And here, I have to respectfully disagree. Most people I know, and people I see around our community, balanced/are balanced in their parenting, supervising the young, slowly easing up on the supervision, and doling out more responsibility, over time....as the child grows.
Young girls around here are babysitting at 11 and 12. (My daughter included.) Which means they have parents that have at some point, taught them to be responsible, independent, good decision makers.) And she is/they are being hired as babysitters by people who know young children need supervision. Teenagers walk freely around my community. They drive. Get teenage jobs. Head off to college. Get first jobs. Buy houses. These are young adults that I knew as young kids who were closely supervised as six-year-olds.
It's the extremes that stick out in our minds and garner the most discussion. The 3 year old wandering the neighborhood in a man's shirt, letting herself into neighbor's houses. Or the other extreme, the 17 year-old who is afraid to go away to college because they've never spent One Single Night away from mom and dad.