Japan’s Old Enough and Australia’s Bluey remind us our kids are no longer ‘free range’ – but we can remake our neighbourhoods

<p dir="ltr">In the popular Japanese TV series <a href="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-is-old-enough-made" target="_blank">Old Enough</a>, very young children are sent out into their neighbourhood on their first solo errand. The release of this long-running series on Netflix this year <a href="https://slate.com/business/2022/04/old-enough-netflix-do-japanese-parents-really-send-toddlers-on-errands.html" target="_blank">created</a> a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/apr/07/old-enough-the-japanese-tv-show-that-abandons-toddlers-on-public-transport" target="_blank">buzz</a> among Western viewers about children travelling around their neighbourhoods on their own when only two to four years old.</p>