Nobody believes me when I say middle class Americans would call that child abuse.
I don't believe that either, because I am a middle class American (who used to live in east Asia). When we lived in Taiwan, as soon as Taipei's MRT system was extended to our neighborhood, our then eight-year-old oldest son rapidly learned how to take the mass transit trains all over Taipei by himself. Here in the United States, my four children (youngest age six) walk or bike to the public library (about a mile away) or to shopping (same distance, different direction) almost every day. We are homeschoolers, so our children are out and about a lot during school hours. It is unremarkable here and as safe as can be. By far the greatest risk to walkers in most parts of the United States are drivers who don't pay attention to how they endanger pedestrians. We live in a very safe neighborhood with a good city trail system, and we take advantage of that to get exercise and avoid burning gasoline.
(I don't mean to offend you if your reason is religious by the way; it's just that I suspect not many people here will share it).
I'm a fresh parent, living in a country where homeschooling is lawful, but very difficult to arrange, and viewing with dismay some of my options a few years down the line.
It's a group of children walking to school accompanied by two adults along predefined routes. There are bus stops where children wait for the Pedibus to arrive and then they walk along with the group.
Pied is foot in french.
pes, pedis: foot in latin.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pedophile
Another word from Latin:
At eight or so, though, sensible children start to have their first rebellious streak and realise how stupid the idea of a "walking bus" is. I figure that when they're smart enough to figure that out, they're old enough to walk alone.