This morning, Channel Nine’s Today show reported that police in Queensland are charging parents who allow children younger than 12 to walk to school unsupervised.
I’m not one to cry “Nanny State” usually, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the police who enforce law to keep us safe, however this is just a step too far.
Surely it is up to individual parents to make the call based on their own child’s maturity and independence, and the relative safety of the neighbourhood in which they live? You may have a thirteen year old who isn’t very responsible and who lives in a bad neighbourhood, but is allowed by law to roam freely unsupervised, whilst an extraordinarily mature eight year old living a couple of hundred metres from the school in a low crime neighbourhood can’t walk to school alone without their parents risking arrest.
WATCH: Oh how much has changed since we were at school. (Post continues…)
It is insulting to parents who know their child best, and want to make good decisions based on that individual child’s capabilities.
The fact that we only hear about the worst case scenarios in the media just feeds the paranoia that there is a predator lurking on every street corner waiting to pounce on an unsupervised child. Perhaps we should start reporting on the thousands to children who make it safely to and from school each day. Or should we keep children locked up inside until the day they turn 18 and then release them into the big, bad world with no experience?