limited autonomy, mirroring a broader cultural transformation since mid-century. Meanwhile, rates of childhood anxiety and depression have spiked as independent play declined. 

And parents are suffering too with health advisories drawing attention to the link between intensive caregiving and stress. 

Children Know What They Want — and It’s Real Play

Here’s the kicker: most kids would still rather roam their neighborhoods, invent games, and hang out in person. They crave the independence that older generations took for granted — the freedom to ride bikes, build forts, and get dirty without checking in every five minutes.

Nearly 75% agreed with the statement:

“I would spend less time online if there were more friends in my neighborhood to play with in person.”

As safety concerns and over-scheduling shrink kids’ real-world playtime, digital spaces fill the gap. 

But this new research suggests that given the choice, kids prefer the old-fashioned version of play — the kind with scraped knees and giggles echoing down the street.

Open the Door to Real Childhood

Most kids aren’t addicted to technology—they’re just craving the kind of unsupervised fun that today’s social norms and infrastructure restrict.

Real independence—backyard games, grocery runs, hanging with street friends—is profoundly important for mental health and growth.

Creating safe spaces, changing community practices, and embracing a more trusting view of childhood can rekindle genuine connection—and make smartphones less of a default.

2) Advice to feed babies peanuts early and often helped 60,000 kids avoid allergies

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Jonel Aleccia, October 20, 2025

A decade after a landmark study proved that feeding peanut products to young babies could prevent development of life-threatening allergies, new research finds the change has made a big difference in the real world.

About 60,000 children have avoided developing peanut allergies after guidance first issued in 2015 upended medical practice by recommending introducing the allergen to infants starting as early as 4 months.

“That’s a remarkable thing, right?” said Dr. David Hill, an allergist and researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and author of a study published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics. Hill and colleagues analyzed electronic health records from dozens of pediatric practices to track diagnoses of food allergies in young children before, during and after the guidelines were issued.

“I can actually come to you today and say there are less kids with food allergy today than there would have been if we hadn’t implemented this public health effort,” he added.

The researchers found that peanut allergies in children ages 0 to 3 declined by more than 27% after guidance for high-risk kids was first issued in 2015 and by more than 40% after the recommendations were expanded in 2017.

The effort hasn’t yet reduced an overall increase in food allergies in the U.S. in recent years. About 8% of children are affected, including more than 2% with a peanut allergy.

Peanut allergy is caused when the body’s immune system mistakenly identifies proteins in peanuts as harmful and releases chemicals that trigger allergic symptoms, including hives, respiratory symptoms and, sometimes, life-threatening anaphylaxis.

For decades, doctors had recommended delaying feeding children peanuts and other foods likely to trigger allergies until age 3. But in 2015, Gideon Lack at King’s College London, published the groundbreaking Learning Early About Peanut Allergy, or LEAP, trial.

Lack and colleagues showed that introducing peanut products in infancy reduced the future risk of developing food allergies by more than 80%. Later analysis showed that the protection persisted in about 70% of kids into adolescence.

The study immediately sparked new guidelines urging early introduction of peanuts — but putting them into practice has been slow.

Only about 29% of pediatricians and 65% of allergists reported following the expanded guidance issued in 2017, surveys found.

Confusion and uncertainty about the best way to introduce peanuts early in life led to the lag, according to a commentary that accompanied the study. Early on, medical experts and parents alike questioned whether the practice could be adopted outside of tightly controlled clinical settings.

The data for the analysis came from a subset of participating practice sites and may not represent the entire U.S. pediatric population, noted the commentary, led by Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a child allergy expert at Northwestern University.

However, the new research offers “promising evidence that early allergen introduction is not only being adopted but may be making a measurable impact,” the authors concluded.

Advocates for the 33 million people in the U.S. with food allergies welcomed signs that early introduction of peanut products is catching on.

“This research reinforces what we already know and underscores a meaningful opportunity to reduce the incidence and prevalence of peanut allergy nationwide,” said Sung Poblete, chief executive of the nonprofit group Food Allergy Research & Education, or FARE.

The new study emphasizes the current guidance, updated in 2021, which calls for introducing peanuts and other major food allergens between four and six months, without prior screening or testing, Hill said. Parents should consult their pediatricians about any questions.

“It doesn’t have to be a lot of the food, but little tastes of peanut butter, milk-based yogurt, soy-based yogurts and tree butters,” he said. “These are really good ways to allow the immune system exposure to these allergenic foods in a safe way.”

Tiffany Leon, 36, a Maryland registered dietician and director at FARE, introduced peanuts and other allergens early to her own sons, James, 4, and Cameron, 2.

At first, Leon’s own mother was shocked at the advice to feed babies such foods before the age of 3, she said. But Leon explained how the science had changed.

“As a dietician, I practice evidence-based recommendations,” she said. “So when someone told me, ‘This is how it’s done now, these are the new guidelines,’ I just thought, OK, well, this is what we’re going to do.”