A new book argues that modern schooling is the cause of the increase in teen depression and suicides, and blaming phones and social media is junk science. www.theverge.com/policy/99…

Kids are depressed because they aren’t allowed to play independently and because of rigid schooling methods tied to the Common Core curriculum, says psychology researcher Peter Gray in his new book “Restoring Childhood.”

Gray says the concern and regulation over phones and social media is the latest in a long line of moral panics, which include video games, comic books and parents' fear that their kids will be abducted by strangers.

Yes, there is pornography and other stuff on the Internet that kids need to be protected from, but kids lose out when they’re heavily restricted in internet use. The internet lets kids benefit from contact with their peers, maps, being able to call 911 when they’re in danger and all the rest of the ways that adults benefit from the internet and mobile.

Gray, who grew up in the 1950s, notes that when he was a boy, parents routinely sent their kids out to do the grocery shopping and they were allowed to roam the streets independently. But first, parents gave their kids safety training — how to cross the street safely, not to get in cars with strangers offering candy, and so on. He says this attitude toward childrearing promoted mental health and safety, and advocates a similar philosophy toward kids' use of the Internet.

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and our parents had the same attitudes toward childrearing. We roamed freely for miles on our bicycles.

I found myself nodding along listening to this podcast.