There are just as many perverts today as there were back in the day. I was born in the 40’s and therefore a child of the 50’s, so to speak. We, as children, ran wild on the streets and enjoyed the parks until late at night and I was never accosted or subject to any form of perversion. I once asked my father in later years, why this was so, considering that it seemed to be so prevalent today.
His reply: Back in the day any pervert would be hunted down and dealt with by all the fathers in the neighborhood and they knew it. Now days, perverts know that they will get a few years in jail and be released ( and parents are afraid to take the law into their own hands) ... no incentive to confine themselves to thoughts and kiddy magazines.
The general assumption is not that children were at greater risk in the past than they are now, it’s that they are at greater risk now.
Which supposedly justifies the common idea that children must be more or less kept locked up today to “protect” them.