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25th August 2024
05:40pm BST
Kirstie Allsopp, presenter of Location, Location , Location, has been reported to social services for letting her 15-year-old son travel Europe with a friend.
The TV personality received a call from the council which has forced her to double down on her decision to allow her son to go inter-railing on the continent.
Allsopp said social services informed her of a file that had been opened after her son, Oscar, had returned from travelling in Europe with a 16-year-old friend this summer.
Oscar had just finished his GCSEs and was soon to turn 16-years-old, being summer born.
An investigation into child protection concerns pressured Allsopp into defending herself on social media with a lengthy Instagram post.
While Allsopp acknowledged that some people may raise an eyebrow at her decision, she said it never occurred to her that social services would get involved.
The presenter cited experience from her time spent in Switzerland and Japan where "children walk to school alone and are encouraged to learn early to be self-sufficient, and trusted to make sensible choices."
She equally said that the UK and US are becoming "more risk-averse cultures" although admitted there was a "silver lining" in the whole scenario.
She wrote: "The silver lining to this cloud is that everyone stops and thinks about the freedoms we had as children, and ask what harm could be done, not by the freedoms, but by the restrictions and fears we are imposing on our kids".
Allsopp told The Mail that receiving the call from the council left her feeling "sick" and then "very, very cross".
On Monday (19 Aug), Allsopp also took to twitter to hit back at critics as she said she was "proud" of her son.
She wrote: "If we're afraid our children will also be afraid, if we let go, they will fly."
She told The Mail: "For me, that was the sucker punch, the idea this file might continue existing.
"What (the official) said to me was, 'if in six months there was another referral and we needed to come to your house and look into this further, it would be important that we had kept a note of the first referral'.
"That was the Orwellian moment. The fact it was maliciously done wasn't coming home to her."
The RBKC said in response: "Safeguarding children is an absolute priority. We take any referral we receive very seriously and we have a statutory responsibility for children under 18 years of age."
The council say that it is "standard practice" for records to be retained until a child's 25th birthday.
Despite plenty of backlash on social media condemning the TV personality, she has equally received countless messages of people talking about their first experiences travelling solo at a young age which Allsopp has been reposting to her page.
One person wrote: "Age 12, hitchhiked from Manchester to London (& back) to see the Rolling Stones. Certainly didn’t ask my mum."
Another user replied: "From 11 I travelled an hour to a school by bus in NI during The Troubles. Regularly we were put off the bus due to bombs / bomb scares and other ‘events’ all over the place. Closed roads etc. I didn't have a mobile phone. We’d been brought up to be sensible and resilient.🤷🏼♀️"
One person wrote: "When I was just 12 I travelled alone from London to Sofia in Bulgaria by train. And back again - six days in all. No mobile phones, no internet. My parents reckoned I was up to it. Kirstie Allsopp reckoned the same about her boy and she was right.
While one person explained: "I think it’s admirable for parents to let go of neuroses (however valid) and allow their children to navigate the world with confidence. Over protective parenting and projecting fears on to your children is so stifling for development (from firsthand experience)."
