[brandur]

Let Grow keeps a good mythbusting page on crime stats:

https://letgrow.org/crime-statistics/

The tl;dr is that helicopter parenting is relatively new — only something that's come into play in the last few decades — and in all the time before that kids had far more freedom to roam compared to today. Even factoring in an uptick in the murder rate in the last couple years that came about during Covid policy, it's still half of what is was in the early 90s or prior to that.

It seems like the world is more dangerous now because of the outsized attention crime gets in media, but objectively speaking, it's not.

And keeping kids at home on their screens is having definite negative consequences on their maturation and later ability to succeed in the world. Here's a good article on the subject:

https://reason.com/2017/10/26/the-fragile-generation/

[nanidin]

I agree - Mean World Syndrome [0] is taking its toll on society.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome