To be pleased children are no longer out from dawn until dusk unsupervised

[rosediamond]

I know some people claim they had a brilliant childhood roaming free but I think for the majority of children growing up prior to the late 90s (maybe?) they were pretty dark times.

I’m pleased that children playing without supervision is rare now.

Children play out unsupervised where I live and they have a lovely time. My son is 11 and regularly goes out and to the park on his own and I have never had to worry about him at all. We live in a new housing development with a park just 5 minutes away and there are children out first thing until it’s dark.
I read somewhere that there are no more abductions/murders now than there were 20-30 years ago, we just hear about them more because of the internet and social media.

The kindest interpretation is that the OP is generalising like mad from her own experience, entirely divorced from any statistics about childhood abuse/accidents/murder.

A less kind view is that they are a journalist looking for copy about the good old days.....just before the long holidays.

They weren’t dark times at all. Children need freedom to develop. It’s really not healthy or natural for children to be in a controlled and supervised environment 24/7. It’s very sad that parents feel they can’t let their children play unsupervised anymore.

Depends how safe it is where you live
I was a late 80's early 90's kid with lots of freedom, roaming around from early morning until it got dark at night with about 20 others. We'd often be in our PJs after our bath and a friend would call and we'd let back out again, just threw a jacket on over our PJ's and off we went!
We had an absolute ball but we lived on a big estate and it was a safe areas.
Really wish my kids could have a similar childhood to me, such brilliant memories.

I had a great childhood playing outside unsupervised we would go to the park, the wood's, swimming and bike rides, my DD's played outside unsupervised, lots of kid's beside me play unsupervised, bad thing's have alway's happened to children, we now have 24hr news and social media so it's reported more, you have to remember bad things that happen to children are caused by someone they know

Great times

I too remember with affection my childhood (in London!). We would play outside for hours .Our house backed onto some marshes,so we would often go there.In each others gardens, and play by the garages .Never had anyone flashing though !.Big gang of us about 6 or 7 of us in all.No children seem to play outside now so much.Grew up in 1960s and 70s .Happy times ,my children seem to have got into the play station habit ,and more organised activities.DH remembers playing at the river and cycling to Heathrow to watch the planes at about 12 or 13!

No dark times for me or my sons. A vital part of growing up.

Sorry dont get your point so do you never let yur kids out-there was paedos then theres prob same amount or more now and kids are more accessible to them indoors on the internet

We live rurally, children here still play out unsupervised dawn till dusk and ny daughter will too. I had a fantastic childhood, outside all the time, charging about falling off ponies and bikes mainly- absolutely no “dark times” how bizarre?

Grew up in 70’s and 80’s and one boy didn’t make it to 20, died in climbing accident at 16. I grew up in city so knew loads of people.

Fast forward to my DC’s childhood, one boy died age 8 in riding accident and 3 local teens have killed themselves - one last week. It’s incredibly sad and so different to my childhood.

It wasnt the flaming dark ages you know!

Me and my friends did this and so did all the kids in the surrounding villages/town. Never once heard of a child being killed or dying due to being out playing and trust me word travels fast in small rural areas. Do not generalise because of your opinion.

Kids here still do this, its normal childhood round here. Its much better than being stuck inside all day on a computer. (Mine do play computer games with their mates online too but not all day every day.)

I think its much more dangerous in big cities/towns for kids these days due to the lack of plces where they can go and just hang out together in safety. Gangs are a huge problem in cities and knife crime is prevelant which we wouldnt have believed a couple of years ago. There were no such thing as gangs and territory when I was growing up apart from in american films!

When I was a pre teen/teen there were youth clubs, sports clubs, small cafes where we could hang out and not be seen as a threat. We sat on street corners in summer just chatting and doing nobody any harm. We knew just about everyone in the village and they would say HI or stopped to chat on the way past. These days a few kids hanging around together is seen as a bad thing whether they are innocently talking, just out walking or not. It seems that any kids outside with friends must be up to no good! Thats a sad change of affairs. (and having seen some of the threads on here for the last few years some are guilty of judging any person under the age of 25 being out on their own or with friends without 'adult' supervision a threat to themselves and the whole world!)

I wouldnt change my childhood for anything, freedom to roam, fresh air and exercise, spending time with friends. My kids have had the same and I am glad they still do.

no one is telling me that child abuse is like it once was. We talk about it, we address it

Yet children are still abused and children still die from abuse, usually close family not some random stranger.

As kid growing up in 70s we knew which house not to go into when offered a sweet. Our parents all knew that the person was not safe but in those days you couldnt go to the police with a 'hunch' just because he offered cake or sweets to kids to come into his house. There wasnt the resources nor the culture of reporting in those days but damm sure the parents knew everyone on the street and who to avoid.

Of course abuse happened then but that doesnt change the fact that it still happens now. It didnt miraculously dissapear just because its out in the open, everyone is encouraged to report it talk about now.

I had one or two hairy moments as a child, but they just taught me to be more wary and I would never have relinquished my freedom for those experiences not to have happened. I feel sorry for kids who aren't allowed to spread their wings and fly. No point in living if you're to be shut up in a cage.

I was at Primary School in the 70s. 3 children in my class ended up with broken bones after being knocked down by cars (different occasions). I remember one boy proudly showing off his cast when a policeman came into the classroom to talk about road safety. The policeman walked up to the boy and I thought he was going to be sympathetic but instead he tore into him for playing on a road. Think that shocked me more than the road safety talk he gave to us.
One lad in the same year as me but different class was killed whilst running across the road.
I lived in a village. One of my favourite pastimes with my friends was to cycle down a big hill in the village and then freewheel to see how far we could go. This meant crossing a road junction without stopping/looking and also going past the car park entrance of a very busy pub which was frequented by businessmen who were having boozy lunches (drink driving seemed to be acceptable in the 70s) who never looked when they drove out.
We also had to watch those awful public information films about children dying on the railway, farms etc. Think it is looked back with rose coloured glasses sometimes.