Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator’s Lower College Lawn in Scotland on October 21, 2019. The messy display is the culmination of a weekend of festivities where first years say thank you to their more senior student “parents” for mentoring them. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)

A demonstrator is detained by riot police during a protest, in La Paz, Bolivia on November 21, 2019. Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Anez asked Congress Wednesday to approve a law that would allow for new elections, after deadly unrest following the resignation of Evo Morales and the disputed October 20 ballot. (Photo by Marco Bello/Reuters)

Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka points at the smoke rising after an airstrike on a maternity hospital, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (Photo by Mstyslav Chernov/AP Photo)

A woman walks past as South Korean soldiers participate in an anti-chemical and anti-terror exercise as part of the 2023 Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) at subway station on August 22, 2023 in Seoul, South Korea. The 11-day exercise, which features drills including the handling of chemical and biological attacks, is a regular joint exercise between U.S. and South Korean troops. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A woman wearing a traditional Hanbok dress visits the Gyeongbokgung Palace grounds in Seoul on October 23, 2023. A woldae terrace for public rituals and ceremonies in front of Gyeongbok Palace’s Gwanghwamun gate was restored and opened to the public earlier this month, after being removed in 1923, during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial period. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

Battersea Power Station Ice Rink in London, United Kingdom on November 13, 2022. Running until 8th Jan. 2023, a large outdoor ice-rink outside the power station and next to the riverside brings in festive Christmas fun with vivid illumination. (Photo by Guy Corbishley/Alamy Live News)

Czech Republic's Jakub Mensik celebrates after winning the men's singles quarter-final match against Russia's Andrey Rublev at the ATP Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha on February 22, 2024. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/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)