Iraqi boys swim with a herd of buffaloes in the Diyala River in the Faziliah district, east of Baghdad on August 2, 2021, amid extreme summer temperatures. As Iraq bakes under a blistering summer heat wave, its hard-scrabble farmers and herders are battling severe water shortages that are killing their animals, fields and way of life. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

A boy walks by a model of a dinosaur wearing a face mask, during a partial lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, at the Museum of Natural History in Brussels, Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Museums are hesitantly starting to reopen as the coronavirus lockdown measures are relaxed, yet experts say that one in eight in the world could potentially face permanent closure because of the pandemic. (Photo by Virginia Mayo/AP Photo)

A Syrian boy is comforted as he cries next to the body of a relative who died in a reported airstrike on April 27, 2016 in the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Soukour in the northern city of Aleppo. The Syrian army was preparing an offensive to retake the whole of Aleppo, as fighting in the divided second city killed 38 civilians in a new blow for a tattered truce. Nearly 200 people have been killed in Aleppo in the past week as rebels have pounded government-held neighbourhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids. (Photo by Karam Al-Masri/AFP Photo)

Tibetan boys dressed in traditional attire take part during a function organised by the Tibetan Refugee Community in Nepal,commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize conferment to exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and the 66th International Human Rights Day in Kathmandu December 10, 2014. Nepal ceased issuing refugee papers to Tibetans in 1989 and recognizes Tibet to be a part of China. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Carlos Bahia, dressed as Santa Claus, talks with boys at the Maresias beach, in the state of Sao Paulo December 9, 2014. In the Southern Hemisphere summer starts on December 1, so while countries in the north are experiencing a white Christmas with grey skies, those in the south are busy surfing and sunbathing in temperatures just shy of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

An Israeli boy swims next to sheep belonging to a Palestinian farmer in the West Bank village of Al-Auja in the Jordan Valley on April 8, 2015 during the Jewish Passover holiday. Thousands of Israelis spent the day outdoors, picnicking and touring the country during the eight-day Passover holiday, which commemorates the Israelites' exodus from Egypt some 3,500 years ago. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP Photo)

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)

Boys walk home for lunch from school in the village of Kogelo, west of Kenya's capital Nairobi, July 16, 2015. U.S. President Barack Obama visits Kenya and Ethiopia later this month. His ancestral home of Kogelo is home to Sarah Hussein Obama, his step-grandmother. The Kenyan village, burial place of Obama's father, features an open-pit goldmine, a pork butcher's, a school named after their most famous son and outdoor market stalls. Villagers get around by motorbike taxi or on foot while a donkey-cart transports water. Children, some of them named Obama in honour of the President, walk to and from school together. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)