Where are you living? Asking because I think letting kids walk alone to/from school and friend's houses depends a lot on the culture of the city/country.
Suburban Scandinavia, so we live in a relatively safe bubble. It sounds like in some other countries we'd be reported to some kind of protective services for child abandonment or neglect.
We live in Stockholm city, and it's usually considered very safe for kids, and yet most people tend to worry about young kids wandering without adult supervision, which was ok in the small city where I grew up in France (I'm 48).
