Kids in Museums believes it is important that young people are able to become independent museum visitors. While there is no right age for them to be allowed to visit museums alone, all museums should have a clear, visible policy about the age at which they permit independent visits. This should match their pricing policy if they charge for admission.

Every so often, this topic hits the news when a young person is turned away from a museum on account of their age, such as this The Scotsman article from 2019, which involved a 10 year old child.

This is a complicated topic and there are multiple considerations for museums to weigh up and make decisions that are appropriate to their site, staff, collection and local area.

On one hand, we believe that museums should be safe and accessible public places for all ages to explore, and we know that visiting museums can be very beneficial for young people (See our Why our work matters page.) An independent visit to a museum can help to boost a child’s confidence, support their learning or research for their exams, provide a safe space to spend time with friends and allow self-discovery through engagement with the arts. It could nurture a greater involvement with or interest in the museum, such as volunteering, joining a youth group or even considering a career in heritage. After all, if a child or young person wants to visit a museum independently, and has the support of their parents or carers to do so, why would we not want to encourage their curiosity and enthusiasm?

However, a child visiting a museum on their own raises many questions around safeguarding, GDPR, insurance and staffing for museums. Like any public institution, a museum has a duty of care to its visitors. For example, if there was an accident involving an unaccompanied young person, a museum would need plans in place to manage this in the absence of the individual’s parent or carer.

Back in 2019, Mar Dixon, museum consultant and founder of Culture Themes, held a poll on her Twitter account on whether a 10 year old should be allowed to visit a museum. Among the 600 respondents, the response was mixed with 29% saying yes, 35% no and 37% it depends.

In this resource we try to break down this complicated issue, providing information about the approach in other sectors, examples from UK museums and factors you may want to consider in creating a policy for your museum. Given the complexity of this area, we would always recommend taking specialist advice in areas such as safeguarding and health and safety and crucially consulting with young people themselves.

What does the law say?

There is no legal age at which a child can be left home alone or can go out on their own. In the UK, a child is a person under the age of 18. (Find the legal definitions by nation on the NSPCC website.)

It is down to parents or carers to determine the risk of the child being unaccompanied, find out if the child feels safe being left alone and decide what feels comfortable for their family – as set out in the NSPCC Home or Out Alone Guide.

The only circumstance when it is illegal to leave a child alone is if doing so puts them at risk, meaning they are unsupervised ‘in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health’, according to the law on leaving your child on their own.

What do other public spaces do?

It is useful to look at guidance from other public spaces and what national guidelines exist in other sectors.

Libraries

In 2015 CILIP the Library and Information Association published A Safer Place Guidelines for public librarians to understand their duty of care to children and young people. It advises all children under the age of 8 be accompanied by an adult, but recommends that librarians take further guidance from their council education and children’s services teams to decide a minimum age for independent visits.

Generally, the minimum age for an independent visit is 8 to 12 years old. Guidance from East Sussex County Council and Lambeth Council allows anyone over the age of 8 to use the library independently, while in Oxfordshire County Council, it is anyone of secondary school age (11+).

Shopping centres

Shopping centres will often have a code of conduct that applies to all visitors, such as this one from Touchwood in Solihull. Occasionally these will include a statement to say that children in school uniform during the school day will be removed, though there are not usually restrictions on age.

Leisure centres

According to the Child Protection in Sport Unit, the recommendation for unaccompanied visits in leisure centres is between the ages of 8 and 11 years old. There is specific national guidance from the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport & Physical Activity (CIMSPA), which sets out the age at which young people can swim independently. This Child Admission Policy from Larkfield Leisure Centre in Aylesford, Kent, draws on this CIMSPA guidance.

Sports venues

Many sports stadiums also have their own child admission policy. For Emirates Stadium and Etihad Stadium, the minimum unaccompanied age is 14 years old and over due to safeguarding and safety concerns. There is national guidance available in the Sports Ground Safety Authority’s Green Guide (£).

Cinemas

Cinema chains have their own admissions policies, including Picturehouse, Vue and Everyman Cinemas. In general, this showed children of 8 years old or over can visit unaccompanied during the day, rising to 12+ or 15+ years for screenings after 7pm. The UK Cinema Association provides guidance about safeguarding, but it is only available to members.

