Legal age for leaving a child home alone

Kind of on the same lines as some recent posts, does anyone know what the legal age you can leave a child home alone is. I thought it was 12 and at 14 you can babysit but then a friend thought it was 14 home alone. Im thinking in situations like say you race to the supermarket or have to drop something of or letting the kids come home from school at say 3pm but you dont finish work till 4pm so not great periods of time or while you are out on the town for the night and not in charge of any other kids. And obviously Im not even thinking about this for me... if i wont let Kobe leave the school on his own Im not going to let him stay home on his own
And what about playing unsupervised. At what age would you let your children say go to the park with other kids but without an adult?

yea 14 is legal for home alone and being able to babysit...go figure. im pretty sure there is quite a lot on leniency with the whole getting home from work for school etc... kids go off together and play all the time so im not sure what the deal is with that, and walking home from school to... i know kids that walk home as early as 7 so its a weird one

I'm pretty sure the legal age is 14 too. Although I don't think I'd be too keen to get a 14 year old to babysit if they weren't babysitting their younger sibling(s).

It is 14 , I had a great job a few years ago where I looked after 2 kids in the afternoon from 3 til 5 , and got to eat lots of junk food and watched tv and got $200 in the hand each week , even on days I didn't work .
Then when school finished they thanked me and said that they wouldn't need me next year as the daughter would be turning 14 before school went back and she would be old enough , HA! I thought , old enough, but not smart enough !

I COULD have stayed home from the time I was seven , I had seen Home Alone, I knew what to do !

My friend has a daughter who is 12, she says that legally at age 12 they can stay home alone but only for one hour..
Which is handy because she finishes work at 4pm

Leaving older children
Up to the age of about 14, most children are not sufficiently mature to be left without adult supervision for more than a short time. They’re also not old enough to be left alone on a regular basis. It can be tempting for working parents to leave children alone for an hour or two after school, but at this age there are still too many risks. Older children may seem to be reasonably happy and able to entertain themselves, but they may not be able to cope with an emergency. They are also more likely to get into trouble without adult supervision and guidance.

If you do need to leave an older child alone for a short time, make sure they know where you are and who they can contact if there is a problem. Talk to them about possible emergencies and check that they know what to do. Make sure that they feel confident about being left alone. Ask yourself whether any situation could possibly arise that they might be unable to handle. Making the right decision about this is one of the most serious responsibilities that a parent faces. There is no room for risks or mistakes.

Before you leave an older child at home alone, ask yourself:

• Is my child sufficiently mature and responsible to be left alone at this time?
• Does my child feel happy and confident about being left?
• Is the situation reasonably safe?
• Can my child handle any problems that might arise?

From the CYF site