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@neil There's so much to comment on here.
First: the main reason that parents give children smartphones, other than as a babysitting device, is to track them.
While the world is objectively safer than it was for previous generations, there's social pressure to know where your kids are at all times.
Up here, kids go to middle school (and therefore walk to school by themselves) aged nine.
Unsupervised use is another thing, but easy to see how it happens.
Second: I do think there's a culture in the UK that I haven't seen elsewhere that "someone should sort this out" (with that "someone" being "not me")
You see it in news stories all of the time. The parent appearing on the news to comment on "the dangers of vaping" and how "the government should do something about it". Yet theyve neglected to intervene in their own kids life.
Parenting is hard, though. The hardest job I've certainly ever had. You can think you're doing a great job, or a terrible job, and you'll almost certainly be wrong.
Trying to walk the line between giving your kids enough space to breathe, and protecting them from various forms of danger, is a tough one.
@dajb I'm now 5 years older than my mom was when I was born and I still can't imagine being ready for the job. (I guess nobody can be before starting.)
When I was a kid, family member location tracking was done by calling landline phone numbers in rotation until you hit the correct location. :)
@nemobis You're never ready to be a parent, even when you think you are. It's like speed-running becoming a grown up 