Theatres

The age for unaccompanied visits to the theatre is slightly older again. At the National Theatre, you have to be 18 to purchase a ticket and children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult according to its Visit Guidelines.

According to the Royal Shakespeare Company Safeguarding Policy, children aged 14 and under should be accompanied, whilst the English National Opera guidance and ATG Tickets policy specify 16+.

Travel

Different travel companies have different rules on unaccompanied travel by children.

Train operators LNER and C2C have varying guidance on their websites. While LNER has no set age limit and leaves it down to parental discretion, C2C travellers must be 12 or over, and if staff believe a passenger is under 12, they will call the British Transport Police.

Transport for London has few restrictions on unaccompanied child travel in London and children aged 12+ can travel unaccompanied. They also have a Young Person’s Behaviour Code for under 18s.

You are allowed to travel alone from age of 14 on National Express coach services, but you must complete your journey between the hours of 5am and 10pm according to its Safe travel advice for children and young people.

 

There is a clear distinction in age restrictions between the above venues. Those that are open for free public access generally have a lower or no age restriction, while those that hold ticketed or large-scale events require a higher minimum unaccompanied age.

Where a pre-booked or paid ticket is required, you may need to be at least 18 years old to book or buy a ticket online. While most high street banks will allow children to have a debit card from the age of 11, as set out in this article by GoHenry, there may be data protection issues around collecting children’s personal data to purchase tickets. For example, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) states in its Children and the GDPR guidance that children require special protection in data protection processes and a child can only consent to share their data online at the age of 13.

What are other museums doing?

To establish a benchmark in the heritage sector, we considered the museums that are members of the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC), reviewing their websites in July and August 2023. For the vast majority, the museums’ policies were not clear from their websites.

Where they were available, this information could most commonly be found on museums’ Visit web pages, family web pages, or somewhat less clearly in Safeguarding or Child Safety Policies or Terms and Conditions.

Based on the museums for which we could find information online, the most common minimum age (for nine organisations) was 12+, which included the V&A Museum and Science Museum in London. This was closely followed a minimum age of 14+ (at six organisations), 16+ (six organisations) and 15+ (two organisations). The minimum age for unaccompanied visits varies even within museums in the same museum group.

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter and the RAF Museum in London appeared to have the lowest minimum visitor age of 11+. In its Conditions of Entry, the RAF Museum asks that parents or carers are confident that their children are able to pass over an emergency contact number should museum staff require it.

At Tullie in Carlisle, in order for a child of 12+ to visit unaccompanied, they need to get a free young person’s admission card either online or at reception. For this, the museum collects the young person’s name, address and emergency contact details. This policy was influenced by ‘I’m A Teenager… Get Me Into There!’, developed as part of the Curious Minds’ Hope Streets project in which Tullie was a participant.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy Terms & Conditions explains that its 16+ age restriction is due to the age and height restrictions at some of the attractions on site.

Putting together a policy for your site

Aim to establish a clear policy about what age children and young people are able to visit without adult supervision. There will be a number of safe and considered decisions you will need to make in order to do this. You will need to consider the nature of your site, its collection, its location and transport connections, staffing and any other factors that could feed into children and young people’s wellbeing and safety.

We would always recommend seeking specialist advice in areas such as health and safety and safeguarding to address specific questions about your site, collections or local area.

Speak to the front of house team.

Speak to front of house staff and volunteers to understand how often children and young people visit independently, how they feel about it and what processes they currently follow. What support do they feel they would need to give independent young visitors a safe and positive experience on site? You could use the ‘I’m a Teenager…Get Me Into Here’ online training as a starting point for your discussions and to offer staff training if you change your policy.

Bring young people into the discussion.

This will help to build confidence for your museum and for young people. If your museum doesn’t have its own youth group or young volunteers, reach out to local schools, uniformed groups and young people’s organisations. Try to build an understanding of the public spaces they visit independently to socialise or learn informally. Find out whether they would value additional safe space like a museum to visit and what they would want from an independent museum visit.

Look at and consult other organisations in your local area.

As we have above, take a look at other public spaces near you to see what feels reasonable against what else a child is able to do independently at the same age. Contact them to see why they have taken the approach they have. Speak to local youth sector organisations to understand the spaces and opportunities available to young people in your local area. Your local council is likely to have a directory of these services on their website.

Research local transport policies.

