Childhood Pastimes are increasingly moving indoors

Fishing, biking and sports giving way to video games

By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY

BELLBROOK, Ohio ó Being a kid isn't what it used to be.

Dakota Howell, 9, went fishing in this town of 7,000 the other day with his mom, dad and little brother. ìIt's fun,î he says, happily reeling in sunfish from Spring Lake during a fishing derby sponsored by Wal-Mart.

But, to be honest, he'd rather be doing something else: playing video games. ìThat was my first choice," he confides. "But mom says they rot your brain."

Misty Pollock, his mother, smiles. "When I was a kid, we wanted to be outdoors,î she says. "Today, you have to push kids outside."

The fundamental nature of American childhood has changed in a single generation. The unstructured outdoor childhood - days of pick-up baseball games, treehouses and "be home for dinner" – has all but vanished.

Today, childhood is spent mostly indoors, watching television, playing video games and working the Internet. When children do go outside, it tends to be for scheduled events - soccer camp or a fishing derby - held under the watch of adults. In a typical week, 27% of kids ages 9 to 13 play organized baseball, but only 6% play on their own, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.