History FreeRangeChildren / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': They live in a house without parents or guardians. They also hate school and their jobs, but for some reason, continue going to both. They sometimes do mention their mothers but they are never seen, so it's likely their mothers are almost never around, as seen with how their home has electricity, water and phone service, so it's easy to assume their mothers would be the ones to handle the bills, as the boys can't even handle school work and rarely have any money.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins''. Jason and Michelle do have adult supervision when going on their space adventures, namely the eponymous penguins.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy and friends, who are in probably fifth grade, are given incredibly free rein, often making trips to space, Egypt, and the depths of the ocean with minimum interference from parents. There are a few instances where Jimmy is prevented from flying in his homemade rocket into space (Without a space helmet even!) before finishing his chores, but still, that is incredibly free rein. On a typical day, the kids will go down to the local fast food joint to hang out, and their parents are nowhere in sight. Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' where the plot revolved around the kids feeling annoyed about the restrictions their parents keep placing on them. But really, the only thing they kept him from doing was going to a theme park on a school night, which really isn't that bad.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': Many scenes in many episodes involve the main 8-year-old third-grader cast biking around the town (which was relatively large) by themselves, eating out at the local ice cream parlor, with no parents in tow. Looking at these kids, they seemed more like middle schoolers/early high schoolers than elementary schoolers.

** Deconstructed in [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender the first series]], where a bunch of kids can travel around the world because, with the exception of a few characters, all of their parents are either dead or busy fighting the war. It doesn't help that every one of the kids is essentially a {{Child Soldier|s}}. There's also some DeliberateValuesDissonance involved; 16-year-olds are considered full adults, and many of the villains have high military rank despite being in the same age range as the heroes.
** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Korra is implied to have never been this, because unlike Aang, she has been watched over and protected by her parents and the White Lotus for her entire life; even as an older teenager, adults object to her running around Republic City willy-nilly. Mako and Bolin, by contrast, were orphaned as children and so were basically nothing ''but'' free-range.

** In both [[WesternAnimation/Ben10 the original]] and [[WesternAnimation/Ben102016 2016 series]], part of 10-year-old cousins Ben and Gwen's free rein comes from their elderly grandfather Max, who is driving them around the United States for their summer camping trip and is not as physically fit as he was in his younger days. The original series has less justification, as that continuity had Max as part of an interstellar police/counter-terrorist organization for most of his adult life, which you'd think would give him the common sense to keep better watch around Ben, who happens to have one of the most powerful pieces of technology in the galaxy but repeatedly disregards caution and attacks alien evildoers with no concern for the consequences. In both versions, [[TheSmartGuy but especially the original]], Gwen's maturity in accessing dangerous situations somewhat of justifies the lack of supervision.
** Averted in the second series, ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', where Ben has matured noticeably from his hyperactive young self, but still happens to be a 15-year-old boy dealing in potentially fatal missions on an intergalactic scale. The only reason his parents don't put the leash on him is that they are not even aware of his escapades until the episode "Grounded", at which point they forbid him from using his Omnitrix and restrict his day-to-day activities for fear of his safety. Which he promptly ignores, because there's absolutely nothing they can do to enforce it when he can transform at will into dozens of super-powered aliens. His parents lift the punishment before the episode is even close to over.

