Local estate FB group has got a full on panic on because someone was driving about trying to pick kids up.

Now, pitchfork wielding mob to acost the person aside, I was kind of surprised at the age of the kids that the parents were happy to be ‘out’ and well away from their home

So what age, in a village, would you let your kids out to play? Out of sight of ‘home’

Your kid is far more at risk of obesity and diabetes than the press driven bogeyman
..

Ours have been walking to school and playing out since 7 or so.

good excuse to get driving banned or at least heavily restricted on the estate. Look at removing through routes for cars with filtered access for people and bikes. If anyone objects point imply they want to make it easy for paedos to abduct kids.

What’s “well away”, are they alone?

Depends on their age. My main concern over kids hanging out in villages is things like boozing and drugs use, as “there’s nothing to do”.

“In my day”… 😀

Used to roam up to a mile at age 7. Back before dark was the only requirement.

Of course far less cars back then (barely been invented 😆 ), though probably about the same amount of bogeymen hiding round corners ready to pounce, i.e. virtually none.

Oldest is 9 and he still doesn’t go out of our road on his own, though that may change this year – though that’s because of worries about traffic rather than bogeymen.

“In my day”…

Used to roam up to a mile at age 7. Back before dark was the only requirement.

If I look back, I’d roam up to a mile easily at the age of 3 or 4. That was with an older brother and sister though. Not on my own. Spent a lot of time with my sister and she was 3 years older than me.

By the age of 7 we were literally wandering miles, to the point were we occasionally got lost and had to ask for directions to get home. That said, we weren’t meant to be doing that…

It was just what you did though, and I don’t see why it should be much different now. I wouldn’t be worrying much about people driving around and trying to pick up kids, there are probably a billion bigger risks than that. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with kids playing near a busy road for a start. So depends very much on the area, but a little adventure is good for them.

To be honest, while I can appreciate the concern, it amazes me that many parents don’t let their kids out of sight.

Sounds like the kids have all been armed with the life skills required to alert everyone.

At the age of 7 I and most of the other kids from my street were allowed to go all over the town so long as we told parents where we were going. We were not allowed to go to the next street because the kids there went to a different school and we got in a lot of fights