AIBU to think a seven-year-old going alone to restaurant toilets is unsafe?

[MountainBiker]

Central London chain restaurant. Small 7 year old on the next table (definitely 7, she had a badge and a birthday balloon tied to the back of her chair) went off to the toilet on her own.
Toilets were out of sight, downstairs, in a corridor of floor to ceiling unisex cubicles.
Am I a helicopter parent or do most people think this is unsafe?
YABU: kids should be able to cope with this by age 7
YANBU: more supervision is required

When mine were this age (7) I'd have gone with them and waited outside the door shouting through the whole time "are you alright, I'm here" (not caring about any funny looks I might have got lol)
As I've got two boys and they'd rather have ripped their own eyes out than go into the ladies with me at that age.
So anyway, I'm rambling and TDLR (too long, didn't read) yes I'd expect someone to accompany kids at that age.

A few years ago a young girl was raped in a well known supermarket loo.

No I wouldn’t let her or a boy be alone at that age.

Strong agree.

7 - firm no.
son is now 9 and I work be ok with it. It he asked me I would go. He wants to gk tk the mens now so I’m even more keen to go…I wait outside at the end of the corridor. He things he’s dead grown up going on his own. I am happy knowing there is a time limit and who goes in and out. I ask if he’s washed his hands as the distractor for him thinking it’s a safety thing

So, you were sitting next to a family in Wagamama, and were obsessed with the safety of a 7 year old you don’t know in London on a sunny Saturday afternoon? Leave that poor family be.

My daughter will be travelling 20 miles by public transport to school at 11.
Is she supposed to wet herself if she needs the toilet during the journey?

Helicopter parenting has reached new levels.

Not allowing teenagers to use public toilets unsupervised? When are children supposed to learn to navigate the world? When do children graduate to using public toilets unsupervised? 10? 15? 21? I thought children could do paid work from the age of 13 (although whether the jobs are there for them is another matter).

Some teenagers travel alone, by public transport, from one town to another, at the age of thirteen. I certainly did. Incidents in public toilets never crossed my mind, and probably not my parents’ either. There’s probably much more chance of being injured by a car, than something happening in a public toilet.

How about instead equipping children with knowledge and skills to navigate the world, instead of helicopter parenting them well into their adulthood? What is it that employers say nowadays, that young adults simply cannot think or do anything for themselves? What chance do they have of they have been helicoptered to this extent?

At 13 yes. At infant/junior school age eg 7, then no.