Today's guest is Boston College psychologist Peter Gray, whose new book is Restoring Childhood: How To Set Kids Free in the Age of Anxiety. Gray, who co-founded the free-range parenting advocacy group Let Grow with Reason contributor Lenore Skenazy and The Anxious Generation author Jonathan Haidt, argues that rising rates of anxiety, depression, and mental health issues among younger Americans are not a response to phone-based childhoods but primarily an outcome of K-12 curricular changes tied to No Child Left Behind legislation.
Gray tells Nick Gillespie why kids need more autonomy and unstructured play, why he thinks the internet and online gaming often provide helpful spaces for children, and why he thinks attempts to legally restrict internet access are more the result of moral panic than sound social science.
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