Free to Be Kids is an initiative that grew out of Katharina’s encounter with a Child and Family Services intake worker that left her incredulous and concerned about our children’s development and the opportunity they are missing out on because of a culture that increasingly expects parents to hover over their children.

Many parents, community members, and even child protection workers, believe that is is illegal for children to be without an adult at their side until the age of twelve, based on a narrow and rigid interpretation of Section 17 of the Child and Family Services Act. It states that a child is in need of protection, if, “being under the age of 12 years, [the child] is left unattended and without reasonable provision being made for the supervision and safety of the child.”

While it is common (and, we believe, sensible) for children to walk to school on their own or with a friend, to a close-by store, park or friend’s house before the age of twelve, we keep hearing stories of parents getting reported to CFS, or being questioned by members of the public, simply for allowing their children the gradually increasing independence they deem appropriate based on the age and maturity of their kids and the circumstances.

As a result of her experience, Katharina started a petition calling for a revision of Section 17 of the Child and Family Services Act. The petition received overwhelming support (over 9000 signatures), and Katharina found out in that process that the Green Action Centre, which promotes active, healthy and sustainable ways for children to get to school, has been running into this same issue for years, much to their frustration.

Katharina and Sean, who worked for Green Action Centre at the time, decided to team up, along with Tanya Hoover, a Social Worker and Play Therapist with a passion for healthy attachment relationships, as well as Dr. Caroline Piotrowski, researcher in Violence and Injury Prevention, to form a group that has made its goal to change not only the law, but also the entrenched attitudes of fear and uncertainty.

We have met with the then-Deputy Minister of Families (Jay Rodgers, now CEO of Healthy Child Manitoba) twice within the last year, and were assured that Section 17 is not intended to keep kids from engaging in gradually increasing independence before the age of twelve. We were told that Section 17 is currently under revision, and that our recommendations would be considered. We have asked the Department to introduce legislation, similar to a recent bill in Utah, to explicitly allow parents to give their children more independence without fear of being investigated

• to correct the widespread misconception that children legally need direct supervision until the age of 12, and to send more consistent messages and

• to commit to re-training front line workers to handle such reports differently in the future: for call centre staff not to validate calls based solely on kids being out without a parent hovering, and

• for intake workers not to tell parents that kids need direct supervision until the age of 12.

Over the coming weeks and months, we hope to post updates about our work and events that are relevant to this issue. Stay tuned for resources for parents and educators who want to support and encourage kids to practice safe, healthy independence to help them become confident and competent in the world.