It is difficult nowadays with children running about on their own. I saw a small girl in tears, aged about 3 or 4, in the market place which was very busy. I looked around for a police officer but there wasn't one around. I spoke to the child who took my hand and said she had lost Mummy, Gran and Auntie. She couldn't remember where she had been last time she saw them. I tried to find out what they might have been wearing, but that was impossible. I thought three distraught women should be easy to spot, so we set off together to look around the market precinct and after about five minutes I found a PCSO and was just starting to explain the situation when I noticed a group of three women engrossed in conversation. I pointed them out to the child, who immediately gave me a hug and pulled me to go to talk to them. Mother looked up and just said, "Where have you been?" I started to say I had found her daughter some distance away, lost, and Mother started shrieking, "Get off her, let go of her!" and generally making a scene. The PCSO intervened, and I just walked away. It was upsetting in many ways.
But to return to the OP, for me, as a driver, it is terrifying to see very young children skipping about on their own ignored by the adult they are with. I could not live with myself if they ran in front of my car.