6yr old playing out alone

[Didimum]

Would this concern you?

6yr old (year 2) playing alone in a park for over an hour, not in eyeshot of their home.

Yes it would.

Would you report to their school?

Jesus. Yes that would concern me hugely.

Me too, but I’ve never lived in an area where my kids would be ‘safe’ outside (on busy roads, very far from playgrounds etc), so I wasn’t sure if I was being out of touch.

Yes.

Context. If they live in a farm probably ok, apart from water danger. Where I live in se London, naice area but roads. Scumbags. Not a chance.

Just a usual UK town, Home Counties suburb. Home is fairly close to the park, but up a road and round a bend.

I have a year 2 and no way would I allow him to do that. yes I'd consider reporting.

Do you know the child?

Yes.

I'm going to disagree with the pps, because I personally don't find the act itself (playing by him/herself in a park near home) is dangerous for a 6yo. However, context is important here: if you know the child and feel something is off, that's probably because you've seen other things that didn't feel right. Is that so?

Yes I would report this.

Insanely dangerous! It makes me feel anxious to even imagine it!

Definitely report to the school, the child is far too young to be alone for that length of time.

If I knew him I might ask him if his parents know where he is.

This would be quite normal in a lot of places outside the UK.

I used to be allowed to call for friends/to the park alone when I was 6, but that was the 90's, and we all loved on a suburban estate that looped round in a circle (park was on the other side of the circle from mine)

I wouldn't allow this for my own kid though and by modern standards I think it's worrying.

Please report it

It's negligence.

No, I haven’t seen anything untoward. But I don’t know him properly. I only know of him – small town.

@Didimum Oh, I see... Then I personally would approach him, to check if he's fine. I'd ask him if his parents know where he is and maybe even advise him, like any friendly neighbour would, to be careful with strangers, etc.
Being from a small town myself, everybody did this and children were always in sight of neighbours and protective adults in general.

I know what you mean – I am from a small town originally and we did play out by ourselves from quite young (but in a group, which included my older sibling). This was early/mid 90s. I was, however, hit by a car on one of these playing out days, so shit does happen!

Of course, @Didimum ! As I'm telling you all this, I too doubt about what would I do... If something bothers you, it probably means something? Maybe you could gather more information. I'd be reluctant to talk to the school, but maybe approach his family? Sometimes going around family can make them feel defensive and if there's a situation of abuse/neglect going on, it's better to cultivate a relationship than to be confrontational, in order to help the child.

I get what you're saying, but I don't know the family at all – I don't know their names. I just know the child by sight and what school they go to. I'm not really sure I can or should be cultivating a relationship. And knocking on the door to say 'hey, your kid was playing out alone and I worry as they are very little' seems like it wouldn't be well received and like it isn't my job.

Here's me worrying about my 6 year old playing in the (secure, gated, on a small cul-de-sac) front garden by herself...

The trouble is, by doing this, and the child engaging with you, it’s then normalising the child being approached by friendly strangers …. who may not actually have friendly intentions.

OP, this is absolutely a report situation. Don’t approach the family. Apart from making it impossible for you to report (they’ll know it’s you), any potential abuse then gets hidden away even more.

It wouldn't worry me where I live, it only worried me when I was at the beach with my own 6 year old and a little girl who is around the same age (possibly still 5, she looks tiny but I know she can't be younger than that because she's in his class) came by herself to the beach, because of the water aspect, although she didn't swim (but did paddle).

But in the UK its not generally the norm for 6 year olds to play out alone, and especially alone without friends or siblings, so it doesn't feel the same.