I too walked or biked to school. But that was nearly twenty years ago.

I imagine the change comes from how sensitive people have become over leaving children alone under any circumstances. I.e. I don’t have kids myself, but according to a coworker who does, kids playing alone in the neighborhood would have been absolutely normal twenty years ago, but nowadays you might have Child Protection Services unleashed upon you, get accused of child neglect, and even have your kids taken away?

I recall someone did an experiment where they let their kid play at a playground, then took a seat on a bench where he could monitor his child, but still be far enough away to seem like the kid was alone. The goal was to see how fast some “Good Samaritan” would rush to the child in fear that he was being neglected. It didn’t take long.

I similarly walked to school myself when I was a child in the US (1980s.) We were also left home alone with the door locked while parents were at work/groceries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latchkey_kid)

Today, this would be illegal where we live. From what I understand, it would also be enforced and child-services would get involved. It is hard to get an answer on what the cut-off age is when kids can be left alone, we have not received an answer from any place we've asked.

While I appreciate the spirit of the law, and while we're well off enough that we dont need to worry about things like this...I do feel kids are quite coddled these days.