Law to protect German kids' right to noise

[February 17, 2011]  BERLIN (AP) -- Children of Germany, take heart -- it may soon be perfectly legal to make noise.

Germany is so desperate to encourage people to have more children that the government is proposing a bill allowing citizens under 6 to laugh, shout and play at any volume.

Germany is a land of many rules, especially about noise. The government's move comes after a series of lawsuits about children and noise, and a recent call from a senior citizens' chapter of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, who sought to ban kindergartens from residential areas because they are too loud.

The government said Wednesday the proposed law would exempt children from strict regulations on noise limits, which force construction sites to stand idle for hours at midday and prohibit mowing lawns on Sunday.

[Associated Press]

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