Nara Schoenberg (The Chicago Tribune): "Beyond all the hand-wringing over the so-called hugging ban at [a Chicago-area] middle school -- kids are not allowed to hug each other hello in ways that impede hallway traffic -- lies a broader cultural issue that has remained largely unexplored. Hugging, once the province of clueless parents and dorky self-help gurus, has been embraced by kids from Hong Kong to Krakow to suburban Chicago.... In recent years, schools from Des Moines, Iowa, to Cornwall, England, have asked students to cut back on the practice. In Pequot Lakes, Minn., where hugging became an issue in 2000, some middle-school students reported getting 60 hugs a day."

Trends director Rob Callender (Teen Research Unlimited): "It is really interesting, because it seems that if this is something that is widespread, instead of just very localized, then teens are actually out in front of popular culture in this."