Do you have a reference about changes in the amount of molestation, busted collarbones, after-school fights, or porn viewing happening to kids now vs. 40 years ago?
Even if there are such changes, it seems unclear to me that they can be attributed to kids playing outside unsupervised.
But my understanding is that most child molestation is by trusted adults known to the family (or family members), most kids nowadays (certainly by age 12 or 14) have plenty of access to porn (probably much easier than in the past), kids still fight during and after school, and injury rates aren’t especially changed. I could be wrong about though, I haven’t looked up precise figures.
Just making up a list of scary sounding hypothetical situations and anecdotes isn’t the best way to judge risk.
The biggest causes of death for children in the US are cancer, car collisions, drowning, gun homicides, and suicide. If we want to make life safer for children we should be focusing on reducing car use and using traffic engineering to slow cars down (ideally <20 miles/hour) in populated areas, pay more attention to home swimming pools, get rid of guns to the extent possible, and figure out what in the society is making teenagers so unhappy they would want to kill themselves (maybe has something to do with their lack of autonomy).
I don't think anyone really collected that data to compare. I know most of those happened to me, when I was unsupervised, and others I knew. It would make a good project for an academic to collate the data through interviews.
Even if there are such changes, it seems unclear to me that they can be attributed to kids playing outside unsupervised.
But my understanding is that most child molestation is by trusted adults known to the family (or family members), most kids nowadays (certainly by age 12 or 14) have plenty of access to porn (probably much easier than in the past), kids still fight during and after school, and injury rates aren’t especially changed. I could be wrong about though, I haven’t looked up precise figures.
Just making up a list of scary sounding hypothetical situations and anecdotes isn’t the best way to judge risk.
The biggest causes of death for children in the US are cancer, car collisions, drowning, gun homicides, and suicide. If we want to make life safer for children we should be focusing on reducing car use and using traffic engineering to slow cars down (ideally <20 miles/hour) in populated areas, pay more attention to home swimming pools, get rid of guns to the extent possible, and figure out what in the society is making teenagers so unhappy they would want to kill themselves (maybe has something to do with their lack of autonomy).