I grew up in a time where in a big city like Louisville, at 7 years old, I could take the city bus with my twelve year old brother and take 2 transfer buses or we'd ride our bikes 8 miles just to get to the city pool.
All summer long kids would play outdoors away from home, all day, all evening, everyday. We'd never be home, unless all the other kids who weren't at their home where over in your yard having a blast.
Kids had two rules, be home by dinner-time and after dinner the 2nd rule was to be home when the street lights came on.
The freedom kids had in the 70's and 80's would be unthinkable to parents today.
I do not believe kids were any safer in the 70's or 80"s than they are today, I think the availability of information access has increased and parents who can read have legitimate concerns about letting their kids out of eye sight.
The stranger danger campaign really started in the 80's. In 1979 a six year old boy in Manhattan was abducted on a two block walk to his school bus stop. The main stream media turned it into a multi year frenzy of educating us all to not talk to strangers, or accept gifts, etc.
I can a agree, a more watchful eye should be kept on your kids and there are very real dangers, some of us understand how deep the rabbit hole goes with this.
However, as I look back, I see that campaign doing far more harm than good. It took away the freedom and innocents of childhood and parenthood. The days of a Tom Sawyer youth evaporated and were replaced with over protective fear programmed asshats whose children stayed living in their basement into their 30's and 40's.
For sure....
Just look at this single fear-based belief and what it has done to our ENTIRE society!
It's lead to:
Kids 'sentenced' to being inside & vitamin D deficiency & God only knows what mental illnesses...
Kids totally disconnected from "basic survival school " (as a boy anyway) - by not being able to naturally develop basic skills for living *(more below)
Greatly increasing the amount of capital required to "fit in/keep up with the Jones' " so your kids don't have to be the poorest of the bunch - Nothing is ever enough - especially for most women these days - nobody knows how to go without and be ok - Small house no good - everyone needs a PC, a TV and AirCon - Open a window? Pfft...
We could go on and on....
How to build and light a fire...what burns and doesn't burn..."Adventures with WD40", Raid can shoot fire 20 feet, The importance of a sharp knife and how to NOT stab yourself in the leg or lacerate every inch of your fingers and hands, The art of bicycle maintenance, how to paint your bike, patience - the importance of waiting for paint to dry - the importance of lube (comes in handy later in life) and how to crash your bike without a helmet and walk away unscathed, avoiding landing on the frame cross bar...Not catching your bag on the front edge of the seat (or burning on black vinyl) on a hot day...How to piss outside, How to shit outside if you absolutely HAVE TO and learning what leaves you absolutely must NOT ever wipe with!, Righty-Tightly, Lefty-Loosey and which way the selector switch goes on a ratchet & understanding WHY it's backwards, How to air up your bike tires...patching a tube, replacing a tube and tire with only 2 regular screwdrivers, How to true a rim because you layed it down in the driveway and your ditzy freind's mom ran over it, Understanding the difference between cheap tools and good ones, How to drive a nail and not hit your thumb while building a fort or treehouse, Letting water run for a bit and drinking from a hose, why you shouldn't drink from a creek or downstream from that cattle farm, getting lost and finding your way back - How the sun moves, etc etc etc
Kids are missing out on a LOT of lessons...Notice how they totally ruined boy scouts, where you'd learn a lot of this stuff - especially if you lived in the city.