* This is usually averted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' but one episode, "Caillou Walks Around the Block", involves 4-year-old Caillou getting out of the house on his own and walking around town. It is a BannedEpisode on PBS precisely because Caillou is unattended while outdoors.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': A few of the main characters are not adults yet run all about saving the Earth, but we never hear any complaints from any of the moms and dads about what their kids are doing (the one or two that are still alive, that is). They have powers but that isn't much better.
* The main students from ''WesternAnimation/ClassOf3000'' seem to be able to travel around Atlanta with no issues despite all being in the 12/13 age bracket, or in the ChristmasEpisode, ''flying to the North Pole.'' In some cases, this is justified by it being a class exercise and they're with [[TokenAdult Sunny]].
* This trope may be an understatement in ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''. The child-based organization's operatives get their training in an Arctic Base built in the coldest part of Antarctica, they are brought to the Moon (toward the KND Moonbase, natch) to be submitted into the KND when training's finished, and while they're KND Operative, usually depending on their job within the KND, may be sent anywhere in the world, all with their parents taking little to no notice. In ''some'' cases their parents notice, and often even ''approve''. In fact, Numbuh 5 points out to Numbuh 4 that the KND only fight ''evil'' adults -- while their parents may be kind of strict and perhaps embarrassing at times, they aren't necessarily "evil" and only want what's best for their children.
* The main premise of ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'' is that all the kids in the neighborhood play unsupervised in the creek, building a whole secret civilization there. The parents are vaguely aware that they go there to play, but don't seem to know the extent of it; and the kids are aware that any problem that arises in the creek has to be solved there, because the parents would ban them from going there if they found out.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': The sixth-graders seem to be much more like high schoolers, even though it is stated that Doug is only about 11. The gang run about their town with little concern from Mom and Dad, although Doug sometimes needs his older sister to drive him places. A particularly egregious example is in "Doug's Hot Ticket", where he and Skeeter travel to a town more than 60 miles away... in a bus full of complete strangers. Granted, it ''is'' Doug's former hometown that they're traveling to (Bloatsburg), but still...
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': The triplets and Webby are hit with cases of DisappearedDad and MissingMom, leaving them free to go off on their own adventures. Helping this case is the fact that Great-Uncle Scrooge and Grandma Beakley are totally fine with letting the kids go off on their own, as long as they let the adults know. And as for Uncle Donald, well, he's tied up trying find a job to support his nephews, and by the end of the pilot episode, has accepted the fact that the nephews have inherited the [[BadassFamily family's adventuring genes]] too.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is usually an aversion, as the action is typically restricted to the cul-de-sac and adjacent areas, [[FridgeBrilliance like in plenty other suburban areas]]. For the BigDamnMovie, however, the characters travel across country without supervision (justified with the Eds, who are essentially on the lam, not so much for the others), crossing sweltering deserts, festering swamps, and abandoned factories. The Eds are even "driving" a car at one point (meaning that Ed is running through the bottom of the car, Flintstones style).
* In ''WesternAnimation/EmilyAndTheBabaYaga'', the adults send Emily off alone into the forest, and her father doesn’t seem to worry.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' episode, "The Land of the Gupins," Wicket and his friends agree to help the Gupins almost at the drop of a hood. However, there is also an apparent last-minute comment by Teebo, depicted in the distance as an imposed voice over line, that they intend to speak to their Elders first, and the scene changes to the characters on their way with permission to go apparently granted.

* The Mystery Twins in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' are given fairly free range of the town whenever they don't have to work in the Mystery Shack. Granted, the other employees of the shack often hang out with them, but Soos is essentially a {{manchild}}, and Wendy is only a few years older than the twins herself. Increasingly averted in Season 2, when their grunkle[[spoiler:s]] begin to spend more time with them. Played straight by Lil' Gideon, whose parents simply can't control him, and he does whatever he wants whether they like it or not.

