Frankly, to any modern responsible parent, it sounds tantamount to child abuse.
Who in their right mind would bring a five-year-old boy — and one who has never even been to a big city — to London, put a map in his hand and wave him off?
Who would leave this child — able to distinguish his left from his right, but only just — outside the Imperial War Museum and tell him to find his own way to the London Eye, by bus?
His only companion will be his cousin, who is also five. Actually, it would be considered highly neglectful, were it to happen for real. London bus drivers are instructed to alert the authorities if they suspect a young child is travelling alone.
Kieran Robinson, five, and cousin Rita, six, pictured together, managed to navigate their way from the Imperial War Museum to the London Eye without their parents helping them
The cousins, pictured together on a bus, ask a lady at the stop for help and are on their way after stopping to play on the slides at a play park
This situation would be a Code Red, in London Transport speak, and the police would be called.
That they didn’t in this case was because it was a meticulously planned social experiment, for an ITV show investigating how much freedom we give our children — and whether they could benefit from more.
In this particular case, seven children (three groups, aged from four to seven) were set the task of getting themselves across the busy capital unaided.
Planet Child, hosted by doctor twin brothers Chris and Xand Van Tulleken, contrasts the freedom given to children in other parts of the world with the rather wrapped-in-cotton-wool existence British children have.
Are we too protective? We are reminded that most British kids are so heavily supervised that they spend less time outdoors than prison inmates.
In the show, we find out how other cultures do it. We meet a six-year-old in Tokyo who routinely travels alone across the city to get to school.
In Namibia, we are introduced to a seven-year-old and his five-year-old brother who walk miles from the safety of their village, not an adult in sight. They may not have to negotiate traffic, but they do have to be alert to wild dogs and elephants.
Rita and Keiran, pictured, live on a farm in rural Yorkshire and Keiran's mother said he had never 'been to anywhere bigger than Skipton' before the TV experiment
ITV series Planet Child looks at how much freedom children in the UK have compared with others around the world. Keiran is pictured helping to drive a tractor on his Yorkshire farm
Another world? Certainly, in the UK, our parenting style is much more hands-on.
‘I think we were interested in the fact that children get treated very differently around the world,’ admits Dr Xand. ‘We wanted to see if the assumptions we make about parenting in the UK could be challenged.’
Dr Chris adds: ‘It’s about kids and how they behave. We provoke them and put them in weird situations — and we’ve found it’s surprising how they respond.’
In Planet Child, children are asked to take part in a range of experiments, from climbing trees to going shopping, to assess their attitude to risk and their ability to cope without adult supervision.
The London experiment is the most radical. So how do the children get on?
Well little Kieran Robinson and his cousin Rita, who live on a farm in rural Yorkshire, almost fail at the first hurdle when they succumb to the lure of the play area in the Imperial War Museum Gardens.
At the point where the production crew think they should be boarding the allotted bus, the pair — oblivious to any idea of timetables — are having a whale of a time on the slides.
Laura Robinson, Kieran’s mum, was kept updated on her son's travels around the capital by film crew and said she had her 'heart in her mouth' the whole time. Keiran is pictured with a map
Laura, pictured with son Kieran, brother Kevin Robinson and his daughter Rita, admitted that she spent much of the experiment thinking 'what have we done'
Doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken, pictured, present the series and Dr Chris admitted he is now less of a ‘helicopter parent’ with his own toddler daughter after doing the experiements
What happens when they do finally leave? Well, your heart is in your mouth watching the two little figures heading into the heaving city streets, and trying to find a particular bus stop.
They ask a lady at the bus stop for help. Clever? Or downright worrying, given our preoccupations with Stranger Danger?
Of course, the children were never in any actual danger during the filming. Their parents had been asked to allow them to take part with full assurances that they would never be entirely alone — although, crucially, the children were not told this.
The London bus they would be getting on was rigged with cameras which would follow their every move. Adult ‘minders’ would be there, at a distance, posing as passengers.
At the first sign the children were distressed, they would quickly intervene.
Nonetheless, it makes for tense viewing. Perhaps the most astonishing thing is that the adults never have to step in. The children really aren’t fazed by the task.
There are a few bumpy moments. They aren’t told when to get off the bus, and there are some panicked little faces as they see the London Eye come into view, then go out of sight again as the bus follows its route.
Becky and Tim Rose's four children, pictured together, are also seen in the show. The oldest twins seven-year-old Darcee and Judah were also set the London bus challenge
As a viewer, it’s excruciating. How can these kids possibly negotiate all this?
Without giving too much away, they do — much to their delight, and the adults’ astonishment. They just got on with it, admits Dr Xand. ‘Left to their own devices, they do what they are asked to do.’
What about their parents, who were not able to follow their children’s progress on camera and had to rely on updates from the film crew? Suffice to say, they were all a bag of nerves.
‘I spent a lot of the time thinking: “What have we done?”’ admits Laura Robinson, Kieran’s mum.
‘Having grown up on a farm, Kieran maybe has more freedom than most. He can go out and play in the fields. But although he’s very independent, he’s never been to anywhere bigger than Skipton, and even then I won’t let go of his hand.’
Waving him off in London was something else. ‘I was worried about the traffic. The crew kept us updated with how they were getting on — “They’ve got on the bus
