A recent study has found that over a third of parents let their kids drive a car before they turn 17 years old and in most cases they even drive on the public road.
2,157 British parents aged 35 or over were surveyed by Voucher Codes Pro and 35 per cent of the respondents said they let their children drive before reach the legal driving age of 17.
Among those that admitted to letting their kids drive under 17, more than half allowed them do so on the public road network. Even more staggering, 3 percent of those surveyed revealed they let their child drive when as young as 9 years old.
“I have to say that I am absolutely shocked and quite frankly scared at the results of the recent research,” George Charles from www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, who conducted the study, commented.
“I know that some may let their children drive around in private land, but there is no excuse of justification to let your child drive underage on actual roads.”
The vast majority (71%) of those who let their children drive when under 17 say they allowed it in order to give their kids some experience before taking to the road the first time.
However, nearly a quarter (23%) of those that made the same admission says it was all ‘just for fun’. The remaining 6% of respondents said they simply let their kids drive so young to prove to them that driving is harder than they thought.
When asked whether they felt the driving age should be lowered, 47% said the minimum driving age should be reduced to 16.