New York City is one of the greatest cities in the United States. It has Central Park, Time Square and the Statue of Liberty. Its a city full of exciting activities and things for one to see and do. However it's also full of child predators, murderers, thiefs and rapists alike. The sidewalks are crowded with people walking to and from places they need to be. The dangers of NYC are enormous for an adult, let alone a twelve year old child.
Letting a twelve year old child roam the streets of NYC alone is quite simply put: Parental Irresponsibility. Anything can happen to a child in between point A and point B. Child abductions usually do not end up like the little boy who was recently abducted from his home and found wondering the streets of Mexico. An abducted child, if not found within the first 48 hours, does not have a very high chance of being found alive. Children are extremely vulnerable and that is why they have parents to protect them.
Unless your twelve year old has grown up on the streets, chances are good that he does not know how to react when faced with a dangerous situation. When needing to travel on the subway a child should be accompanied by a parent or another responsible adult. Traveling in a group is better, still than two kids traveling alone. One child is easier to grab than two and two children are easier to grab than a group of them. There is no real reason that a child needs to be on a subway alone. If you are working and the child wants to go to a friends house that requires use of the subway, then the parents should arrange for someone to take them over there.
Another serious concern that parents in this day and age need to worry about is on-line predators. Why am I including this in an article about whether or not a twelve year old should be allowed to take the subway alone? Simple. A child tells their parents that he wants to go meet a friend of his, but he needs to take the subway to get there and what he's really planning to do is meet a twelve year old girl he has been talking to on-line. The twelve year old girl is really a thirty-six year old child molester that has been pretending to be a twelve year old girl and now this man has your child. It's that simple. Children are sneaky when they want to be and what they do not realize is that being sneaky can also put them in a life or death situation.
So the next you think its OK for a twelve year old to take the subway alone, ask yourself if the risk of something happening to your child is worth it. The one thing there is no replacing is your child.