Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| May 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Generation Z is right \u2014 Americans, stop having kids. That issue is raised by the\u00a0Institute for Family Studies<\/a>\u00a0damning new report, \u201cHigh Tech, Low Play: The Life of American Children<\/a>.\u201d It is inciting the usual moronic anti-youth media distortions divorced from what it really shows.<\/p>\n The IFS\u2019s latest study follows its February 2026 survey of 24,000 parents of 40,000 children\/teens, \u201cResilient Children, Struggling Parents<\/a>.\u201d That initial report reached a revolutionary conclusion: parents who want to \u201craise their children to be independent, free-spirited\u201d and \u201cresilient\u201d must actively DEFY American \u201ccultural norms.\u201d<\/p>\n Great conclusion! The problem: American grownups, especially authorities,\u00a0fear and hate \u201cindependent, free-spirited, resilient\u201d young people<\/em>.<\/p>\n So, what American \u201ccultural norms\u201d are preventing healthy, challenging youth from growing up? Two stand out.<\/p>\n House arrest. Social media bans.<\/strong><\/p>\n The IFS reports \u2013 stunning indictments of American adulthood because they let the grownups speak for themselves \u2013 highlight the percentages of children\/youth whose parents\u00a0do not allow them to walk, bike, or drive outside their homes, yards, and immediate neighborhoods<\/em>: 98% of 5-year-olds, 98% of 12-year-olds, 73% of 16-year-olds.<\/p>\n In fact, very few parents allow grade-schoolers to\u00a0leave their house or yard<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 and 44% similarly confine their\u00a012-year-olds<\/em>\u00a0to literal house arrest.<\/p>\n Maybe the parents answering the IFS survey are grossly exaggerating to conform to social norms to \u201cact tough.\u201d But if the survey really reflects how repressive grownups have become, then those concerned for emerging generations must hope children and teens are sneaking out and bravely gaining experience with the larger world beyond their yards.<\/p>\n America\u2019s natural laboratory shows\u00a0what we do does not work<\/em>. American adults are monumentally messed up more than any other on earth.<\/p>\n CDC<\/a>,\u00a0FBI<\/a>, Census, and related statistics consistently show our 25-29-year-olds, 30-agers, 40-agers, and 50-agers \u2013 the grownups with supposedly developed brains and maturity, the controllers of wealth, families, institutions, politics, power \u2013 are exactly the ones setting horrific global records for wildly excessive drug and alcohol overdose, criminal behaviors, gun violence, domestic violence (including killing our own children), suicide, violent death, and political extremism.<\/p>\nWhere are children and teenagers supposed to be? Not online. Not out in their communities. If they sat in a lotus in their rooms chanting ohm all day, legislators would ban that.<\/h6>\n