Soldiers stand guard in Maua square where a cotton candy vendor passes by in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 9, 2016, as security is deployed to get to know the areas they'll be patrolling during the Olympics. Roughly twice the security contingent at the London Olympics will be deployed during the August games in Rio, which are expected to draw thousands of foreigners to a city where armed muggings, stray bullets and turf wars between heavily armed drug gangs are routine. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

Fans of Chris Mazdzer of the United States including his girlfriend Mara Marian (C) react following his third run during the Luge Men's Singles on day two of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Olympic Sliding Centre on February 11, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

This year’s World Nomad Games, a celebration of nomadic heritage, took place in the Issyk-Kul province of Kyrgyzstan. Eleanor Moseman photographed female competitors who had travelled from all over central Asia and eastern Europe, and explored the difficulties and challenges they face as competitors. (Photo by Eleanor Moseman/The Guardian)

Sjinkie Knegt of Netherlands, left, and Park Se-Yeong of South Korea crash out as they compete in a men's 1500m short track speedskating final at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the 2014 Winter Olympics, Monday, February 10, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Bernat Armangue/AP Photo)

An E.T. doll is seen while construction workers prepare to dig into a landfill in Alamogordo, N.M., Saturday, April 26, 2014. Producers of a documentary are digging in the landfill in search of millions of cartridges of the Atari “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” game that has been called the worst game in the history of videogaming. A New York Times article from 1983 reported that Atari cartridges of “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” were dumped in the landfill in Alamogordo. (Photo by Juan Carlos Llorca/AP Photo)

An Australian athlete does a handstand as she arrives with her teammates during the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday July 23, 2014. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP 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)