Age that children can be left behind?

Posted by punter (41 days ago)

In a report at the standard today, it was mentioned that it is illegal to leave children below 16 years old alone at home.

Do you think this needs to be changed?

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=89159&sid=25692628&con_type=1

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Posted by funbobby (41 days ago)

I would agree that LOCALLY, children should not be left alone at an earlier age than that (it should probably be raised to 18 IMO) since teens here seem to be extraordinarily infantile in their behavior, and likely their choices concerning their own well being should something go wrong.

Posted by axptguy38 (41 days ago)

In my opinion, and I would note that my kids are much younger, I would say 13-14 is an ok age to start. However I think it depends on a few more things than age. If we're talking a mature 13 year old coming home after school and being alone for an hour or two, that's ok. On the other end of the spectrum you could have an immature 17 year old left home alone on a Saturday night. The latter may not be the best idea.

In the quoted case, not only was the 15 year old left alone, but she was left to take care of her 9 year old brother. Not cool.