Urte Baikstyte, of Lithuania, fails an attempt in the Women High Jump qualification at the European Athletics Indoor Championships at Atakoy Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Photo by Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

Jess Fulton, 15, from Ayrshire rides her pony Harley through the waves at Irvine Beach, UK on October 20, 2025. (Photo by Jamie Williamson/The Times)

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)

North Kenya, Liboi. A young Somali refugee crosses a field filled with marabous storks in July 1992. (Photo by Jean-Claude Coutausse)

A woman crowd-surfs in front of the main stage at the Woodstock Festival in Kostrzyn-upon-Odra, close to the Polish-German border, August 2, 2014. Some 500 thousand people attended the festival that is the brainchild of Polish journalist and social campaigner Jerzy Owsiak. He initiated the event to say thank you to those who donated money to his GOCC charity organisation that delivers medical care for children. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Sri Lankan military personnel march during the country's 66th Independence Day celebrations in the central town of Kegalle, about 40 kms from the capital Colombo on February 4, 2014. Sri Lanka cemmemorates its independence from British rule on February 4, 1948. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

A reveller takes part in the Gay Pride Parade in San Salvador, on June 24, 2017. (Photo by Marvin Recinos/AFP Photo)

A health official checks the body temperature of a burqa-clad woman passenger amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at the Lahore Railway station in Lahore on March 19, 2020. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)