** The kids in the story are about 9-years-old and in fourth grade, but they run about the city with little concern from their parents. Their maturity level also seems to suggest middle/high schoolers opposed to elementary schoolers.
** In a flashback this is used for drama with Helga's parents. When Helga was five at oldest, she had to walk to her first day of preschool by herself because her parents were too busy [[ParentalFavoritism fawning over her older sister Olga]]. To make it worse, it was raining. This ParentalNeglect badly affected Helga.
* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' doesn't seem to keep that close an eye on Penny, although she does seem to fly around often with the family dog Brain. Then again, maybe that's for the best because the inspector is seen as a bumbling idiot and sometimes ends up in a situation where he could lose his life and make Penny a possible foster child. Episodes sometimes start in places where the bulk of the action takes place. Examples include the circus, New York, and the arctic.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': None of the parents seem to pay any attention to their kids, but Dib and Gaz have extra free range on account of their dad being a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} MadScientist. One episode seems to lampshade the trope when Zim himself gets lost by trying to go to a different part of town on his own.
* A "[[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Superstar]]" segment of ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' features 8-year-old Ba Nee walking home with two kids. The blonde girl, who is even younger than Ba Nee, somehow went to the pharmacy and picked up her dad's prescription pain medicine all by herself.
** It used to be extremely common to send children on errands like these, including to buy cigarettes. You gave them an extra nickel to buy something for themselves as well.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': None of the characters are more than 13-years-old, yet they do random things like going to outer space, fighting aliens, buying weapons, drinking alcohol, etc. and nobody has any problem with it. Though it's somewhat justified since ThereAreNoAdults in [[CrapsaccharineWorld Smileyland]], and especially in Mr. Cat and Quack Quack's cases since the former is a runaway and the latter is an orphan. Averted in [[CircusEpisode Episode 33]], where [[TheDitz Stumpy]]'s mother sees him [[JugglingDangerously juggling chainsaws]] on TV and calls him so she can tell him to stop because it's too dangerous.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' is only a teenager, but her parents have no problem with her traveling the world and defeating evil masterminds, just as long as she doesn't go out with any boys. Still, she's somehow managed to build a global network of contacts that she's done favors for and can get a ride to anywhere on Earth.
* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': Lilo is about seven years old and yet she and Stitch run about Hawaii finding Stitch's cousins with little older supervision. Mertle, who says she's the best hula dancer in the 7-year-old division in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch'', also seems to have a bit more freedom than most children as she travels with her friends. It is kind of justified that Lilo's allowed some freedom after Stitch joins the ʻohana, though. Do you want to imagine what would happen to a normal person who tried to harm or kidnap the girl while her super-strong and rather protective alien "dog" was there? She was also being left alone like this in the [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch original movie]] even before Stitch came into the picture. It explains a lot about why Social Services had their eye on Nani.
* In both ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'' this is averted as cubs get scolded for wandering too far away from Priderock. In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'', Kion and his friends seem barely older than Simba was in the first half of the original film yet are allowed to run around everywhere, even into the Outlands. They are at least ''partially'' justified due to being {{Kid Hero}}es; however, Kion's only slightly older sister Kiara and her friends can do the same despite not having any powers.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' and its spinoff ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'': Lincoln and most of the kids his age are allowed to traverse town themselves without any adult supervision. However, little kids like Lily, Lisa, Lola, and Lana tend to be the exception.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Maisy}}'' is a highly odd example. Not only is ThereAreNoAdults in effect, but the characters, a cute female mouse and her friends go where they want, do what they want, [[UniversalDriversLicense drive cars, fly planes]], take their own baths, etc. Really, there's nothing explicitly indicating that they ''aren't'' adults, other than their very childlike appearance, childlike babble speech and tendency to play with toys and stuffed animals (not that adults don't ever do that last one, of course.)
* ''WesternAnimation/MaxAndRuby'' features an older sister who seems to care for her younger brother 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with only sporadic intervention by their grandmother. The two regularly go shopping across town via bus, among other things. Supposedly the parents are [[InvisibleParents offscreen]] but nothing suggests this in-series. At least until the 2016 ReTool, which added on-screen parents.
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' deconstructs this trope. While Orel and his friends often run around town without adult supervision, this is shown to be because his and most of the other kids parents are incredibly neglectful. This usually leads to them causing havoc in town, such as raising the dead and causing a zombie apocalypse, impregnating women with bags of semen in the middle of the night, or destroying a manger scene in front of the Church, and only stopping them when it’s too late, and hardly doing anything to remedy the situation. In “Beforel Orel” it’s shown that Orel’s parents have been letting him run around a playground next to a Electric Tower since he was 4-YEARS-OLD.
* Out of all the main characters of ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'', Jenny is the only one who has an onscreen parent. Parents of others such as Brad and Tuck, Sheldon, and the Crust Cousins are never seen nor mentioned. Of course, most of them are teenagers, meaning they'd be old enough to get around on their own. While Tuck is a still a kid, he ''usually'' has Brad with him, who could be trusted to look after him.

*** There are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who are able to wander all over town and the overlying regions with no supervision, even into the local EldritchLocation on occasion. Sweetie Belle's parents only appear once; otherwise she's in the care of her older sister Rarity. It's eventually revealed in Season 7 that the Apple Bloom [[spoiler:''[[ParentalAbandonment had]]'' parents, but it's [[NeverSayDie all but outright stated]] that they died]]. According to a licensed book (and later confirmed in the show), Scootaloo is mainly raised by [[{{Nephewism}} her aunts]] because her parents are [[WhenYouComingHomeDad busy with work]] (which turns out to be exploring far-off territories for scientific work). It's debatable exactly how old the CMC are, however. If one views Cutie Marks as an analogy to puberty the trio could very well be the equivalent of 9 or 10 in human years (possibly even older) which is plenty old enough to be wandering around a sleepy rural village on their own.
*** Subverted in the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest Dragon Quest]]", where the girls let Spike go alone on a quest to join migrating dragons, but it turns out they were planning to follow him all along anyway.

