When did parents get so scared?

As I have said elsewhere here on HN, I would like to let my kids play in the front yard but I don't. Not because I fear they'll be hit by a car jumping the curb, a serious injury from falling down, or some bad person kidnapping them.

I don't let them play in the front yard because I don't want to deal with the possibility of someone calling the cops after seeing my kids in the front yard that will lead to a government employee with more power than their agency is supposed to have showing up to threaten taking my kids away from me for playing in the front yard.

I am sure it was a slow change that we hardly noticed. I think a couple things contributed to this mentality (there are plenty of others): 1) The tragic death of Adam Walsh became national news and spawned his father's advocacy for victims of crime. That spawned "America's Most Wanted"; a show that convinced viewers that each person wearing a sleeveless undershirt was a criminal. Faces of missing people appeared on milk cartons. No one wanted their child to be next. 2) Cable TV news needs to fill up 24 hours a day, so it breathes fear into us with each story so we don't dare change the channel.

Or not...

I wonder how much it is related to the fact that we hardly know the people around us. I don't know my neighbors. I've heard that's a new phenomenon. We, the adults, might not even step out of our bubbles as much these days, much less allowing our children to do so.

"With more first-time parents than ever older than 35..."

I would gess this probably has a larger subconscious impact than societal drivers, I wonder if any studies on this have been done