A new phrase has crept into the language: helicopter parents. It refers to a growing custom of parents hovering over their children to protect them against the hazards and temptations of modern life. The hovering now extends to one of the age-old bastions of youth independence – summer camp.

Camp Meriwether, a Boy Scout camp on the coast of Oregon, has begun to let parents stay there with their children through the entire week to help them with crafts and to see that they are happy. Thirty percent of the campers bring their parents along, and they eat together family style at round tables in the big mess hall.

The system has spread to many of the nation’s summer camps, sometimes throughout their summer schedules and sometimes in special “family weeks.” Even without going along to camp, parents increasingly watch over their children through videos on camp Web sites and through frequent e-mails and cell phone communication.

Here in Maine, the Echo Lake Camp on Mount Desert Island next to Acadia National Park offers entirely family camping for one-week periods. Ned Mitchell, who with his wife, Mary, runs the camp, sees benefits in both family camping and the old-style of summer camp as a means of getting children away from their parents for a week or more. He says the temporary separation builds independence and self-confidence.

Parental hovering in summer camps got a big boost after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Many parents became fearful about being apart from their children even overnight, let alone for a week or more. That concern came on top of worries about accidents, poison ivy, wild animals, and association with a lot of unvetted strangers, perhaps from far different backgrounds.

Another influence may have been uneasiness or even guilt over never finding enough time for close association with the children. A week or two at summer with the children can amount to a family vacation.

Still, children need to grow up, learn how to resolve problems and make decisions on their own. The Associated Press recently quoted a clinical psychologist and camp consultant as calling it a bad idea to let campers bring laptop computers and cell phones with them. The article told of a Wisconsin camp that posts 60 photos a day of campers on its Web site, but the director kept getting calls from parents who said their children didn’t look happy in the photos.

The director of a camp on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire says high technology increases homesickness. He said that nine out of 10 times, if a kid gets on the phone with a parent, the parents will come and pick the child up early.

It’s a matter of apron strings. Sometime you have to let them go.