I think we all know that society has changed, for the worse, in some ways over the decades. I don’t know if there are more child molesters and others doing harm to children nowadays, but, there certainly seems to be more publicity and discussion. So then, many parents are afraid to let their kids out of their sight.
And then social norms have changed, so that cops on a beat see school age children alone, and immediately assume this a case of parental neglect.
We had a child molester in our small town when I was a kid in the 50’s. Every child was warned if he was walking on one side of the road, you were to cross to the other side. If he talked to you, You were to keep going. He was scorned, chastised, talked about and shamed. Can’t do that these days.