** While a staple of the ''Peanuts'' franchise as stated above, it's taken to extreme in ''WesternAnimation/RaceForYourLifeCharlieBrown''. Here the children, while in summer camp, embark on a multi-day raft race through a mountainous river without any adult supervision. They encounter dangerous rapids. They are apparently high enough in the mountains that it snows in the summer. They luck out and find a warm cabin to spend the night. All the while, they have to deal with "bullies" who are actually a group of psychopaths who actually try to kill them by sending them down a dangerous fork in the river.
** ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' is pushing it even by 1960s standards. Linus is allowed to sit in a pumpkin patch all alone on a dark night and he even falls asleep outside. It's his ''sister'' (not his parents) who decide to bring him home.
* Taken to it's natural conclusion in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. They frequently build amazing inventions in their backyard, and doing so often takes them all across the town of Danville. Certain episodes have them travelling around the world or to the north pole. Whenever they get questioned (which is frequent, especially in early seasons), they agree [[LampshadeHanging that yes, they]] ''[[RunningGag ARE]]'' [[RunningGag a little young to be doing the activity in question]]. Naturally, their mom never finds out about any of their schemes.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', the children are always doing stuff on their own, such as building a treehouse. Craig Bartlett even stated that the kids' adventures are supposed to be similar to his childhood adventures where the kids would just run around without adult supervision. Although, the kids do have adult supervision in space. ''[[Recap/ReadyJetGoOneSmallStep One Small Step]]'' marks the first time that the kids go to space by themselves. However, they got Carrot and Celery's permission to do this.
* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'': Zig-zags this trope.
** The late elementary school cast runs all about Ocean Shores with little concern from their parents. To be fair, Ray tends to be laid back about everything, except when the gang really screws up. He also works in a restaurant near the beach and skate park, where the kids usually are. Twister's parents, just say to him when he gets in trouble, "We'll talk about this later," and little is usually shown after that. Sam's mom is pretty fussy, but he still tags along wherever the gang goes. And presumably, she wants him to be within a certain area where he can contact an adult. They are also shown mountain biking at evening.
** Additionally, most episodes happen in areas such as the Pier, the beach, their cul-de-sac, school (Which is within walking distance), and occasionally some things like another street or the library. On ''most'' of the occasions where they go to different areas of the town, (Especially areas they are not familiar with) the kids either have to ask permission or sneak out - and get in trouble for it. The "Secret spot" in particular is an area that is not too far from where the gang lives, but they have to get permission from their parents.

** ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'': Their parents are mentioned and even shown a few times, yet they hardly ever give the kids any restrictions, allowing them to run freely around Coolsville, running from creeps and unmasking them.
** Their traditional selves are canonically high school age (the oldest two being seventeen and Velma being ''fourteen'') but can travel cross country and get into serious situations without adults. The [[WhatCouldHaveBeen original premise]] handwaved this since they were musicians on tour but the actual series says nothing about it. Averted in many later incarnations where they're {{age lift}}ed into adults.

** The show does this frequently and {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it with jokes about Homer's neglectfulness as a parent. It is also (coincidentally?) the {{trope namer|s}}, as this phrase is seen in the Halloween episode, Treehouse of Horror V, although it was used [[MadeFromRealGirlScouts rather more literally]] in that context, the opposite / an inversion of this trope.

** Averted in the Season 27 episode "Orange Is The New Yellow" Marge gets arrested because she let Bart go to the park by himself. Marge mentions in court that when she was a kid she was allowed to be alone outside all day, which gets her mother retroactively arrested.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The kids are the same age as those from ''Arthur'' and have even more "adult" adventures, with little interference from their parents. There was one episode where Stan goes to New York to return a margarita maker, and you never see Randy or Sharon questioning where their son has gone, despite the fact ''he's on the other side of the country by himself.'' In "Night of the Living Homeless," they go so far as to ''applaud'' the fact that the boys are driving a bus cross-country by themselves, as it spares them the trouble of stopping the homeless problem. On the ''very'' rare occasions when their parents are aware that they're missing, the approach they take to getting them back is... less than effective, to say the least. Then again, all of the [[TooDumbToLive adults]] on ''South Park'' have the IdiotBall every episode. The kids have also been to Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Peru, Costa Rica, Imaginationland, at least two other solar systems, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Canada]]. In the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E11ChildAbductionIsNotFunny Child Abduction is Not Funny]]", this was done deliberately by the parents as their final solution to the child abduction crisis, as they have become too paranoid to even trust themselves to actually protect their children. The kids end up living with [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Mongolians that have been attacking the wall surrounding the town]].

