[mikewarot]

I blame Otis Toole[1], who confessed (and later recanted) to the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh. The hysteria Adam's father was able to create in the United States is astounding. I grew up before that happened, and yet, when it was my turn as a parent, I was still freaked out the first time my child wanted to walk home from a friends house, 2 blocks away about 10 years ago.

When I was a kid, we were told to go outside and play until the street lights came on.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottis_Toole

[Apocryphon]

Yeah, this discussion thread so far accounts how sensationalist media covered true crime cases. Child abductions, serial killers, Satanic panic led to cultural shifts where suddenly the 'burbs aren't safe anymore and stranger danger was amplified and everywhere.

[theGnuMe]

We can't intrinsically estimate probabilities well. We are more worried about child abduction than a kid getting killed by a car.

[jrnichols]

I remember a massive shift in my parents behavior (along with friends parents) after that movie aired. Previously normal things like letting your kids play in the toy section of Sears while parents shopped elsewhere quickly ended.

[theGnuMe]

Also the rise of Cable news. I think we are close to peak information saturation and it basically overloads our nervous systems.