To think 11 is not too young to travel on a train alone?

[Tellmeifimwrong]

Please settle a debate! Happy to hear all opinions.

Is 11 years old, starting y7 in Sept, too young to take a one hour train journey, without parents but with a slightly younger child? Put on at one end by an adult and met at the other end by an adult, with a phone and data, and train staff informed? No behavioural problems or SEN.

It's pretty common to be mugged on a train in Greater London I believe, they wait until the train is in a station, mug someone and then run. The CCTV never seems to enable them to identify anyone and the police do nothing but issue a crime number (if pushed).
Maybe the OP is in a very different area, but I certainly wouldn't want any child to travel alone as she suggests.

Depends on a lot of things. Responsibility for another child? Definitely no. Is this 11 year old mature for their age? Do they know the journey already? Are they regular train users? Personally I wouldn’t let my daughter do it BUT that’s just us and she’s not train-savvy.

WomblingTree86 · 26/04/2023 11:04
organisedmother · 26/04/2023 11:01

People saying they went on trains when they were younger etc, the world is not the same place it was 40 years ago, yes the tech maybe better but the people are worse, is it a risk for a 11 year old yes!! they are a minor.

i would like to know why would a parent take the risk? Just hold out a few more years

“People aren't worse at all.”

I disagree. I believe people are a whole lot worse post “there’s no such thing as society” and the worst kind of pornography being available at the touch of a button.

My brother works with children in care who will regularly escape and travel up and down the country via train. They would mug an 11 year old and probably abuse them in a heart beat. These are children, 9, 10, 11 who carry drugs, who have the shit beaten out of them regularly they wouldn't think twice about hurting yours.

@3BSHKATS Let's hope your brother doesn't talk about his clients like that,eh?

@CurlewKate if more people spoke out about the fact that the police don't even attend missing children reports 99% of the time, there might be less of them. Completely aside of what happens to those children, some are never found, nobody cares.

Things were pretty shit 40 years ago, my sibling was sexually assaulted in the park in the 1980's. Friend got mugged on a bus in Manchester

People still get mugged on buses and elsewhere. Teenage girls are most at risk of sexual assault. You can't keep a 17 or 18 year old with you all the time.

@AskMeMore No….
But this is 10/11yo children.

After the train journey I was on at the weekend where a group of older teens was getting drunk / high / swearing / blasting loud music at top volume and train staff did nothing, I’m changing my answer from a maybe to a no! Also, lots of people having quite explicit conversations at a volume you can’t help overhearing.

The biggest risk to children is other children. Many girls are sexually assaulted - at school.

@AskMeMore where’s your stats?

In that case you should probably ban 15 year olds. 10 year olds aren't anything like the pain in the arse that teenagers can be on trains.

Did you miss Everyone's Invited?

I was gallivanting off to Scotland at 14, including a change at Birmingham New Street (awful place for changing that it is).

And?

Because I often chat to British Transport Police officers and our own private security guards about the kids who make pests of themselves. One of the worst offenders (homophobic abuse at the top of a long list of offences) has two parents who are on the local Pubwatch list. While kids from respectable families occasionally go off of the rails, generally the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

When the same kid is "missing" and found multiple times in the same night, is it any wonder? The police take them back, the kid just walks straight out again.

Did you read the post I was quoting? Parents not letting 17 year olds out of their sight.

This wasn't in the '70s. Nor was it in the' 80s or '90s. Have we really regressed so much in the last decade?

This wasn't in the '70s. Nor was it in the' 80s or '90s. Have we really regressed so much in the last decade?

It does seem to be the case.

Absolutely fine but MN is full of helicopter mammies who will be horrified🤣🤣

Yeah anyone would think it was like, their job or something

No, the job of the police is "to prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment".

In practice the police end up filling in the gaps in all of the other public services. Using the police to round up the same kids every night is a poor use of expensive resources.

@Mojoj and also very disturbing first hand accounts of attacks. Children are vulnerable and a train is a trapped environment. As well as my father being seriously assaulted in a toilet when a child, I know several contemporary children who have been verbally harassed and experienced real fear and even unwelcome touching. Perhaps posters don't want that to happen to the OP's kids.

I jave a 12 yo and Grnfma stays 30 mins on a train away and not only would I not put him on the train aline, I know he wouldn't be comfortable to do it alone. How does your child feel about it? Remembering there are very few staff on a train, are you sure they know where to get off and won't have their nose in a phone/ book etc?