In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A member of Wagner group stands guard in a street in the city of Rostov-on-Don, on June 24, 2023. President Vladimir Putin on June 24, 2023 said an armed mutiny by Wagner mercenaries was a “stab in the back” and that the group's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had betrayed Russia, as he vowed to punish the dissidents. Prigozhin said his fighters control key military sites in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

People take part in fake festival called “La Boum” organized by an anonymous group of people on Facebook for an April 1 joke at the Bois de la Cambre, in Brussels, Belgium, 01 April 2021. An anonymous group created a Facebook event called “La Boum”, touting an alleged festival to take place with famous DJs as headliners. Thousands of people on social media had shown interest to take part in the gathering, while police have advised that no authorization has been given for a music event. (Photo by Stephanie Lecocq/EPA/EFE)

An Iraqi special forces Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) member screams during a battle against Islamic State group jihadists (IS) in Mosul's al-Rifaq neighbourhood on January 8, 2017, as an ongoing military operation against the militants continues. Elite Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State group in eastern Mosul reached the Tigris River that splits the city in two for the first time, a spokesman said. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

A man shouts slogans demanding cooking gas cylinders as a group of people block an intersection protesting against shortages of essentials in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, May 7, 2022. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)

A woman walks past a mural depicting RM, a member of K-pop group BTS, in Goyang, northwest of Seoul, on June 15, 2022. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

Palestinians fleeing Khan Yunis arrive in Rafah with their belongings in a damaged car on February 15, 2024, as battles raged in the sourthern Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)

Displaced Palestinian children play with surgical rubber gloves in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 31, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP Photo)