(Image Source: Cosmoloan)

 

BY MIRANDA WHEATLEY

ANCHOR ALEX ROZIER
 

You're watching multisource US video news analysis from Newsy.

New York state officials have deemed some summer camp games may be too risky. They say the classic games are quote 'posing a significant risk of injury' for campers. 

“Wait we're talking again here, they are freeze tag, kick ball, wiffle ball, dodgeball I can see, capture the flag, capture the flag? Steal the bacon?! Red rover?! I think this is ridic-I think they're just terrified of being sued." (NBC)


New York received major backlash after it attempted to add tag to its 2009 list of risky summer activities. The health department labeled horseback riding and archery as dangerous summer camp activities in a 2009 law.

“The law sought to close a loophole that legislators said allowed too many indoor camp programs to operate without oversight. Under the new rules, any program that offers two or more organized recreational activities - with at least one of them on the risky list - is deemed a summer camp and subject to state regulation.”
New York Daily News


New York has decided to leave tag off the list - for now - but critics still say the state went too far.


Hufffington Post states, “The New York Health Department is trapped in the role of lamest camp counselor ever.”

And a mother writes for the Post Star “...categorizing these typical playground activities as dangerous is plain silly. Especially considering tug of war and sack races aren’t on the list.”

Babble weighs in saying “...the banning of typical and very normal kids’ games is robbing kids of normal fun.”

Normal or not the health department said adding the games would have closed a loophole created in the 2009 law that allowed indoor camps to slide--and a contributor for CNN says regulation is needed.

"This is about indoor versus outdoor, this isn't democrat versus republican on regulation. This is about, guess what, indoor camps haven't been regulated. Guess what happens indoors? Skateboarding, Kathy, is that something that's unsafe, guess what else? All types of different indoor camps that can be very very dangerous and they need to be regulated." (CNN)

A spokesperson for the health department tells the New York Daily News most day camps already meet the requirements and the changes would have been minimal.  So was this simply blown out of proportion and is cracking down on freeze tag too much?

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