An excel­lent arti­cle from the Boston Globe:

At Camp Young Judaea, where Korn­re­ich and his wife, Marcy, have been fix­tures as campers, coun­selors, and now direc­tors for 30 years, the only con­tact chil­dren have with their par­ents is through the writ­ten word—one-way e-mails from par­ents to chil­dren, or old-fashioned hand­writ­ten letters. . . .

Once upon a time, that was mutu­ally accept­able. Par­ents enjoyed some peace and quiet. Chil­dren got to spread their wings away from home in a safe place and build some self-reliance.

But five years ago, as cell­phones became ubiq­ui­tous among kids, things started to change. And in the last cou­ple of years, the phe­nom­e­non has got­ten con­spic­u­ously worse, said Bette Bus­sel, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Amer­i­can Camp Asso­ci­a­tion of New England. . . .

What 20 years ago would have been con­sid­ered over­bear­ing for par­ents is now per­ceived as cau­tious and prag­matic.Dou­glas Belkin, “Tough to cut the ties that dig­i­tally bind,” The Boston Globe, August 3, 2006.