** Averted with Doug and Priyanka Maheswaran, the parents of Steven's best (human) friend, Connie -- Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran are incredibly strict and overprotective towards their daughter for a significant part of the series. But once Connie learns to assert herself and [[CallingTheOldManOut calls her parents out on how they treat her,]] [[StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids it makes them realize that all their authoritarian-style of parenting is doing is pushing their daughter further and further away from them.]] Connie's parents ultimately loosen up to the point of where they allow Connie to accompany Steven on missions in later seasons.
* Gary and Joel are ''WesternAnimation/{{Unsupervised}}'', they have no parents with them and are left to figure everything out by themselves.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'': i.e. the one about the little girl who wanders around the jungle with no parental supervision, avoiding crises and conversing with the local wildlife with the aid of her foreign language-speaking monkey and her RaisedByWolves little brother. To be fair, Mr. and Mrs. Thornberry's biggest failing as parents is that they seem to put too much trust in their teenage daughter Debbie to keep an eye on things while they're away studying said local wildlife. In the BigDamnMovie, when they discover that Eliza's managed to chase after a poacher despite having been sent to a London boarding school, they're horrified that Eliza would put herself in that much danger.

* All the kids in ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'' seem to be able to wander freely about Qyah with no adult supervision. Justified since Qyah is a small village where everybody is acquainted with each other.
* The kids of ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'', who range in age from 7 through 13, are shown walking around their town unsupervised all the time. Though, they often bring Martha and/or Skips with them, and they could probably protect the kids in case of danger.

* Out of all the main characters of ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'', Jenny is the only one who has an onscreen parent. Parents of others such as Brad and Tuck, Sheldon, and the Crust Cousins are never seen nor mentioned.

* The kids of ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'', who range in age from 7 through 13, are shown walking around their town unsupervised all the time.

* In ''Literature/CuriousGeorge'', all the child characters, in both the city and country, are allowed to wander about their communities freely. The oldest of the children, Bill, is a young teen or nearly a teen but the others are all in elementary age, with the youngest, Allie, being a kindergartener. This applies to George as well, who is often referred to as a "little monkey" and is essentially a child; The Man with the Yellow Hat trusts him to travel about both the city and country with no supervision.

* Stewie Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': A 1-year-old who is able to get his hands on the parts to construct superscientific devices and weapons and is frequently far from home, with little concern from Lois ([[ParentalNeglect lack of concern from Peter is expected]]). However, he's still working on how to use the toilet (Stewie, that is). But Brian the dog does serve as a guardian for Stewie.

* Taken to it's natural conclusion in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. They frequently build amazing inventions in their backyard, and doing so often takes them all across the town of Danville. Certain episodes have them travelling around the world or to the north pole. Whenever they get questioned (which is frequent, especially in early seasons), they agree [[LampshadeHanging that yes, they]] ''[[RunningGag ARE]]'' [[RunningGag a little young to be doing the activity in question]]. Naturally, their parents never find out about any of their schemes.

*** There are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who are able to wander all over town and the overlying regions with no supervision, even into the local EldritchLocation on occasion. Sweetie Belle's parents only appear once; otherwise she's in the care of her older sisterRarity. It's eventually revealed in Season 7 that the Apple Bloom [[spoiler:''[[ParentalAbandonment had]]'' parents, but it's [[NeverSayDie all but outright stated]] that they died]]. According to a licensed book (and later confirmed in the show), Scootaloo is mainly raised by [[{{Nephewism}} her aunts]] because her parents are [[WhenYouComingHomeDad busy with work]] (which turns out to be exploring far-off territories for scientific work). It's debatable exactly how old the CMC are, however. If one views Cutie Marks as an analogy to puberty the trio could very well be the equivalent of 9 or 10 in human years (possibly even older) which is plenty old enough to be wandering around a sleepy rural village on their own.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', the children are always doing stuff on their own, such as building a treehouse. Craig Bartlett even stated that the kids' adventures are supposed to be similar to his childhood adventures where the kids would just run around without adult supervision. Although, the kids do have adult supervision in space. ''[[Recap/ReadyJetGoOneSmallStep One Small Step]]'' marks the first time that the kids go to space by themselves. However, they got Carrot and Celery's permission to go by themselves.

