According to the State of New York it is.
New York state health officials have yanked a set of proposed guidelines for what were initially deemed risky day camp games like Red Rover and kickball.
Health department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton says the rules and lists of games and activities were sent out to municipalities and other camp operators under the previous administration.
She says that after a review spurred by a lawmaker's questions Friday and subsequent news reports, they've been judged too detailed and amount to micromanagement.
Hutton said Tuesday that the department will continue gathering information during a comment period that ends May 16 and will formulate new safety regulations that are broader.
The regulations are required under a 2009 rule meant to close a loophole in the law that allowed indoor day camps to operate without the same state oversight applied to outdoor day camps.
<url=http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42660497?gt1=43001>source
I'll see if I can find more on this, but I just thought I would ask. I mean, unless these kids are running through minefields with barbed wire strapped around them, it seems abit ridiculous.
EDIT:
<spoiler=Here it is on Yahoo, though this is a commentary>It seems that the state of New York deems any activity in which children play strenuously to be too dangerous to be allowed. In that spirit, the state's health department has offered a list of games that are deemed dangerous, thus triggering state regulation.
The list of activities, which would cause a children's program to be deemed a "summer camp" and thus subject to state regulation and fees, includes kick ball, freeze tag, wiffle ball, dodge ball, capture the flag, steal the bacon (???), and red rover. All are deemed capable of giving a kid serious injury, which means that a program had better have medical staff on hand and require a $200 fee if permitted in an after school or summer program.
It appears that New York would like to discourage children from doing anything but play video games and text message one another. Perversely, these activities are dangerous, too as they don't involve running, jumping, and exercise, and thus make the kids obese.
So, in New York, skinned knees and sprained ankles are bad. Diabetes and heart disease, not so much.
Childhood obesity is a real problem. People of a certain age can remember when it was not always so. In an era before Play Stations and the Internet, the streets and parks of America's cities and suburbs were filled with kids, playing baseball, touch football, and generally running around making a nuisance of themselves. Occasionally someone would come crying into their house with a scrape or bruise, to be comforted by their mom and an application of disinfectant and maybe a bandage or two.
Getting scrapped or cut up was as much a part of growing up. I still have a scar on my right knee from getting sliced open at recess in the 3rd or 4th grade. The school nurse fixed it right up and I was back out in 10 minutes.
Sure, as in everything in life, occasionally something worse happens, like a broken bone. That is why there are ambulances and emergency rooms. It is probably a good idea that adults supervising kids should have some first aid training and 911 on speed dial. But that shouldn't require regulations and fees.
One suspects that there are two things going on here. First is a misguided desire to shield kids from everything in the world that can cause them booboos. Second, more sinister, is a desire to extract more money from the good citizens of New York. Both desires are pernicious and should be fought against.
Source: Classic kids games like kickball deemed unsafe by state in effort to increase summer camp regulation, Glenn Blain, New York Daily News, April 19, 2011
<url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110419/cm_ac/8327403_new_york_health_dept_deems_playing_too_dangerous_for_children_looks_to_regulate_fun>source
<spoiler=Here's one from what looks like blog site, but its got the source and isnt too much opinion>Members of the New York Department of Health have lost their minds and are claiming that children?s games such as wiffleball, kickball, and freeze tag pose a ?significant risk of injury.? No really, they?re not joking.
From CBS New York:
Following new state health department guidelines, both indoor and outdoor day camps will be inspected and then subject to state regulation. According to the rules, if a day program has at least one physical activity on the ?risky list,? it will be deemed a summer camp and then regulated.
Lawmakers said a loophole had previously allowed indoor programs to operate without oversight.
Adam Langbart, president of the New York Camp Directors Association, thinks indoor programs should be subjected to the same rules as outdoor ones.
?There really shouldn?t be a difference. You?re operating a camp, you?re operating a camp, whether a camp is in a gymnasium or out in a field,? Langbart told WCBS 880′s Sean Adams.
Langbart says those who are protesting miss the point: ?People are dissecting the law and dissecting the rules and regulations and basically taking things out of context. You gotta look at the big picture and not just say, ?Oh. The state wants to regulate Wiffle Ball.? They don?t.?
Some small indoor camps may need to increase costs since they would be required to hire a medical staff and pay a registry fee if they are designated as a summer camp.
Wiffleball? Really? It?s a plastic bat and a plastic ball. Let?s continue to turn our kids into little sissies.
I just hope they don?t take away the seven up game. I love that game.
source
<spoiler=And the final one I found>Summer camp is a rite of passage for many young children. It's a place where thrill-seeking kids shoot bows and arrows, go fishing, milk goats, water ski, sleep in rustic cabins and play their hearts out with their peers.
