A TV celebrity's 15-year-old son went travelling in Europe without an adult. Cue the outrage
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In late August, U.K. television personality Kirstie Allsopp found herself in an unexpected media storm after a series of her social media posts describing her 15-year-old son's trip through Europe without adult supervision went viral.
In late August, U.K. television personality Kirstie Allsopp found herself in an unexpected media storm after a series of her social media posts describing her 15-year-old son's trip through Europe went viral.
"My little boy has returned from 3 weeks inter-railing," Allsopp wrote on X, referring to a popular European train pass called Interrail. She explained that her son, Oscar, and his 16-year-old friend travelled to major cities including Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona and Madrid.
Allsopp closed the thread by stating "if we're afraid our children will also be afraid, if we let go, they will fly," and tagging @freerangekids, the handle of Lenore Shenazy, a U.S.-based writer and proponent of free-range parenting.
The original post on X now has two million views, and while many commenters staunchly defended Allsopp, who co-hosts the U.K. real-estate reality show "Location, Location, Location," others expressed disapproval about her decision. The controversy made headlines in the British press and, according to Allsopp, even caught the attention of U.K. social services.
The hoopla has mostly since quieted down, but the incident has also sparked ongoing conversations about the main underlying question: What age is too young to travel without adult supervision?
According to travel insiders and safety experts, an exact number is impossible to pin down, since it depends on a wide range of factors, from the maturity and experience of the traveller in question to a country or state's laws about minimum ages to the safety of the destination.
"I know 50-year-olds who are feckless and couldn't be trusted to go to another country, so I don't think it's an age [issue]," Carolyn Pearson, CEO of Maiden Voyage, a firm that specializes in helping business travellers stay safe while travelling, told CNN Travel. "I think it's a maturity and an outlook which determines whether or not somebody is fit to travel. It's down to the individual and the caregivers that a mature decision is made on the suitability of the person and the suitability of the place that they're travelling to."
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