We let our 7 year old play at the park by herself. We have two by our house, one is right behind us (her school) and the other is just down the street. She goes almost every day, but she takes a walkie talkie with her so that we can communicate together. I also let her ride her bike around the block. It might be where we live though, we are in a pretty small, still pretty safe, town.
I don't agree with the entire aspect of it, but I do believe in letting kids have fun by themselves.
That's really nice!
The case of the missing boy in Portland has me even more concerned about this concept!