** Averted with Doug and Priyanka Maheswaran, the parents of Steven's best (human) friend, Connie -- Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran are incredibly strict and overprotective towards their daughter for a significant part of the series. But once Connie learns to assert herself and [[CallingTheOldManOut calls her parents out on how they treat her,]] [[StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids it makes them realize that all their authoritarian-style of parenting is doing is pushing their daughter further and further away from them.]] Connie's parents ultimately loosen up to the point of where they allow Connie to accompany on missions in later seasons.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', the children are always doing stuff on their own, such as building a treehouse. Craig Bartlett even stated that the kids' adventures are supposed to be similar to his childhood adventures where the kids would just run around without adult supervision. Although, the kids do have adult supervision in space. Taken UpToEleven in ''[[Recap/ReadyJetGoOneSmallStep One Small Step]]'', which marks the first time that the kids go to space by themselves. However, they got Carrot and Celery's permission to go by themselves.

* Stewie Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': A 1-year-old who is able to get his hands on the parts to construct superscientific devices and weapons and is frequently far from home, with little concern from Lois (lack of concern from Peter is expected). However, he's still working on how to use the toilet (Stewie, that is). But Brian the dog does serve as a guardian for Stewie.

* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'': The late elementary school cast runs all about Ocean Shores with little concern from their parents. To be fair, Ray tends to be laid back about everything, except when the gang really screws up. He also works in a restaurant near the beach and skate park, where the kids usually are. Twister's parents, just say to him when he gets in trouble, "We'll talk about this later," and little is usually shown after that. Sam's mom is pretty fussy, but he still tags along wherever the gang goes. And presumably, she wants him to be within a certain area where he can contact an adult. Also it looks like the kids are more around a certain area of Ocean shores. Most of the action takes place around their cul-de-sac and the pier which is ''right'' where Ray works. There are a couple occasions where they appear to go outside the zone and have to use a GPS, or get in trouble when they're caught doing something unsafe like surfing in a channel.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' and its spinoff ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'': Lincoln and most of the kids his age are allowed to traverse town themselves without any adult supervision. Only Lily is the sole exception.

%%% Please put your choices in alphabetical order.

** Deconstructed in [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender the first series]], where a bunch of kids can travel around the world because, with the exception of a few characters, all of their parents are either dead or busy fighting the war. It doesn't help that every one of the kids is essentially a {{Child Soldier|s}}. There's also some DeliberateValuesDissonance involved; sixteen-year-olds are considered full adults, and many of the villains have high military rank despite being in the same age range as the heroes.

** In both [[WesternAnimation/Ben10 the original]] and [[WesternAnimation/Ben102016 2016 series]], part of ten-year-old cousins Ben and Gwen's free rein comes from their elderly grandfather Max, who is driving them around the United States for their summer camping trip and is not as physically fit as he was in his younger days. The original series has less justification, as that continuity had Max as part of an interstellar police/counter-terrorist organization for most of his adult life, which you'd think would give him the common sense to keep better watch around Ben, who happens to have one of the most powerful pieces of technology in the galaxy but repeatedly disregards caution and attacks alien evildoers with no concern for the consequences. In both versions, [[TheSmartGuy but especially the original]], Gwen's maturity in accessing dangerous situations somewhat of justifies the lack of supervision.

* This is usually averted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' but one episode, "Caillou Walks Around the Block", involves four-year-old Caillou getting out of the house on his own and walking around town. It is a BannedEpisode on PBS precisely because Caillou is unattended while outdoors.

* The Mystery Twins in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' are given fairly free range of the town whenever they don't have to work in the Mystery Shack. Granted, the other employees of the shack often hang out with them, but Soos is essentially a {{manchild}}, and Wendy is only a few years older than the twins herself. Increasingly averted in season 2, when their grunkle[[spoiler:s]] begin to spend more time with them. Played straight by Lil' Gideon, whose parents simply can't control him, and he does whatever he wants whether they like it or not.

