section_path: Children/History of childhood playtime/20th Century
section_name: 20th Century
paragraph_text: 20th Century
  
  With the rise of motor vehicle traffic in the 20th century, teenagers were increasingly organized into club sports supervised and coached by adults, with swimming taught at summer camps and through supervised playgrounds.
  
  Under the American New Deal 's Works Progress Administration, thousands of local playgrounds and ball fields opened, promoting softball especially as a sport for all ages and genders. By the 21st century, Chudacoff notes, the old tension between parental controls and a child's individual freedom was being played out in cyberspace.