To not allow 14 y/o go camping with friends no adults

[steadyinvolvement]

My son’s friends have been going camping together for years without adults and I’ve always said no. I’m talking in fields locally sometimes on near a local area forest where people have literally gone missing. But im the only one who doesnt allow it. I feel really bad and also like im crazy.

Today he’s asked again this time the kids are going to a field in the Lake District about 50 minutes from us, I have no idea if there would be signal and it just seems so insane to me. But out of a group of 9 boys I’m the only parent who says no!

Yeah i don't think that's tale telling. My 10yo goes to the park and has a phone. So do the friends he goes with who are all the same age. It's very common. It's normal.

I asked a few of her friends parents in passing if they have a phone - none do. The only one who does uses it like a tablet, it doesn't have a sim card in it. Most of them are 9 though (year 5).
And I don't see many of her classmates in park without a parent - we go most days. And those who do, come with a significantly older sibling rather than a parent.
In year 6 some do seem to get phones, most get towards end of year so can share numbers before split between several secondary schools. Maybe it's area dependent. But in this case it was a 'tale for telling' as it wasn't true.

Was just mentioning this to a friend, as I wondered if I was so wildly out of step with the average person. Her reply was, it's MN - where half the women are too scared to walk alone in the countryside, so it's no wonder. Turns out she'd read a thread where so many of the posters feared being alone in the countryside.
Is that really a thing?

Also phones tend to be yr6 here. Preparation for high school the following year.

I feel like there's something missing from your post. Are you saying that a group of young children have been camping alone for years with nobody around? No older teens? Are you saying, for example, that a large group of ten year olds are being dumped in the woods or fields with no way to call for help in an emergency and no older person who can handle an emergency and that there are a large group of adults in your community that are okay with this?

That makes no sense to me. The authorities would have been involved.

You must be leaving something out to make it sound more dangerous than it is.