Is the world more dangerous for children today than 40 years ago? (society)
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A lot of people believe that the world is becoming increasingly dangerous with more child abductions, murders, molestation and other dangers that didn't exist at the same extent a few decades ago when kids could safely run around the neighborhood. Do you believe that to be the case or do you think that society is no more dangerous now than it was in the past?
I believe the violent crime rate has gone down the last twenty years or so. It was very bad in the early 90's. Kidnappings are very difficult to measure. The cases that we hear about are highly publicized, but most kidnapping are custody disputes and take place between family members and those known to the child. The chance of a stranger ripping your kid on his big wheel are slim.
Of course, much of the discussion of crime depends on where one lives.
I think what has changed significantly in the last 40 years are the parents. They assume everyone around them is a cannibal.
A lot of people believe that the world is becoming increasingly dangerous with more child abductions, murders, molestation and other dangers that didn't exist at the same extent a few decades ago when kids could safely run around the neighborhood. Do you believe that to be the case or do you think that society is no more dangerous now than it was in the past?
Statistics on things have gone down but then you put people like nancy grace on tv, throw a kidnapping story in front of her and you'll have all of the us thinking that a kid is abducted everytime you blink.
Put it on the news, make it sound like it's happening at epidemic rates and people eat it up.
The news these days makes it seem like everything is 10x worse than it actually is.
If I bought into that trend I wouldn't want to leave my house.
Because apparently the world is filled with teenagers just running the streets with bedazzled iPhones taking crotch shots running wild in the streets but that's not it, go outside and you'll get kidnapped.
I like news where I can watch what happened. Like the cop who paid for the boys cookies at a fast food place minutes before he was gunned down. You can see him pay for the kid. That was a sad story. Or that video of the cop killing a dog that was heartbreaking. If I can't see it happen then they can put any emotional spin on it they want. News should be about facts.
We now have seat belts in cars, airbags, antilock brakes, rear view cameras, better carseats, etc, so far fewer children die or have as serious injuries in vehicles than 40 years ago.
With GPS and cellphones, kids getting lost or stuck somewhere have a way of calling home should they need help.
We have much better medicine that makes our world a better place and kids diseases are much more treatable.
I think the original post was probably intended regarding violent crime, but that question should be asked in perspective to overall childhood injury/death rates. Perhaps more crimes occur today than years ago (not really sure) but overall the world is a much less dangerous place today than 40 years ago.
The only things that are more dangerous for children nowadays are the fact that there are more cars on the road (so it is a bit more dangerous to, literally, run around the neighbourhood) and the existence of the internet (which has nothing to do with running around the neighbourhood)
They are no more likely to get abducted, murdered or molested and probably are more likely to be tracked down now if they do get abducted thanks to modern technology.
I have no fear for my child running around the neighbourhood these days.
In terms of people preying on children, I believe that it's no worse than it ever was, but that it's now more publicized when it comes to light. I think that today's parenting style of never leaving children unsupervised, to the point of not even letting school age children play outside without a parent constantly watching them, is utterly ridiculous, and leads to teens and young adults who lack confidence, and cannot take care of themselves.
I think alot of technology has made it less safe for kids while at the same time helping. The internet, bullying on FB and other social media sites can be very dangerous for kids. Not all danger comes in physical form.
The internet pretty much supplies every one of us with unlimited amounts of knowledge and information from around the world. We can find out instantly at our finger tips what's going on quicker then ever before.
So in my opinion I don't think it's any more dangerous than in the past... we just hear/read about it more because information can be obtained so quickly.
Much less dangerous I would say. Far fewer serial killers around now, than there were in 1974 and not only that but toys and rides and stuff are way safer than they used to be. And we have car seats.
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