When should children get the 'key to the door'?

One in six parents have come home to find the front door unlocked or had a child lose a key

Keys from a new house given to owner (Alamy)

Rather than waiting until they are 18 or 21 to receive the 'keyto the door', today 40 per cent of parents give their childrenunder the age of 18 a set of keys - and  8 per cent of thesekey-holders are aged under 9 with 18 per cent aged between 9 and11.

The figures come from a new report from Confused.com who saythis poses a potential threat to home security. Indeed, theirresearch shows that one in six parents of the 2,000 surveyed havealready come home to find the front door unlocked (which couldinvalidate their insurance) or had a child lose a key.

Gareth Kloet, Head of Home Insurance at Confused.com said:"Getting the ‘key to the door' at 18 or 21 is a bit of an outdatedconcept now that some children receive house keys aged 9 or under.While we are not surprised to find that times have changed, we wantto emphasise that putting such a young child in charge of homesecurity could be a risk to them and to the safety of the familyhome and property.

"It is important to have a chat with your child about theresponsibility associated with having a key to the family home. Wewould encourage parents to mention to their children the potentialdangers of giving out their address on social media, and alsohighlight the risks of having an address written on the key fobitself. We would urge parents to remind their children that, shouldthey lose the key to the house, they must tell them immediately as,if this happens, it may be necessary to change the locks.

"We are not here to criticise families and we understand thatmany parents have to work during school hours, but we do want toremind parents to talk to their children about home security andthat accidentally leaving your home unprotected may invalidate yourhome insurance should you need to make a claim."