** The kids in the story are about 9 years old and in fourth grade, but they run about the city with little concern from their parents. Their maturity level also seems to suggest middle/high schoolers opposed to elementary schoolers.

* A "[[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Superstar]]" segment of ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' features eight-year-old Ba Nee walking home with two kids. The blonde girl, who is even younger than Ba Nee, somehow went to the pharmacy and picked up her dad's prescription pain medicine all by herself.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': None of the characters are more than 13 years old, yet they do random things like going to outer space, fighting aliens, buying weapons, drinking alcohol, etc. and nobody has any problem with it. Though it's somewhat justified since ThereAreNoAdults in [[CrapsaccharineWorld Smileyland]], and especially in Mr. Cat and Quack Quack's cases since the former is a runaway and the latter is an orphan. Averted in [[CircusEpisode Episode 33]], where [[TheDitz Stumpy]]'s mother sees him [[JugglingDangerously juggling chainsaws]] on TV and calls him so she can tell him to stop because it's too dangerous.

* ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'': Lilo is about seven years old and yet she and Stitch run about Hawaii finding Stitch's cousins with little older supervision. Mertle, who says she's the best hula dancer in the seven-year-old division in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch'', also seems to have a bit more freedom than most children as she travels with her friends. It is kind of justified that Lilo's allowed some freedom after Stitch joins the ʻohana, though. Do you want to imagine what would happen to a normal person who tried to harm or kidnap the girl while her super-strong and rather protective alien "dog" was there? She was also being left alone like this in the [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch original movie]] even before Stitch came into the picture. It explains a lot about why Social Services had their eye on Nani.

* Maggie in ''WesternAnimation/MaggieAndTheFerociousBeast'' wanders around Nowhere Land with her Beast, completely unsupervised--except for maybe Hamilton--despite being only six. However, she's also pretty responsible for a six-year-old.

* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' deconstructs this trope. While Orel and his friends often run around town without adult supervision, this is shown to be because his and most of the other kids parents are incredibly neglectful. This usually leads to them causing havoc in town, such as raising the dead and causing a zombie apocalypse, impregnating women with bags of semen in the middle of the night, or destroying a manger scene in front of the Church, and only stopping them when it’s too late, and hardly doing anything to remedy the situation. In “Beforel Orel” it’s shown that Orel’s parents have been letting him run around a playground next to a Electric Tower since he was 4 YEARS OLD.

** Averted in the season 27 episode "Orange Is The New Yellow" Marge gets arrested because she let Bart go to the park by himself. Marge mentions in court that when she was a kid she was allowed to be alone outside all day, which gets her mother retroactively arrested.

** Averted with Doug and Priyanka Maheswaran, the parents of Steven's best (human) friend, Connie--Mr. and Mrs. Maheswaran are incredibly strict and overprotective towards their daughter for a significant part of the series. But once Connie learns to assert herself and [[CallingTheOldManOut calls her parents out on how they treat her,]] [[StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids it makes them realize that all their authoritarian-style of parenting is doing is pushing their daughter further and further away from them.]] Connie's parents ultimately loosen up to the point of where they allow Connie to accompany on missions in later seasons.

