How your children's in-car behaviour could land you with a fine and points
Fri, 25 Jul 2025
It’s the school holidays and the kids are already restless – but did you know they could land you with a fine of up to £5000 for breaking lesser-known driving laws that apply to children?
The Highway Code is clear that they should behave while driving. Rule 102 states that "children should be kept under control" when travelling in your vehicle.
This is backed up by Rule 148, which states that actions determined to be distracting the driver should be avoided.
LeaseCar director Tim Alcock says that this gives clear guidance for boisterous kids to behave when on the road – “as being caught driving carelessly could lead to fines or even points on your licence”.
Even worse, if a restless child opens a door while a car is moving, drivers could actually lose their licence
"While there isn’t an official law on child locks being mandatory for cars, the driver is primarily responsible for the safety of all passengers in their vehicle with the Highway Code recommending using child locks.
Incidents where child locks aren’t enforced and kids open doors could be deemed as ‘driving without due care and attention’, which could lead to 3-9 penalty points on your licence. It could even lead to losing your licence in some cases.
It’s a similar story if a driver is distracted by children using tablets in the car. Again, careless driving typically results in 3 to 9 penalty points on your licence and a fine which starts at £100 but can jump to £5000 if the case goes to court.
Alcock also points out a lesser-known rule that says children should always get into the vehicle through a door that is nearest to the kerb. “This is more advisory than enforced, but it is listed in order to protect children entering cars next to oncoming traffic.”
Summer can see a rise in families hiring motorhomes. Alcock warns that despite sometimes-unfamiliar seat layouts, drivers must avoid fitting any child seats sideways in them. This was outlawed in The Motor Vehicles Regulations 1993.
The risk is that side-facing seats, sometimes found in larger vehicles like vans, motorhomes or specialist vehicles, pose significant risks for children should a collision occur. Violating this law can lead to fines of up to £500 and potential penalty points on the driver’s licence.
Drivers can, however, have a car seat in the front of their car – so long as the airbag is deactivated. This often involves a key switch, a button or a menu setting in the car’s infotainment system.
Again, failure to comply with child car seat regulations risks that £500 fine.
Surprisingly though, it’s not illegal for children to drive cars – so long as it’s on private land in the UK that has no public access.
"This technically means that children of any age can drive on private land, according to the law. However, it is quite obviously ill-advised and unsafe to allow children to operate vehicles unsupervised," says Alcock.
16-year-olds, he added, are legally allowed to have a provisional tractor licence. This may explain the youngster behind the wheel if you get stuck behind a tractor during your summer getaway…
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