>>They do not have specific neighborhoods here, so they go to the malls and college areas. I guess in some other cities up north they stay in their own areas. Areas where people who live in nice neighborhoods don't go. I guess that would be safer.
>>
>>http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3305482/
>
>This is really a pebble in your shoe, isn't it? How come? Just curious.
>
>I suppose me position on the whole parental vigilance is closest to Nick Mason's, among those who have weighed in here. I am not blind to the dangers out there, and have made sure my daughters aren't blind to them, either, but believe kids will be handicapped as adults if they are kept on too short a leash. This outlook comes specifically from my own experiences. I realize others have seen the dark side more closely and are therefore more protective.

It's really only a question of 'at what point' do you release the leash. Nobody here is disagreeing on how to raise the kids, only on how quickly or slowly the process is allowed to evolve.

Personally, probably because, even though I live in a pretty good neighbourhood, I live in Toronto, 13 seems a bit young to me to allow them off the leash entirely. There has been a lot of hyperbole in this thread, mostly coming from Jay, imho, but even though I don't tend to see bogeymen around every corner, I do tend to agree with his position that 13 is a bit young, and that the mere fact that your own neighbourhood seems safe, doesn't mean it will stay that way forever. I wouldn't want to be responsible for what might happen to a child that age allowed out alone on the day it changes.