British TV Star in Trouble With Child Services After Letting a 15-Year-Old Take a Trip

Kirstie Allsopp posted online about her teen son's trip around Europe. Then someone reported her to the government.

British TV personality Kirstie Allsopp let her 15-year-old go on a three-week train trip around Europe with a friend, age 16. Allsopp then published a proud, happy comment about it on X—which has prompted an investigation by child protective services.

Last week, Allsopp wrote this:

My little boy has returned from 3 weeks inter-railing, he'll be 16 on Wednesday so he went with a mate who's already 16 due to hostel/travel restrictions, but they organised the whole thing; Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Marseille, Toulouse, Barcelona & Madrid 1/3

— Kirstie Allsopp (@KirstieMAllsopp) August 19, 2024

The post inspired plenty of nostalgia from folks fondly recalling their own youthful travels. But many others criticized her, raising all the usual raucous: He's too young. Anything could have happened. The world is unsafe. And so on.

Allsopp came out fighting. Sure, every kid is different, but "the danger is in underestimating them, not in setting them free," she told the world in a Daily Mail article. Her mother-in-law, she noted, went off to college at age 15. Her father-in-law joined the Merchant Navy in World War II at age 16. Were their parents neglectful?

Maybe that depends on who you ask.

Allsopp received a text from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), her local child protective services agency. A social worker told Allsopp that she was obliged by law to look into any case that anyone called into the agency. Allsopp asked who had made the call. The agency would not say. Allsopp tried to explain that it was probably someone who disapproved from afar and was trying to teach her a lesson (like in this case). The agency said that didn't matter. The social worker added that it was "standard practice" for the agency's case file regarding the matter to remain open until her child turned 25.

That's quite a long time to consider someone a child, let alone a victim.

In this case, the problem is not just the blood sport of mom blaming. It's also that the government is given no freedom to err on the side of common sense. Agents are obligated to be obtuse and obsess over imaginary physical dangers to children while ignoring how all of this requisite paranoid parenting might negatively impact kids' mental health. Overprotected kids are actually in danger of depression, anxiety, and passivity.

Allsopp herself admits that she said no when her son first proposed the trip. But then she thought about it more and realized he was ready for this adventure—that it was her job as a good parent to safeguard his confidence, self-respect, development, and joy in life by letting him go.

"It's up to parents to decide who is or isn't grown-up enough to start spreading their wings," she wrote.

In the U.S. at least, eight states have passed "Reasonable Childhood Independence" laws stating that neglect is when a parent puts a child in serious, obvious, unreasonable danger—not any time a parent lets the kids do something by themselves. Maybe it's time to adopt a similar law across the pond.

Comments

[Minadin]

I graduated high school early and moved to South America at age 17 to do a semester of completely unsupervised study abroad. And that was for several months, not a couple of weeks. No one even thought it was weird at the time.

[IceTrey]

Are the Karens saying no 16 year old is safe in Paris, Brussels and Berlin?

[Longtobefree]

Well, they did say it, didn't they?

[mad.casual]

It's not like it's a music festival on domestic soil near Hamas-occupied territory or anything.

[Longtobefree]

By God, if a kid is old enough to change sex, they are old enough to take a trip.
I suspect, the EU being the EU, that those kids had to get government permission at several points in the journey. So the EU thinks they are old enough.

(double checked; a passport is required, at a minimum)

[Arn1]

“I suspect, the EU being the EU, that those kids had to get government permission at several points in the journey. So the EU thinks they are old enough.”

UK is not part of the EU so UK resident need a passport to go to the EU, and minor also need parental permission to leave the country. All other countries mentioned are part of the Schengen area so there is no systematic border control.

As for transportation and hotel depending of the country you can travel without an adult at relatively young age in the UE (12 in France for example) with a written parental permission. But that’s just the law and in practice many hotels won’t take you if you are under 18, and even less if you are not at least 16.

[SayAgain]

What gets me is that the complaint happened after the trip. It's obvious that the kid *could* travel safely because he *did* travel safely. So what, exactly, does the government think it's protecting him from?

[Don't look at me!]

Independent thought?

[gah87]

Europeans?

[JohnZ]

You're a-peein

[JohnTheRevelator]

In the government's defense, it was anonymous Internet trolls who felt the 16-year-old needed protecting (or just wanted to mess with the mom.) The CPS caseworker's comments as presented in the post above can be summarized as "JFC, this is ridiculous but the rules say I have to follow up. Sorry."

[Zeb]

There is no reason why pretty much any 16 year old can't work and live completely on their own. The only decent reason to extend childhood that long is to make sure education is prioritized.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Her son could have been gang raped and jacked off on by German immigrants for bucks sake.

[EdG]

Well, Europe is not Arizona you know.

[AT]

He's too young. Anything could have happened. The world is unsafe. And so on. ... Her mother-in-law, she noted, went off to college at age 15. Her father-in-law joined the Merchant Navy in World War II at age 16. Were their parents neglectful?

