[pfortuny]

> one child's rules will seem draconian against their friend's lax parent.

And that would be a great oportunity to teach that child that those measures exist for a reason.

The government is and must always be a subsidiary actor.

Not every risk must be addressed, otherwise zebra crossings would not exist, or driving would be prohibited.

[xipix]

Driving is prohibited until a certain age. Parents don't get to discuss this with their child and decide when they're old enough.

[alexfoo]

Complete digression I know...

Driving on public roads is prohibited until a certain age.

That age is 17 here in the UK but me and many of my friends growing up in a rural area learned to drive from the age of 14 or 15 on private land. Our parents would take us there/back, provide the car and be our "instructor". Some friends who lived on farms had cars/trucks/etc of their own that they could use to drive around and their parents were fine to let us try too. But we knew that we were never allowed on public roads.

By the time we all got to 17 we applied for our tests and had a few lessons with an real instructor on real public roads. We still had to learn all of the rules/etiquette/etc but most of us where completely happy with the physical aspects of controlling the vehicle, that saved us a huge amount of time.

My kid is 15 and if a suitable opportunity arises I'll let them have a go behind the wheel (not illegally obviously). Unfortunately I live in a city not a rural area, and don't own a car, so there hasn't been the chance yet.

(In the UK land like a supermarket car park is still considered as public roads despite being privately owned. Generally anywhere where the public can access it easily is not considered "private" in terms of the Road Traffic Act.)