Survey reveals average age parents let kids stay home alone, walk to school and more

How often do parents lose their kids in public? And how does this affect parents’ decisions about purposely letting their children out of sight or keeping tabs on them with a GPS tracker?

SafeWise recently surveyed 1,000 parents with kids between the ages of 7 and 17 to get some answers. 

Here’s the link to the full report: https://www.safewise.com/resources/wearable-gps-tracking-devices-for-kids-guide/#Parent_survey_statistics

Some of our most interesting takeaways:

• 1 in 3 parents have lost a child in a store or at a crowded event.
• Nearly 1 in 5 have lost a child for more than an hour.
• Nearly 1 in 5 have called police about a lost or missing child.
• The stats above increase for parents of special needs children.
• The average parent starts allowing their kid to….
  • Walk home alone at age 12
  • Play outside unsupervised at age 11
  • Stay home alone at age 13
  • Trick or treat unsupervised at age 13
• Over two-thirds of parents say their children wouldn’t mind them tracking their location.