You're about 15 years older than me. Things had already started to change somewhat at the time I got out of high school, but some of what you are saying was still going on.
All I can say is, "That was then and this is now." In my heart of hearts, I think it would be better if things were as you say. The reality is, in 2005 they aren't, and it's hard to put genies back into bottles.
There are things I did as a kid ... not as a high-schooler or college student, but as a grade-school age kid ... and never thought twice about and my parents never thought twice about, that I would, again, not in this or any known solar system let my kids (who are young, 10 and 7) do today. Like at 8 or 9 years old, roaming probably a three- or four-block area around my grandmother's house with a sack, picking up pop bottles that people had tossed out and then walking another three or four blocks to the local mom and pop store and selling them for the deposit to buy myself some goodies. I don't like this very much, I think I got a lesson in living that they're not getting, but I simply am not prepared to run that kind of risk with my kids in 2005.
You know your children better than I do. My daughter, now 30, was in boarding school at 14 and flying half way around the world by herself several times a year. I have trusted her judgement and maturity since she was 10. We have lived abroad for 25 years so I assess the risks somewhat different than you do. Downtown DC after dark is a far more dangerous place than Aruba.