Helicopter Moms vs. Free-Range Kids

So why are some parents so nervous about letting their children out of their sight? Are cities and towns less safe and kids more vulnerable to crimes like child abduction and sexual abuse than they were in previous generations?

Not exactly. New York City, for instance, is safer than it's ever been; it's ranked 136th in crime among all American cities. Nationwide, stranger abductions are extremely rare; there's a one-in-a-million chance a child will be taken by a stranger, according to the Justice Department. And 90 percent of sexual abuse cases are committed by someone the child knows. Mortality rates from all causes, including disease and accidents, for American children are lower now than they were 25 years ago. According to Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group, between 1980 and 2003 death rates dropped by 44 percent for children ages five to 14 and 32 percent for teens aged 15 to 19.

Then there's the whole question of whether modern parents are more watchful and nervous about safety than previous generations. Yes, some are. Part of the problem is that with wall-to-wall Internet and cable news, every missing child case gets so much airtime that it's not surprising even normal parental paranoia can be amplified. And many middle-class parents have gotten used to managing their children's time and shuttling them to various enriching activities, so the idea of letting them out on their own can seem like a risk. Back in 1972, when many of today's parents were kids, 87 percent of children who lived within a mile of school walked or biked every day. But today, the Centers for Disease Control report that only 13 percent of children bike, walk or otherwise get themselves to school. (That lack of physical activity has prompted the CDC to create outreach programs designed to get kids walking to school again, in an effort to combat the childhood obesity epidemic.)

The extra supervision is both a city and a suburban phenomenon. Beth Turner, a stay-at-home mom of two in Lowry, Colo., a suburban community near Denver, lets her nine-year-old daughter Mikaleia walk to the playground, which is two and a half blocks from their house. But only when Mom and Dad are watching. And once she's there her parents check up on her periodically.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Nick Goldberg, a father of three teenage sons, says that L.A.'s nine-year-olds do not generally have much freedom. "Parents are worried about crime, and they're worried about kids getting caught in traffic in a city that's not used to pedestrians," he says.

On the other hand, the trend toward more supervision isn't ubiquitous. There are still plenty of latch-key kids whose parents give them a lot of independence, by choice or by necessity. The After School Alliance finds that more than 14 million kids ages five to 17 are responsible for taking care of themselves after school. Only 6.5 million kids participate in organized programs. "Many children who have working parents have to take the subway or bus to get to school. Many do this by themselves because they have no other way to get to their schools," says Dr. Richard Gallagher, director of the Parenting Institute at the NYU Child Study Center.