I grew up less than 10 miles from the area where this is happening. Now granted when I was these kid's age it was the mid-70s to early 80s, but still from the time I was in kindergarten I walked to/from school about a mile each way every day regardless of whether it was sunny, rainy, snowing, whatever. After school I walked through our community to go to friend's houses at the ripe old age of 5 or 6. And on the weekends, kids of all ages were found running around the community from sunrise to sunset. Our parents trusted us and the other members of the community.

Yet while our parents were letting us do this just around the corner one of the most notorious abductions in the area took place (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyon_sisters). So you can't tell me that there were not predators around at that time.

IMO, the difference was that instead of calling the police on kids that seemed lost, most parents in the community would ask the kids if they needed help. I don't know where or how the shift occurred, but today it seems we live in a society where everyone wants to pass blame and cares only about themselves.

I have two theories why this is occurring. First, the media of today is much different than the past. Today, it seems to me at least, the media has a bad habit of over-sensationalizing every story to pit two sides against one another. This story in particular has created such a havoc in this neighborhood that these kids, and their parents, will never live a "normal" life in that community again. The media has stirred the pot so much that there are now lone individuals that don't agree with these parents that are going to target this family every time they see something they don't like.

My second theory is that we live in a society now where people are afraid of their own shadows at times. When I was about 7 or 8 I was skateboarding down a street a couple blocks from my house. I fell and cut my chin wide open requiring stitches. I started crying and walking home. In that time I must have had 4 or 5 different people come up to me to ask if I was alright with one finally giving me a ride home. I believe if this same situation happened today those 4-5 people would have probably just called 911 instead of trying to get involved and help me. They would have done this out of fear of being sued for not helping better. Or sadly there are those individuals in the community now who will label that person as a predator just for helping.

Where I live now is a small town where everyone that lives here knows everyone. Kids of all ages run up and down the street at all hours of the day in the summer. We have a strong local police force that is always actively community policing and knows everyone that lives in the community. On the other hand it is a tourist town and during the summer the population swells drastically (we go from about 300 residents to well over 10,000), yet nothing changes. People look out for each other. More importantly, we also don't have any local major media outlets that report regularly on news in our area. And because it is a resort area where there is fear if bad things are reported it will drive tourism away, the media doesn't tend to report on all that occurs. Yet nothing bad happens that is out of the ordinary. I mean we have our increased bar fights, DUIs, thefts, and on occasion there has been a murder, but still I can wake up on a nice day and hear kids running around the street playing. No one calls the police on other people's kids. Even high school house parties go unreported as long as the kids don't violate parking laws or destroy someone else's property. And even if they do the party is usually just broken up, people sent on their way, and damages worked out between the parents.