** Averted though with his best friend Connie, whose parents (especially her mother) are incredibly strict and overprotective. As Connie learns to assert herself better, her parents realize [[StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids their authoritarian style of parenting was only pushing Connie away]], and they loosen up to the point that they allow Connie to accompany Steven on missions in later seasons.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy and the other kids will be seen wandering the town on their own when the plot calls for it. One episode had Timmy biking through the desert and at a fast-food restaurant ''at night'' without his parents. He also tends to spend extended amounts of time in Fairy World without his parents noticing. As in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', 99% of the adults in the show aren't exactly the brightest bulbs on the tree.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The kids are the same age as those from ''Arthur'' and have even more "adult" adventures, with little interference from their parents. There was one episode where Stan goes to New York to return a margarita maker, and you never see Randy or Sharon questioning where their son has gone, despite the fact ''he's on the other side of the country by himself.'' In "Night of the Living Homeless," they go so far as to ''applaud'' the fact that the boys are driving a bus cross-country by themselves, as it spares them the trouble of stopping the homeless problem. On the ''very'' rare occasions when their parents are aware that they're missing, the approach they take to getting them back is... less than effective, to say the least. Then again, all of the [[TooDumbToLive adults]] on ''South Park'' have the IdiotBall every episode. The kids have also been to Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Peru, Costa Rica, Imaginationland, at least two other solar systems, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Canada]]. In the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E11ChildAbductionIsNotFunny Child Abduction is Not Funny]]", this was done deliberately by the parents as their final solution to the child abduction crisis, as they have become too paranoid to even trust themselves to actually protect their children. The kids end up living with [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Mongolians that have been attacking the wall surrounding the town]]. There's also a restaurant expy of Hooters named [[Recap/SouthParkS7E14Raisins Raisins]] in which all of the waitresses are prepubescent girls and the only customers are male kids. A later episode even shows the waitresses ShakingTheRump for the boys.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The kids are the same age as those from ''Arthur'' and have even more "adult" adventures, with little interference from their parents. There was one episode where Stan goes to New York to return a margarita maker, and you never see Randy or Sharon questioning where their son has gone, despite the fact ''he's on the other side of the country by himself.'' In "Night of the Living Homeless," they go so far as to ''applaud'' the fact that the boys are driving a bus cross-country by themselves, as it spares them the trouble of stopping the homeless problem. On the ''very'' rare occasions when their parents are aware that they're missing, the approach they take to getting them back is... less than effective, to say the least. Then again, all of the [[TooDumbToLive adults]] on ''South Park'' have the IdiotBall every episode. The kids have also been to Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Peru, Costa Rica, Imaginationland, at least two other solar systems, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Canada]]. In the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E11ChildAbductionIsNotFunny Child Abduction is Not Funny]]", this was done deliberately by the parents as their final solution to the child abduction crisis, as they have become too paranoid to even trust themselves to actually protect their children. The kids end up living with [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Mongolians that have been attacking the wall surrounding the town]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy and the other kids will be seen wandering the town on their own when the plot calls for it. One episode had Timmy biking through the desert and at a fast-food restaurant ''at night'' without his parents. He also tends to spend extended amounts of time in Fairy World without his parents noticing. As in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', 99% of the adults in the show aren't exactly the brightest bulbs on the tree.

** Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', where a bunch of kids can travel around the world because, with the exception of a few characters, all of their parents are either dead or busy fighting the war. It doesn't help that every one of the kids is essentially a {{Child Soldier|s}}. There's also some DeliberateValuesDissonance involved; sixteen-year-olds are considered full adults, and many of the villains have high military rank despite being in the same age range as the heroes.
** In the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Korra is implied to have never had this because unlike Aang, she has been watched over and protected by her parents and the White Lotus her whole life; even as an older teenager, adults object to her running around Republic City willy-nilly. Mako and Bo Lin, by contrast, were orphaned as children and so were basically nothing ''but'' free-range.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the [[KidHero titular protagonist]] moved out of his father's van and into virtually his own house so he could focus more on training with the Crystal Gems when he was still very young (the [[MagicalGuardian gems]] have an adjoining temple they live in). Additionally, he roams around the beach and the boardwalk unsupervised with nary an eye batted by the other adults in the town.
** Averted though with his best friend Connie, whose parents (especially her mother) are incredibly strict and overprotective. As Connie learns to assert herself better, her parents realize [[StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids their authoritarian style of parenting was only pushing Connie away]], and they loosen up to the point that they allow Connie to accompany Steven on missions in later seasons.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins'' Jason and Michelle do have adult supervision when going on their space adventures, namely the eponymous penguins.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins'' Jason and Michelle do have adult supervision when going on their space adventures, namely the eponymous penguins.

* In both ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'' this is averted as cubs get scolded for wandering too far away from Priderock. In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'', Kion and his friends seem barely older than Simba was in the first half of the original film yet are allowed to run around everywhere, even into the Outlands. They are at least ''partially'' justified due to being {{Kid Hero}}es however Kion's only slightly older sister Kiara and her friends can do the same despite not having any powers.

* ''WesternAnimation/MaxAndRuby'' features an older sister who seems to care for her younger brother 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with only sporadic intervention by their grandmother. The two regularly go shopping across town via bus, among other things. Supposedly the parents are [[InvisibleParents offscreen]] but nothing suggests this in-series. At least until the 2016 ReTool, which added on-screen parents.