If young visitors are likely to be dependent on public transport to get to your venue, then check your local operators’ policies to see if a child would be able to safely get to your site on their own.

Check your insurance provision.

You will need to review your insurance and decide whether admitting unaccompanied young people creates any additional risks for which you would wish to be insured or require the terms of your current policy to be changed.

Get the input of your Safeguarding Lead on potential areas of concern and include unaccompanied child visits in your Safeguarding Policy & Procedures.

This research from Safer London about safety for young people in London shopping centres and other public spaces has some useful recommendations, including all front facing staff being trained in safeguarding, clear information about where children and young people can go if they feel unsafe, and the availability of both male and female staff. Be clear that if urgent First Aid is required, this would supersede any safeguarding concerns. Ideally, however, First Aid should be administered with two adults present. It may be appropriate to explore the idea of Contextual Safeguarding, an approach which considers safeguarding outside of the home, the potential of harm in different public spaces and how they interact, and how to engage young people with safeguarding. We would always recommend taking specialist safeguarding advice if you have specific questions about your site.

Carry out a risk assessment.

Refer to your existing site risk assessment and create an additional risk assessment for unaccompanied visitors. Are there any parts of the visitor journey that would pose issues for younger visitors? We would recommend taking specialist advice if you have any specific health and safety concerns about young people at your site.

Consider if you need different approaches for programming/ events and for general site visits.

As with the examples seen earlier, the age requirements and risk level may vary between general site visits and ticketed events. For example, does the age range of your summer workshop programme align with your general admissions policy? If you are holding a large-scale event at the museum, does the likely audience for the event or its format mean there need to be an adjustment to your policy due to the increased safeguarding or safety risk? You may be hosting a temporary exhibition that contains content that requires a suggested age restriction or trigger warning, which may make it unsuitable for some younger visitors. These distinctions should be communicated clearly both internally and externally.

Consider whether you would want to gather additional information about the child or young person as part of the conditions of entry, taking into account GDPR rules.

The ICO guidance about GDPR states that children have the same rights as adults in the use and storage of their data, but require special consideration in data protection because they may not be aware of the risks involved in sharing personal data.

If you decide you want to collect data from children and young people either to purchase tickets, use public WiFi or to have emergency contact information, the following are some of the key considerations:

Your systems, processes and privacy notices should be designed with the needs of children in mind and be clear for children to understand. The ICO recommend a data protection impact assessment to understand the risks to children and involving children in designing systems if you can.

If you are relying on consent as the basis to collect data in person, there is no set age at which a child is deemed to be competent to consent in England and Wales. In Scotland, the age is 12. For online data protection, children have to be 13+ to consent to share data.

If you provide online services that are not directly aimed at children but they may access them, you need to assess the risks to them sharing their data. If you have an age limit on using online services, you need to ensure it is enforced and not theoretical.

There is very detailed guidance available on the ICO website.

Establish a clear policy and internal process for staff about who can visit your museum without adult supervision and the process if a child visits unaccompanied.

Brief all staff and volunteers, particularly front of house teams. Ensure there is a process for staff to refer to about assessing individual solo visitors and empower staff or volunteers to ask necessary questions to help them identify whether a visit is within your policy. Include guidance to ensure conversations with children who visit unaccompanied are dealt with tactfully and in a friendly manner. You don’t want to make them feel unwelcome or uncomfortable. Give staff tools to support young people who have come into your museum because they are looking for a safe space. Make sure that staff understand the distinction between lost children and unaccompanied visitors so they can respond to both appropriately.

Make sure your policy is clear to visitors on your website before they visit.

Ensure your policy is available online. Make it clear on your Visit or Families page whether unaccompanied visits are permitted at your site, such as on the Thinktank Museum Visit page or the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Family Visiting Tips page.

 

We hope this is a useful guide to support you in considering whether you can facilitate unaccompanied visits by children to your museum or heritage site.

Please note this resource is intended as information sharing for museums and does supplant any legal guidance or legislation relating to health and safety. All museums must carry out and implement appropriate risk assessments based on their individual sites. We recommend that you seek specialist advice about your site in relation to safeguarding and health and safety.

Thank you to Sarah Forster, Learning and Engagement Manager at Tullie and Fenella Goodhart, Head of Learning at the London Transport Museum for their feedback and contributions to this resource.

If you have any further information to add to this resource, please get in touch: [email protected]

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