Being home alone and babysitting: Responsibility, Competency and Risk

Drawing on theories emanating from the ‘new sociology of childhood’ this paper sets out our analyses of children’s views concerning the age at which they can or should be left at home alone, and the age at which they can or should be able to babysit or look after another child on their own. These views were gathered from over 600 children in the UK aged 8-11 years, as part of an ESRCfunded research project; Law in Children’s Lives.1 The ground breaking feature of this study was the creation of a digital game as a research tool that gathered children’s views on a range of everyday, law-related issues. The original data collected by this method enabled us to explore children’s understandings of responsibility, competency and risk in this area, where there is considerable ambiguity in the legal rules. As such the paper contributes to both socio-legal knowledge and sociological theories of childhood.