this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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I guess someone should have told me that when I was six and doing that very thing. Not everywhere is super afraid of letting kids go off to do their own thing (for better or worse).
A lot of US states have laws against leaving a child AT HOME unsupervised under a certain age, usually ranging from 9-12. In states without such laws, CPS typically responds to reports of that under the age of 12.
For allowing a child to roam the streets, it's hard to find hard data because the exact age varies or sometimes is just evaluated on a case-by-case basis. There's also a huge industry of providing quack advice to parents that dilutes search results. But I found this publication from the North Dakota state government saying that children should not ride their bikes ON STREETS until 10 years old. That's not referring to them roaming around unsupervised, but being on the streets at all.
Sounds like you were neglected as a child. I'm sorry to hear that, and I hope things turned out okay for you in spite of this adverse circumstances.
Lol, playing outside without parents isn't neglect.
USA is a weird place.
In Germany, children under the age of 16 aren't allowed in restaurants unsupervised under the Jugendschutzgesetz.
UK laws don't define a specific age, but leave it to judges to decide on a case-by-case basis. However, the NSPCC is a leading children's advocacy group and they advocate 12 years old as the cutoff.
In Poland children under the age of 7 are not allowed to use public roads alone.
But let's leave the "West". In Saudi Arabia it's illegal to rent out bicycles to unsupervised children under 12 for example. A lot of Islamic countries will have various laws based on Sin at-tamyiz, or the "age of discernment" for a child.
It's not some crazy American idea that children under 12 need some sort of supervision. It doesn't have to be a parent: when I was 6 I roamed around with my older cousins and siblings. But going out on your own into the world at the age of 6? In most places in the world that triggers some sort of agency to investigate for child neglect, or there are consequences for business owners allowing those children to do things.
Here, It would be really weird to not let your kid just bike around the neighbourhood with (or too) their friends or whatever. Being so far from their parents that you have to call them isn't far at all. It could less than a km.
And being allowed in restaurants is way different from not being allowed to roam freely.
Except when they are there to get a drink or a meal between the hours of 5 and 23 o'clock. You know, the things you normally do in a restaurant.
Also, this isn't aimed at the parents but at the people running those places.