At what age

Would you say is old enough to let your children out with there mates ??

My son who is now 7 has already started asking and tbh the thought of it scares me as its not as safe as it use to be when i was growing up ??

Can see what you saying Nicky.
What about his mates, do you have them around your house/ play in the garden?
At 7 I think id just be happy for him to have his mates around your house, and him ONLY spend time with his mates at they’re house.

That way he’s spending time away from you, he learns from that but you know hes safe.

Agree with ghost for once
Get to know who he is playing with if you don't like
you can point out the bad points ,
give a short lenght of rope and see how that goes .

My missues daughter is 13 and thinks she knows it all....

She tries it on with me while her mum is at work saying "mum said I could go out till 6.30pm" by the time ive rung her mum at work shes done one out the door.....I go out with the dogs and catch her farting about in the park with her daft 'mates' . The other day I went the long way round came across the fields in pitch blackness with the dogs and told her to get home as the 'situation' had not been agreed with me or her mum...starts chatting back in front of her mates....me being me was having none of it...some weird bloke with two mongrel dogs was stood by the school doors smoking a fag, when questioned Elizabeth nor her mates have no idea who he is...she asked afterwards how the hell I had sneaked up on them all across the fields....but its all OK becuase shes got her mates with her what the bleedin hell 4-5 12-13 year old lads are gonna do if some fruit comes wanting to abduct a young girl I dont know...especially right next to fields which go on for miles and miles and miles.....Sadly,apparently its not my bag...the kids bright accademically thick in many other ways