It could be we simply live in a world that has more information to make parents cautious. Just go onto the Megan's list site and more than likely you will see preditors within a rocks throw of where you live. Iphone has an app that shows you were your kids are and how close they are to registered sex offenders. I have been guilty of going with the flow of this thinking as well.
When I was in Kenya I noticed small children walking to school every morning. Each child had their own little uniform to distinguish what school they went to. But what surprised me was some of these kids had to no more than first graders. I asked one of the small town elders about this and said very few places in the US would allow such small children to walk that far because we would be afraid someone would snatch them. I asked if it ever happened there. He assured me that from time to someone would molest or harm a child. But they were a small community and had a pretty good idea who was capible of such things. So the elders would take said suspect out into the bush late one evening and "question" them. The problem was solved and I assume the suspect moved because I was told he was never seen in town again.
