Risk averse parents helping drive social networks?

Grown-ups routinely complain that their kids spend too much time indoors getting obese and using computers to connect with their friends.

But has this situation arisen directly as a result of paranoid parents preventing their children from playing out?

I don’t know the answer but Alan Patrick over at Broadstuff takes a long, hard look at the rise of the “zero risk” society and questions whether this culture is what’s driving the growth of social networks. Makes sense to me.