I'm a bit older than both Bilge_Rat and Jimbuna, but my childhood was also spent pretty much outside and with a fir degree of leeway. I started going downtown on the streetcars alone at about 9 or 10 years of age and I roamed about the City (San Francisco) freely. But, as Bilge_Rat points out, the conditions were very, very different. Drugs, gangs, and other sorts of activities were very low on the radar and mainly confined to areas one learned to avoid. Now those hazards are all pervasive and far more in the reach of kids. Gangs, for example, were cliquish groups given to protecting their turf by fists; now they are fully armed and have taken up agendas other than just "stay out of my neighborhood". I wouldn't really say parents are necessarily over-protective; I think they are just more realistic about the state of society and the dangers kids face...
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