But New York state bureaucrats are putting the freeze on summer camp staples like freeze tag, saying it and other age-old games such as Red Rover, kick ball, Wiffle ball and dodge ball pose "significant risk of injury" for youngsters, the New York Daily News reports.
Under the new rules, any summer program that offers two or more organized activities -- with at least one on the risky list -- is deemed a "summer camp" and subject to state regulation that includes requiring a $200 registration fee and providing an on-site medical staff.
"That's ridiculous, why even go to camp?" Kathie Lee Gifford, a mom of two teens, says on this morning's "Kathie Lee & Hoda Show."
"Sure archery may be a little dangerous, and scuba diving has its risks, but freeze tag, come on really," Hoda Kotb adds.
The talk show hosts' reaction underscores the collective cries of outrage from parents and summer camp supporters who are questioning these measures.
"Yes, of course, all contact sport has a certain risk, it's called life," Marinka, who prefers to keep her last name private, the author of the blog Motherhood in NYC, tells ParentDish. "I'm not one of those 'back in my day' lunatics who don't think that we need seat belts, and I'm all for safety, but I hate the idea of legislating common sense."
Kimberly Baxter, 27, a medical assistant from South Ozone Park, Queens, tells the Daily News she played freeze tag with abandon as a youngster.
"I never got hurt, maybe scraped my knee once in a while, but that was it," the mom to a 1-year-old girl tells the newspaper.
Some parents, including Gifford, say the new restrictions are simply a way to collect more money from parents.
"They're terrified of being sued and this is a way to tag on more fees from parents," Gifford says on her show.
These comments reveal just how defining summer camp experiences can be. Which is why it is disconcerting to some parents -- and even some of the state bureaucrats themselves -- that laws are being put in place to outlaw free play.
"It looks like Albany bureaucrats are looking for kids to just sit in a corner in a house all day and not be outside," state Sen. Patty Ritchie (R-St. Lawrence County), tells the Daily News."I don't think Wiffle ball is a dangerous sport."
The New York Camp Directors Association, however, backs the rules, and Health Department spokeswoman Diane Mathis said the list of risky activities was crafted with help from camp groups.
<url=http://www.parentdish.com/2011/04/19/summer-camps/?icid=maing-grid7|maing10|dl3|sec1_lnk2|57133>source
EDIT2: I never said that people wanted to get rid of the above playground games. Just asked if people thought they were "too dangerous" which is the crux of the whole matter.
New York state health officials have yanked a set of proposed guidelines for what were initially deemed risky day camp games like Red Rover and kickball.
Health department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton says the rules and lists of games and activities were sent out to municipalities and other camp operators under the previous administration.
She says that after a review spurred by a lawmaker's questions Friday and subsequent news reports, they've been judged too detailed and amount to micromanagement.
Hutton said Tuesday that the department will continue gathering information during a comment period that ends May 16 and will formulate new safety regulations that are broader.
The regulations are required under a 2009 rule meant to close a loophole in the law that allowed indoor day camps to operate without the same state oversight applied to outdoor day camps.
<url=http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42660497?gt1=43001>source
I'll see if I can find more on this, but I just thought I would ask. I mean, unless these kids are running through minefields with barbed wire strapped around them, it seems abit ridiculous.
EDIT:
<spoiler=Here it is on Yahoo, though this is a commentary>It seems that the state of New York deems any activity in which children play strenuously to be too dangerous to be allowed. In that spirit, the state's health department has offered a list of games that are deemed dangerous, thus triggering state regulation.
The list of activities, which would cause a children's program to be deemed a "summer camp" and thus subject to state regulation and fees, includes kick ball, freeze tag, wiffle ball, dodge ball, capture the flag, steal the bacon (???), and red rover. All are deemed capable of giving a kid serious injury, which means that a program had better have medical staff on hand and require a $200 fee if permitted in an after school or summer program.
It appears that New York would like to discourage children from doing anything but play video games and text message one another. Perversely, these activities are dangerous, too as they don't involve running, jumping, and exercise, and thus make the kids obese.
So, in New York, skinned knees and sprained ankles are bad. Diabetes and heart disease, not so much.
Childhood obesity is a real problem. People of a certain age can remember when it was not always so. In an era before Play Stations and the Internet, the streets and parks of America's cities and suburbs were filled with kids, playing baseball, touch football, and generally running around making a nuisance of themselves. Occasionally someone would come crying into their house with a scrape or bruise, to be comforted by their mom and an application of disinfectant and maybe a bandage or two.
Getting scrapped or cut up was as much a part of growing up. I still have a scar on my right knee from getting sliced open at recess in the 3rd or 4th grade. The school nurse fixed it right up and I was back out in 10 minutes.
Sure, as in everything in life, occasionally something worse happens, like a broken bone. That is why there are ambulances and emergency rooms. It is probably a good idea that adults supervising kids should have some first aid training and 911 on speed dial. But that shouldn't require regulations and fees.
