Tipsheet

Kickball, Tag Deemed Unsafe, Subject to Regulation

Last week, the Health Department in New York decided that tag, Red Rover, kickball and other games that get kids outside over the summer are now unsafe. A law in 2009 regulates more dangerous sports, like horseback riding, and now lawmakers want to augment it so that they can provide more oversight. Under the new legislation, any facility that organizes two or more 'recreational activities', with one that is considered 'risky', would be deemed a summer camp, and required to register as such.

Sports that are still safe: frisbee, sack races, tug of war

Sports that pose a "significant risk of injury": freeze tag, Wiffle ball, dodgeball, etc.

There's been a lot of fuss on a national level over childhood nutrition and obesity. With so much concern over getting kids to eat more vegetables, you would think that lawmakers wouldn't want to curtail opportunities to get some exercise.