No, but her parents lived in a much different world than her son does. One in which Europe hadn't opened the floodgates to the slime of humanity, and taken their side regardless of how heinous they constantly and invariably act, at the expense of its cultural heritage's ancestry. Kinda comparing apples to zebras there, Lenny.

Like Notting Hill this weekend. Come to the festival everyone! You'll experience unique food, lots of fun, merriment by all, maybe getting stabbed, and the enrichment of cultural diversity in this mostly peaceful experience!

Yea, sorry kids, you're not going to that alone. Or unarmed.

[Ghatanathoah]

The crime rate in Western Europe has gradually fallen in the 21st century at the same time that the foreign-born population in most Western European countries has steadily increased. The highest crime levels ever seem to be in the Eighties and early Nineties, before the massive immigration influx.

The biggest crime story I heard of lately from England was a huge riot by nativist mobs who claimed that the perpetrator of a recent stabbing attack was a Muslim asylum-seeker (the perpetrator was, in fact, neither of those things).

[JohnZ]

he was from an African nation and became a British citizen. That still doesn't mean he won't murder little children.
Too bad Britain no longer has the death penalty.
Not to worry, he'll be out in 20 years.
meanwhile Brits who have had enough of out of control crime by third world savages dare not speak a word or THEY GO STRAIGHT TO PRISON!
yeah...that'll teach 'em to keep their mouths shut.

[Zeb]

The crime rate may have declined, but is that for all crimes? What about random attacks on strangers on the street? I don't know the answer, but it is possible that the recent wave of migrants has made some types of crime worse. And there have been a lot of immigrants in Europe for some time. But something seems different about the recent waves.
That said, I don't think it's particularly more dangerous for 2 16 year old boys than for anyone else. They are not small children.

[AT]

Yea, crime is down. Don’t believe your lying eyes. Believe our State statistics. It’s not really “crime” if we elect not to arrest or revolving door the rioting jihadis.

The real crime is talking about it on the internet. For that, you go straight to jail.

[Strider]

I lived in my mom's garage until I was 40. If she would have let me go on a train ride at 15, I would have turned her in myself. (Just kidding)

[JohnZ]

British bureaucrats worry about a sixteen year old traveling with a friend but have no worries or concerns over the hundreds of thousands of third world, low IQ savages . They have no concerns about no-go sections of London or other cities.
Their only concern is that real Brits keep their mouths shut and not say a despairing word about all those third world savages or the crimes they commit lest they go to prison.
And say Marky Rowland want to arrest anyone anywhere on the planet for bad speak. F***Rowland, F*** Starmer.

[Rodduc]

Maybe the nosy busybodies should just mind their own business?!

[Brandybuck]

Oh dear lord, I was sixteen when I traveled Europe with some friends. I met some of them last year at a High School reunion, and none of them seemed damaged at all, forty years later. We weren't so fragile back then. Adult supervision? Hah! There was usually an adult around, but there was no direction supervision. We had native European children of the same age with us. All of whom at rail passes so they could travel most anywhere on their own, no questions asked.

So how much difference is there between fifteen and sixteen? Not very much. As anyone who can remember that age, the only real difference was a drivers license. But it's also the right age to get out and explore the world.

England. And the US. Both have deep strains of Puritanism that still pops its head up every time it sees someone having fun, or a child acting independent, or where a scolding chaperone is missing.

[jimc5499]

My personal favorite was the eleven year old in the parked car. I took my Sister to get groceries while her car was in the shop. I have a bad leg and said that I would wait in the car. A car pulled in next to me with a woman and a boy. The boy said that he wanted to wait in the car and finish a movie that he was watching on his tablet. A few minutes later I saw a woman standing behind the car on her cell phone. A few minutes more and a Police cruiser shows up. I knew the cop and asked what's up? He told me and I said "He isn't alone. I'm keeping an eye on him. I work with his Mother." The cop says OK goes over and talks to the woman and then leaves. About ten minutes later his Mother comes out and they leave. I'd never seen them before in my life. She didn't need the hassle from leaving a kid who was perfectly able to take car of himself alone in a car.

[Zeb]

Yeah, people are retards. Some idiot left a baby in a car in hot sun and it died, so now leaving anyone under 18 in a car alone is a major infraction in the eyes of busybody morons. I'm pretty sure 11 year olds can tell when they are too hot and know how to open doors.

[YehoshuaK]

When I was 17, in 1997, I graduated high school and immediately moved permanently to Israel. After that, I saw my parents on periodic trips back to California, or when they came to visit me in Israel.

So far so good.

When I was younger than that, I often stayed in the car and read while my mother ran errands. No harm done whatsoever.

[Uncle Jay]

Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin couldn't conquer the UK.
Yet, oppression (and leftist stupidity) runs unabated there.
This is a good example.

[BYRD]

I did almost the exact same thing as your son. At the age of 15 I went to Europe for 3 weeks with a friend who was 16. Then I went to Ireland for another 10 days by myself. No problems. Our parents correctly decided that we could manage it and we did. My friend became an airline pilot and I became an entrepreneur. Set your kids free and let them explore the world without parental supervision at every turn.

[CopaGent]

In 1964 when I was 17 I took a three month trip around the world.