Somewhere along the line..it became, if not illegal then irresponsible for your kids to get out of your sight. And if they do something slightly risky, or even stupid like kids do, then it wasn’t kids being kids but your fault for not continously supervising them.
Another thing I will always remember being raised outside the eastern city limits of Columbus, Ohio:
Being able to ride my bicycle to the movies and all around the edges of the city without fear. When I was 11 I could ride the bus to downtown by myself. No one feared lurking homosexuals who would prey on children as they do now.
As a newsboy I read the daily paper from front to back. There were no kidnappings, rapes or molestation of children. I’ve believed for some time now that the gross societal ills are due to the degradation effect of the internet and the vast infusion of pornography and the government sponsored sex (mis) education. This has created a pedophile infection.
We did indeed have slimy politicians; several even occupying the White House, but there was goodness in this nation and childhood was an exciting and innocent adventure that made many of us what we are today.
The degeneration began in the mid 1960s. I remember it well.
The allowance of vagrants back on the streets.
Bail on your own recognizance.
The beginning of anti gun propaganda.
The degrading of language when the libs insisted that the most foul language become normal.
The death of John Kennedy and later Bobby Kennedy began the feminization of American men.
The attempts to “de-violence” society.
The allowance of the movie industry to “police themselves” with a rating system. This allowed them to churn out the most vile films ever made.
The GREAT SOCIETY war on POVERTY.
REMOVAL of Silver from coinage.
There are other things that happened then which began the degradation of civilization.