I worked for a while at a summer camp that didn’t allow phones, and kids loved it … if they could make it through the first two days.

Like you said, kids love being able to make their own fun, but it’s hard to compete with an iPad, and not always appropriate given the context (like if you are in a library you have to be quiet).

I definitely think kids should get more opportunities to play and make their own fun in unstructured but supervised settings – where the adults are there for safety but not telling the kids how to play.