Parents (or other adults by proxy) seem to think they have to do everything possible to ensure that low-probability harm doesn't befall kids. Maybe it's lower

Parents (or other adults by proxy) seem to think they have to do everything possible to ensure that low-probability harm doesn't befall kids. Maybe it's lower birth rates making each child relatively more important. Maybe it's an overall cultural intolerance of risk. In any case, these adults fail to consider what that hypervigilance does in terms of developmental psychology. Not to mention the amount of time and mental energy it takes on the part of the parents or neighbors to be constantly monitoring kids that way. The mass media and entertainment may play a role. Everyone can probably name several scenes or news events where a parent takes their eyes off a kid for 5 seconds and the kid is missing and it becomes a disaster. Those have major emotional impact and may influence real-life parent and neighbor behavior. The paranoia has extended so far that Amber Alerts, which are almost always people known to the kid or the kid's family taking the kid (not really forcefully abducting, and not intending harm, many times just custody disputes or relatives who think they know better), are broadcast region-wide. I remember some idiotic website over a decade ago actually emailing their entire national customer list to notify them about an Amber Alert. And this was a long time ago. This paranoia has been creeping up for a long, long time, and it's not doing any favors for today's youth. For every kid this level of vigilance saves from serious harm, I suspect it emotionally and psychologically cripples many more.