Should letting children play alone outside be a crime?

Should letting children play alone outside be a crime?

Mallerie Shirley knew something was wrong the second she saw her then-6-year-old son walk through the front door. It was November 2025, and he had just returned from riding his scooter to a playground about a quarter of a mile from their home in Atlanta.

Atlanta mother Mallerie Shirley let her six-year-old son play alone outside. What happened next put her parenting choices under scrutiny: ‘I was so naïve’

Mallerie Shirley and her husband Christopher Pleasants wanted their two children to develop a keen sense of independence. Consequently, the couple had begun letting their six-year-old son undertake activities on his own. However, Shirley could not have anticipated what would follow when she let her son play alone outside, per The New York Times. A...