How old were you when you first went to games on your own?

[fosters headband]

Not true - number of child murders is steadily falling. Roughly half what it was 30 years ago according to this article

Our irrational fear of child-killers | Society | The Guardian

And by far the greatest number of these are killed by parents or other family members.

Murder rate at its lowest in 20 years | UK news | guardian.co.uk
I didn't state child murder.
But when the figures quoted in this report (2009) states that murder is at it's lowest for twenty years and that it peaked in 1987. It must have been far safer when I was a kid of nine in the fifties and allowed to go to football on my own.

 

[Bakero]

Murder rate at its lowest in 20 years | UK news | guardian.co.uk
I didn't state child murder.
But when the figures quoted in this report (2009) states that murder is at it's lowest for twenty years and that it peaked in 1987. It must have been far safer when I was a kid of nine in the fifties and allowed to go to football on my own.

I'd say you're right- by all accounts Britain was a safer place in the 50s. Crime started to increase rapidly during the 60s.

 

[Braders]

13/14 I believe , first season at Withdean at least

 

[WATFORD zero]

Aged about 10, a small group of us used to walk from Mile Oak to the Goldstone.

 

[Munkfish]

The First game i went to by myself was The first ever game at Withdean i must of been around 12. away games was Torquay when i was around 14.

 

[Gwylan]

Murder rate at its lowest in 20 years | UK news | guardian.co.uk
I didn't state child murder.
But when the figures quoted in this report (2009) states that murder is at it's lowest for twenty years and that it peaked in 1987. It must have been far safer when I was a kid of nine in the fifties and allowed to go to football on my own.

It's true that you didn't say child murders but you did say "I feel it is a far more threatening world to the kids of today". I just don't think that's true - kids are no more or less at risk from violence than they were in the 50s or 60s.

The real difference, of course, is cars. When I was a kid in the 60s, we used to play cricket and football in the street knowing that cars would come along very rarely - these days there are very few quiet roads. I used to walk to school on my own when I was 7, that would be a very rare occurrence these days.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I agree with Gwylan, i think the social norm in the 60s when i was a kid was that most child beatings and assaults in town on a saturday night went unreported. I think a lot of schools, religious groups and other groups working with youths had their resident dodgy individual, who everyone knew not to be left alone with. I think safety generally, and in particular towards children, has improved greatly since the 60s.

I took my son to hospital last year as he had broken his nose in a playground fight and they asked me whether i wanted to report the assault. He was a 14 year old in a playground fight FFS.

 

[fosters headband]

It's true that you didn't say child murders but you did say "I feel it is a far more threatening world to the kids of today". I just don't think that's true - kids are no more or less at risk from violence than they were in the 50s or 60s.

Well I think that you and me will just have to disagree.
The amount of stabbings, muggings and drugs were minimal then to the amount today.
But if you can come up with figures to disprove this I would be very interested and would take the false impression I have that it was far safer for me growing up than my grandkids.

 

[Skint Gull]

I would have been 17 before i went to an Albion game on my own but getting over to the Goldstone alone when i was less than 14 would have been difficult and getting to Gillingham before i was 16 would have been even more problematic! That said i used to wander down to Priory Lane from the age of about 10 for games when Albion weren't at home

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

11 on the Horsham Supporters Bus but not allowed properly on my own until 13, on the train from Horsham.

 

[Gwylan]

I agree with Gwylan, i think the social norm in the 60s when i was a kid was that most child beatings and assaults in town on a saturday night went unreported.

I remember a kid from my school getting stabbed in an attack from another school and there wasn't a whisper about it in the papers. Casual violence was almost accepted as part of life 30 or 40 years ago.

Well I think that you and me will just have to disagree.
The amount of stabbings, muggings and drugs were minimal then to the amount today.
But if you can come up with figures to disprove this I would be very interested and would take the false impression I have that it was far safer for me growing up than my grandkids.

The thread was specifically about children, not murder as a whole.

From the NSPCC "While the number of child homicides fluctuates each year, the overall child homicide rate in England and Wales has remained broadly similar since the 1970s.
Creighton and Tissier (2003) Child killings in England and Wales. London: NSPCC Research briefing."

 

[patchamalbion]

dont honetly remember home but away was MACCLESFIELD!! 13, 0-0 draw,freezing,attendace of around 2000..fun fun fun

 

[twowheelsbest]

Reading the "Did you support another team?" thread got me thinking to when I first used to go to matches. I used to go to Palace with my Dad and Grandad, or badger my Dad into taking me to Stamford Bridge. But when I moved to Lancing I started going to Brighton games with my new friends. We'd meet at Lancing station, get on the train to Hove, go to the game and come home again all unaccompanied by an adult. Nothing strange about that of course - except for the fact we were all EIGHT years old! (Some of the older ones may have been nine or ten but we were all very young). Ok this was the mid 1960s and a different era, (if you let an eight year old go to football match now unaccompanied you'd probably be arrested), but did other old 'uns do this? Or was it because we were council estate kids?

You actually admit to going to Palace?

 

[elwheelio]

Sudbury Town away in the cup in '96 was my first away game with my mates rather than my Dad. I was 14 and it was a very drab 0-0.

 

[fosters headband]

I remember a kid from my school getting stabbed in an attack from another school and there wasn't a whisper about it in the papers. Casual violence was almost accepted as part of life 30 or 40 years ago.



The thread was specifically about children, not murder as a whole.

From the NSPCC "While the number of child homicides fluctuates each year, the overall child homicide rate in England and Wales has remained broadly similar since the 1970s.
Creighton and Tissier (2003) Child killings in England and Wales. London: NSPCC Research briefing."

So in summary, you would be very happy, and not worry about them, if an 8 year old were go to football today on his own, which was what the OP said in his post. If so in his statement you would probably be arrested.
I know I would not want my grandkids doing so.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I reckon I was probably 9 when I first went to Somerton Park on my own (or with a mate and no adults) to watch Newport County. That was only a walk away (across a couple of main roads, mind), but we all walked to school in those days.

By the time I was 10, I was certainly up for travelling further afield without adult supervision. I remember several trips with my mates to Cardiff to watch Glamorgan play cricket. That was 12 miles away by train. We might have had a 12 year old looking out for us, though.


Before moving to Newport, I went to school in Leeds (and moved away when I was 5). I used to travel by bus, not alone, but in the safe guardianship of an 8 year old girl who lived up the road. We were under strict instructions not to walk too close to the edge of the quarry that was up the road from our house. These days, the neighbours would call in social services, I'm sure.

And yes ... there was traffic about. The morning school bus was the other side of what is now the A65.

 

[Gwylan]

So in summary, you would be very happy, and not worry about them, if an 8 year old were go to football today on his own, which was what the OP said in his post.

He didn't say he went to football on his own at all - he said he went with some older kids. I think 8 is a bit too young but I'd be happy to go to matches with his older sister at 11. In your original post, you said that you first went at 9 but times have changed since then but, as the evidence shows, they haven't at all.

In fact, given there's far less football violence these days, I'd be happy for my kid to go on his own younger than I was. I was nearly 12 when I went to my first game unaccompanied but my boy wouldn't need to be that old.