They were different times sadly.
I don’t even let my kids leave my street now , my oldest at the weekend is back by 11.00pm in his car.
Way too many idiots now, back then we had our locals to look out for the neighborhood and child molesters etc were not welcomed. Now they have more rights than hard working honest folk.
The world isn’t any more dangerous than it was 50 years ago, its just that stories of drugs, paedophiles and murderers sell newspapers and increase the perception of crime. The Moors murders happened when my Mum was growing up near Oldham, and my Grandma and Grandad just reinforced the idea not to get into cars with strangers etc and then left her and my Aunt to get on with it.
Same thing with my neighborhood. Always people looking out for each other. There weren’t things like neighborhood patrols.
Today, for kids going to school on the bus, in a gated community, the parents stand outside with the kids until they get on the bus.