Its no longer a crime in Utah to let your kids play outside alone - Sensationalist Headlines

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s no longer a crime in Utah to allow your children to play outside unsupervised, or walk home alone from school. Governor Gary Herbert signed Senate Bill 65 into law on Friday. Dubbed the “Free Range Kids” bill, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, modified Utah’s child neglect law to remove the threat of prosecution. “Free range kids” is a pushback on “helicopter parents” and the concept that children are constantly in danger. Even though Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services had said it never went after parents for it, Sen. Fillmore said he had heard from some who were worried. Source: It’s no longer a crime in Utah to let your kids play outside alo..

How come everything I've ever heard about Utah is weird as fuck

There was a law for that in the first place? That's fucking stupid

Mostly due to Mormonism I believe.

A lot of states have or at one point had weird laws like this on the books. There used to be one in Michigan that made it illegal to curse in front of woman or children.

Utah is the state where children occasionally get abducted by fundamentalist mormon cults, this law isn't that absurd in context of shit that happens there. Just look up Elizabeth Smart if you need a case to fixate on. But tbh it's a stupid law yeah and is obviously the wrong solution to the problem of child safety, but that's mormonism for you, they're controlling "helicopter" parents by default and it only usually gets worse from there.

what if a woman cursed?

That sounds a bit like something the Taliban would do...

Can you imaging your childhood being supervised the entire time you were outside? You'd have never grown up to be free thinking.

Crazy helicopter parents are just as bad as parents that don't care at all, imo. Both tend to result in a similarly bad result for a kid.

Whoa, I had no idea Mormons had that sort of a crazy side to them. I mean, I knew a chunk of them were nutty, but... Fuck. That's freaky. Hopefully abductions won't increase because of this somehow.

It's not mainstream mormons who do that, it's the fundamental cults who do that shit, splitting hairs considering there is plenty in the doctrines and covenant that says polygamy and shit is the law of God basically. It's not because they're polygamists but polygamy is the main reason the fundamentalist cults formed because the teachings/writings of Brygam Young and Joseph Smith cite polygamy as a holy practice. The history of the Mormon religion, especially the fundamentalist break off and the mainstream church formation period, is absolutely fascinating. Id suggest reading Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer for a good place to start as he references other authors and shit.

That was my thought too... crazy. I know everyone says it now, but it's truly so hard to believe that we've come to things like this already in my lifetime. Granted I'm probably a bit older than a lot of people on facepunch, but all the same my childhood was one of total freedom for the most part. I do remember though how all of these things slowly changed... we used to walk barefoot everywhere, but then after stepping on glass a few too many times, some parents insisted their kids wear shoes 100% of the time. Got bit by a bee? No walking in ANY forest or bush without an adult to be there to help you. Used to ride to school alone but then you got chased by someone or bullied? You do not ride without at LEAST one person with you at all times. The whole 'helicopter parent' concept is something that came on so very gradually that none of us ever really noticed it happening - parents were just being parents. But now it's at this point where you can't really enjoy that old fashioned kind of freedom... it's really sad. I don't know if it's population growth, or that feeling of helplessness in an ever expanding world that drives people to be more and more controlling and overbearing. There's nothing wrong with getting hurt, with being scared, getting lost or doing something stupid and regretting it. It's how you learn, it toughens you up or teaches you important lessons about how the world works. It makes me sad when I see kids in my area being coddled so badly. Ok, I didn't mean to rant quite so much, sorry.

and i thought the catholic priests were bad !

this is how u get kids shooting up on those weed needles

I enjoyed a lot of those freedoms too actually, though I grew up between the UK and the US so I didn't have a typical US upbringing. I think it was the post-911 scare, the anthrax mailing scare, and stuff in that few year span that really made it worse and brought on the super helicopter shit.

Am Utahan. Can confirm the Mormon church literally runs our government. Also, don't move here. Move somewhere else. The mountains and skiing are pretty nice, but the awful inversions and church aren't.

Yeah my parents were cited for letting myself and my younger sisters play in our BACK YARD in a TREE HOUSE unsupervised when I was younger. Shit is so weird. Neighbors will inform on you for little tiny things, especially if you are like us and don't actually go to church. Our house was like some kind of crime den to the community cause kids were never allowed over to play so it made getting friends kinda tough. Though it did end up weeding out a lot of over zealous pricks who weren't real friends in the end. Dude come to Park City, inversion isn't too bad and the hiking/skiing/nightlife is great. Plus most people here are either ex-Mormons or out of state emigrants. Gotta say though you really gotta look for decent real estate. Before I got my current apartment I was renting a house with four other people.

What is this "Inversion" you are speaking of

SLC is pretty nice, a little liberal utopia deep in a bonkers red state (like Delta, lmao), it gets inversion super bad, but hey this is facepunch we're talking about, gas-masks are a given.

Oh my god, that second picture is horrifying

Gotta have $$$ tho, also can't stand the lack of oxygen at that altitude, North Utah is already bad enough with thin air. Centerville and some of the more liberal-ish booming small towns are pretty nice now, Provo is good if you can stand being the one in 1,000 non-mormon.

Thin air? Uh... No. Highish altitude but I even my friends from N'awleans haven't complained about it