One suspects that there are two things going on here. First is a misguided desire to shield kids from everything in the world that can cause them booboos. Second, more sinister, is a desire to extract more money from the good citizens of New York. Both desires are pernicious and should be fought against.
Source: Classic kids games like kickball deemed unsafe by state in effort to increase summer camp regulation, Glenn Blain, New York Daily News, April 19, 2011
<url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110419/cm_ac/8327403_new_york_health_dept_deems_playing_too_dangerous_for_children_looks_to_regulate_fun>source
<spoiler=Here's one from what looks like blog site, but its got the source and isnt too much opinion>Members of the New York Department of Health have lost their minds and are claiming that children?s games such as wiffleball, kickball, and freeze tag pose a ?significant risk of injury.? No really, they?re not joking.
From CBS New York:
Following new state health department guidelines, both indoor and outdoor day camps will be inspected and then subject to state regulation. According to the rules, if a day program has at least one physical activity on the ?risky list,? it will be deemed a summer camp and then regulated.
Lawmakers said a loophole had previously allowed indoor programs to operate without oversight.
Adam Langbart, president of the New York Camp Directors Association, thinks indoor programs should be subjected to the same rules as outdoor ones.
?There really shouldn?t be a difference. You?re operating a camp, you?re operating a camp, whether a camp is in a gymnasium or out in a field,? Langbart told WCBS 880′s Sean Adams.
Langbart says those who are protesting miss the point: ?People are dissecting the law and dissecting the rules and regulations and basically taking things out of context. You gotta look at the big picture and not just say, ?Oh. The state wants to regulate Wiffle Ball.? They don?t.?
Some small indoor camps may need to increase costs since they would be required to hire a medical staff and pay a registry fee if they are designated as a summer camp.
Wiffleball? Really? It?s a plastic bat and a plastic ball. Let?s continue to turn our kids into little sissies.
I just hope they don?t take away the seven up game. I love that game.
source
<spoiler=And the final one I found>Summer camp is a rite of passage for many young children. It's a place where thrill-seeking kids shoot bows and arrows, go fishing, milk goats, water ski, sleep in rustic cabins and play their hearts out with their peers.
But New York state bureaucrats are putting the freeze on summer camp staples like freeze tag, saying it and other age-old games such as Red Rover, kick ball, Wiffle ball and dodge ball pose "significant risk of injury" for youngsters, the New York Daily News reports.
Under the new rules, any summer program that offers two or more organized activities -- with at least one on the risky list -- is deemed a "summer camp" and subject to state regulation that includes requiring a $200 registration fee and providing an on-site medical staff.
"That's ridiculous, why even go to camp?" Kathie Lee Gifford, a mom of two teens, says on this morning's "Kathie Lee & Hoda Show."
"Sure archery may be a little dangerous, and scuba diving has its risks, but freeze tag, come on really," Hoda Kotb adds.
The talk show hosts' reaction underscores the collective cries of outrage from parents and summer camp supporters who are questioning these measures.
"Yes, of course, all contact sport has a certain risk, it's called life," Marinka, who prefers to keep her last name private, the author of the blog Motherhood in NYC, tells ParentDish. "I'm not one of those 'back in my day' lunatics who don't think that we need seat belts, and I'm all for safety, but I hate the idea of legislating common sense."
Kimberly Baxter, 27, a medical assistant from South Ozone Park, Queens, tells the Daily News she played freeze tag with abandon as a youngster.
"I never got hurt, maybe scraped my knee once in a while, but that was it," the mom to a 1-year-old girl tells the newspaper.
Some parents, including Gifford, say the new restrictions are simply a way to collect more money from parents.
"They're terrified of being sued and this is a way to tag on more fees from parents," Gifford says on her show.
These comments reveal just how defining summer camp experiences can be. Which is why it is disconcerting to some parents -- and even some of the state bureaucrats themselves -- that laws are being put in place to outlaw free play.
"It looks like Albany bureaucrats are looking for kids to just sit in a corner in a house all day and not be outside," state Sen. Patty Ritchie (R-St. Lawrence County), tells the Daily News."I don't think Wiffle ball is a dangerous sport."
The New York Camp Directors Association, however, backs the rules, and Health Department spokeswoman Diane Mathis said the list of risky activities was crafted with help from camp groups.
<url=http://www.parentdish.com/2011/04/19/summer-camps/?icid=maing-grid7|maing10|dl3|sec1_lnk2|57133>source
EDIT2: I never said that people wanted to get rid of the above playground games. Just asked if people thought they were "too dangerous" which is the crux of the whole matter.
. I got hit in the nuts three times during kickball. Twice by the same guy. In retrospect, he may have been doing it intentionally. And yes, I mean hit with the ball which was kicked directly into my crotch.
