What is the right age to let your child walk to the shops alone?

There was a very interesting discussion on TV about whether 15 was too old to let your child walk to the local shop alone for the first time.

I would say, yes it is.

In this modern age parents appear to be far more fearful about letting their children go out alone – whether this be popping to the local shop, going to the park or walking to the school bus stop.

In actual fact, the danger posed to children is no greater today than it was in the 70s.

Current statistics show that the greatest danger to ten to 16-year-olds is road accidents. However, this was also the case in the 70s.

Many parents have the view that the danger from paedophiles and murderers is greater than ever. In actual fact 11 children are murdered every year in the UK – and obviously this is 11 children too many – but again this figure has not increased since the 70s.

A lot of parents seem to be buying in to the media hype around child murders and attacks which makes the threat seem far greater than it is.

It is a fact that paedophiles and child murderers by and large continue to more likely be a family member or someone known to the family rather than a complete stranger out on the street.

The older generation. who now have grown-up children of their own, will recall their own childhoods as a time when they freely went out and about from a very young age. They would play out in the street, visit friend's houses and walk, in some cases, miles to school, all without parental supervision. A child who wasn't doing all these things aged ten was an oddity then.

They in turn will have allowed their own children -my generation – to do the same kind of activities on their own, perhaps with a little more hesitation.

Even in the 80s and 90s there wasn't the same kind of hysteria as there is now, and as already pointed out, the threat is no greater now than it was then.

It is almost unimaginable now to think that in the 1940s very young children were being evacuated out of London to escape the second world war bombings to live with complete strangers. At the time, it was considered a great thing to be doing. Now the country would be getting into a great flap about whether the people these children were going to live with had been CRB checked.

It is one of the greatest tests for a parent to allow their child to go out alone for the first time. It takes real effort to repress those inevitable fears and allow your children to grow.

But not allowing them to experience freedom will cause severe damage in the long run.

It is vital that children learn how to be street wise early on, perhaps between ten and 12-years-old depending on the individual's confidence.

If it is left too late it is more likely a child will be unable to handle freedom efficiently later on – say when they go to university – and many children as a result go off the rails.

Parents need to educate their children about the potential dangers in a responsible way without being scaremongering, so children know what to do if they do encounter trouble.

However, the sooner children step out the front door on their own, the sooner they will gain a vital source of confidence and empowerment.

Of course, I will be terrified when my daughter goes out to the shop on her own for the first time. Like a number of parents, I will probably secretly follow her part of the way the first few times.

But I understand I would only harm her psychologically in the long run if I didn't enable both of us to take that first bold step sooner rather than later.