Comment by natch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by natch | Hacker News Reader

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These discussions often hover around how safe our current world is, and how any dangers are just perceived dangers, where the perception is way out of proportion to the reality.

The claim is people have wild perceptions influenced by dramatic media coverage, and the world is just as safe as, or safer than, it ever was.

But, I'm not so sure. I think the reality has changed too.

Since the days when we used to walk five miles to the toy store, everyone has better access to technology, transportation, and information, than they did, and this is a double edged sword that enables both good and bad people to have more capabilities.

Also not just perception is the fact that Reagan defunded mental health treatment, leading to the massive homeless situation we have (I'm not saying homeless people or mentally ill people are necessarily dangerous, but as with any unknown variable, their presence does make it harder to determine when a place is safe or not).

Still, in this particular case it seems like the police went way over a line of reasonableness... maybe not in picking the kids up, but in what happened next.

Yeah, except crime and injury statistics completely destroys your hogwash armchair musings. Everyone, including children, are much safer now then 30 years ago.

If people want to talk about safety, driving a car is one of the more dangerous activities, certainly more dangerous than walking.

I'm pretty curious about this line of thinking, because I share it to some degree. But it also seems to me that the statistics suggest the world is safer. It seems that we feel less safe despite living in a safer world.

I think this is largely from the persistent messaging from the news, etc. that we're not safe. Even if you completely dismiss it rationally, it's hard to keep it from seeping into your less rational thinking.

I think both sides are right. On the one hand, we actually are safer. But on the other hand, our tolerance to risk is way down.

And one of the main reasons we are safer is because we behave more safely. By doing things like keeping children close to adults who can supervise them.

Could it be that the world is safer, because we are behaving in safer ways?

Ways like keeping children closer to home, and under better supervision? This being just one aspect of a safer world. But if our world is safer, that didn't come about through magic. It came about by doing different things.

Except there's a cost to every security measure you take. When you're talking about "never let kids out of your sight", that cost is having your children grow up with a constant, subconscious attitude of fear. That has real ramifications as an adult, where you are less likely to take risks, less likely to trust strangers, and less likely to try new things. In a world that's constantly changing like ours is, and a large part of your success comes through serendipity, you're setting your kids up to be left behind.

There are prudent things you can do that will make your kids much safer but don't create an overall climate of fear. "Buckle up." "Don't get in a car with strangers." "Look both ways before crossing the street." "Stay away from areas of town where there's active gang violence going on." "Learn to swim." It's all about specifically targeting real, verified risks, and not about generally targeting things that might conceivably be risky but that you don't know much about.

No except about it; I agree with you. There are always costs, and benefits.

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