No Teen Adventurers in the Netherlands

This, from the UK Times, just makes me sad:

Mike Perham sailed into the record books yesterday as the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly but his entry is under threat from a 13-year-old Dutch girl, Laura Dekker, who wants to make her own round-the-world voyage. Today she will find out whether the Dutch courts will let her do it.

Laura's parents have agreed to her plans, but the Dutch Council for Child Protection is so concerned about the potential dangers of the trip that it has asked Utrecht District Court to grant it temporary custody of her so that it can keep her on dry land.

I'm reminded of the choice made by Cherryl Taggart in Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

[Link via Rational Review]