hanging out

danah boyd has often argued that children and youth in the US go online to socialise because they are no longer allowed to walk the streets and meet friends in public spaces. Here is an article from the Daily Mail, claiming the same is true in UK: How children lost the right to roam in four generations.

The article addresses the situation for children. Children and youth in Norway are still allowed to get around by themselves, meeting friends and hanging out. Embarassingly, I did feel slightly uncomfortable leaving my 14-year old niese and her bestfriend alone at Friday's teen-favourite happening in Oslo, a three hour long live hit-show at Rådhusplassen. Silly me, they are 14! And, the concert-arena was heavily supervised by the police and guards.