Technology and paranoia are a bad combination for the health of children.

Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the U.S. in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 1 in 3 children are now considered to be overweight or obese.

The amount of calories consumed by children has risen as their time for exercise has fallen. The problem will only worsen if parents are afraid to let their kids walk to school or hike in the woods, but are perfectly fine with letting them spend all of their time on technology that is truly harming their health.

National and community initiatives that aim to encourage activity and better eating habits among children are fine but more can be done to avoid raising a generation of unhealthy kids constantly connected to mobile devices.

Keeping kids healthy also requires parks where they can play and participate in other activities. If we want our children to care about protecting the natural beauty around them, we need to get them out into nature. But technology and overprotective parents keep kids from exploring the outdoors.

The problem extends to walking to school. Fewer than 15 percent of U.S. schoolchildren walk or bike to school today, down from about half of kids in 1969, according to the CDC.

A nonstop media barrage fuels a perception that the world is too scary of a place to let kids walk in neighborhoods anymore. When parents are getting arrested for letting their children walk to a park, as happened in a high-profile case in the Washington, D.C., area, the paranoia has gone too far.

A solution catching on that should satisfy both free-range and overprotective parents is a so-called walking school bus. The concept simply requires parents to take turns meeting kids at their homes and walking them to school in groups.

Students are also getting less activity due to recess cuts from the school day. All too often, unfortunately, requirements for standardized testing and other existing mandates keep schools from having recess. Schools need more flexibility to give children time to play.

Parents don't have to let their kids play in a busy street to keep them active the rest of the year, but they should support efforts that encourage them to bike, hike and do other activities that don't involve staring at a screen.

REPRINTED FROM THE JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS