Getting away a bit from what the OP is trying to say, I don't believe it's as safe a world for kids as when I was five.

After a short time of being taken a mile to school, I had to walk. It was uphill to start with, then down the other side and along a twisting country lane with no pavement out of sight of any houses before entering the next village.

You'd be lucky to see a car then but today an adult would be liable to get run over never mind kids of five.

Quite apart from that, today people are more mobile even though there's loads of cameras around, someone could be 50 miles away in an hour or so.