AlarmBee
Research
Child Safety Barometer 2026
The first nationwide survey of Greek parents on child safety and independent mobility. 546 valid responses, collected between 5 and 25 August 2026. The full results are published in Greek; this page summarises the main findings in English.
546
valid parent responses from across Greece
22.9% vs 2.6%
think a child is ready before turning 11 — villages versus large cities
47.8%
of children already travel on their own to some degree
40.1%
of parents have lost sight of their child in a public place
The main finding: the geography of trust
We asked parents at what age they consider a child ready to travel independently. Among parents of children aged six and over, 22.9% of those living in small towns and villages consider a child ready before the age of eleven. In towns of up to 50,000 residents the figure is 5.1%, and in large urban centres 2.6% (p < 0.0001).
The dividing line is not "Athens versus the provinces". Towns of up to 50,000 sit far closer to the large cities than to the villages.
And yet nothing changes in practice
We also asked whether the child actually travels alone. There the geography disappears: the figures are practically identical across all three settlement types, with no statistically significant difference (p = 0.61). Children go out on their own at the same age everywhere. What changes between village and city is not the behaviour but the norm — when a parent considers that behaviour appropriate.
Other findings
- The shift to independence is abrupt, not gradual: 3.2% of 6–8 year olds travel alone, 43.9% of 9–12 year olds, and 90.5% of 13–17 year olds.
- 63.6% of parents say their child would phone them in an emergency; 4.2% say the child has no way of raising an alarm at all.
- Asked what worries them most, 41.8% named a dangerous adult — more than road traffic, bullying and the internet combined. Road traffic came third at 16.8%.
- 40.8% of parents report their child has told them afterwards that they felt frightened or unsafe while alone.
Method, in brief
Anonymous online questionnaire of ten closed questions, run by GM395 IKE from 5 to 25 August 2026. Of 548 submissions, 546 were valid after cleaning. No identifying personal data was collected.
This is a self-selected convenience sample. No margin of error is reported — it is not mathematically defined for non-probability samples — and the findings are not generalised to the whole population. They are stated as comparisons between groups within the same sample. Group comparisons were tested with chi-squared tests of independence, and with a 10,000-iteration permutation test where cell counts were small.
Percentages and methodology are published; the raw response file is not released. The full report, including every distribution and the complete methodology, is available as a PDF in Greek. The Greek page carries the complete results.