I'm not sure where you live but in the United States, in some states, children are required by law to ride in the back seat of an automobile until they are, I believe, 8 years of age. I believe that various state and federal agency recommendations are for children to ride in the back seat of an automobile until they are 13 years of age.
Presumably, then, parents are not putting their young children who cannot operate a car door into the front seat of a car and leaving them.
