This is gonna sound cliche, but you can make a case for blaming the media.

I'm 38, my parents are in their 60's. I think my parent's generation was the first to feel this change brought about my broader access to information. And now the phenomenon is even more potent.

Basically, before my parent's time, the world felt smaller to people. [I'm guessing]. All you received was the local news + a few relevant national and global stories. So if a kid was kidnapped off the street in Wyoming, you'd never hear about it in South Carolina.

99% of all kidnappings are committed by someone the child already knows. It's completely irrational to ever worry about some brazen pedophile just grabbing your kid and shoving him into a van and taking off. That almost never happens. Almost never.

Now we're so informed, and so connected, that every one of these stories can be shared nationwide instantly. The milk carton thing started in the 70's. Broadcast and cable TV blew up in the 80's. The internet came in the 90's. So now you can't go a year without hearing 20 of these horrendous tragedies. That's ALOT compared to previous generations where you might hear about one or two every half-century.

So when the world was smaller, it was safer. Now we know how big and scary and dangerous the world can actually be. And it affects how we care for children.

I'm guilty of it too. My oldest wanted to stop going to the after school program and start coming home on the bus, staying there alone until I get home from work. I went out and got her a cell phone so she could text me as soon as she got home. Yet, when I was her age, I did the same thing without a cell phone, and my parents just trusted that they'd find me alive when they came through the door.