Originally Posted by artemis

IMHO, your post is half-right. Your final paragraph is silly. No, the world is NOT less safe than it was in decades past - quite the opposite, in fact. And teenagers are NOT children! (Minors, yes, but that is a legal status only.). We do young people a grave disservice when we teach them that they are incapable of coping with the wider world.

What HAS changed (iIMHO, of course) is the willingness of large corporations to make sensible exceptions to their general policies. And that alone is the reason I have reservations about letting teenagers travel solo. I have complete faith that the airlines will treat an unaccompanied 14 year old with exactly the same level of tender concern they lavish on me (a 51 year old woman with decades of travel experience under her belt) when an IRROPS occurs: none at all Likewise, I'm completely confident in the ability of MegaCorp Chain Hotel's general manager to firmly stick to the corporate policy of "no unaccompanied minors are permitted to check in," never mind the fact that the policy was created to keep 17 year old from throwing drunken hotel parties, not to strand 14 year olds at airports in IRROPS situations.

The kids are all right. It's the adults who have turned into idiots. And really, this is a change that benefits nobody, but I have no idea how to undo it. Teens who are developmentally ready to travel alone should be encouraged to do so, not held back by stupid corporate policies and unthinking applications of the law.