Update 12/9/2006: We’ve been back for two weeks now and I probably still have sand in my shoes. The ladybird print tent is still taking up space on our bedroom floor because we can’t wrestle it back into its little sleeve to put away for next year. But this is a serious point (I knew I’d get there in the end): My mobile is virtually unusable for text browsing in broad daylight. And it’s not helped by the fact that Opera Mini highlights text links in white text on a blue background, even though the main navigation on my WordPress dashboard is made up of – yup, you guessed – white text on a very subtly different shade of blue background. Now everything’s bright, nothing’s clear.

As a parent, I can identify with the insights. I grew up in a small town in the 1970s and enjoyed far greater freedom than we seem to be able to offer our own boys living in a 21st century city.

In particular, the article notes that the age of the kids makes a huge difference to how the service would be perceived. Age 6 to 8 seems to be the sweet spot for parents wanting to give their kids freedom to roam, although of course:

Most kids between 2 and 8 lose anything that is not permanently attached.

I can identify with that one too :)

Read the article