Is It Really Too Dangerous for Kids to Play Outside Nowadays?

It's summer break right? I can't help but notice as I walk around my neighborhood that there are no kids playing outside. Where the heck are they? I'm sure they aren't studying.

Just a disclaimer, I have no experience with kids but know there has got to be kids in my neighborhood but what exactly are they doing? I rarely see any outside. When I was a kid I would go outside at about 11am and play with the neighbor kids until it was dark. As long as I was home for dinner everything was fine. Do you remember those days? It seems like that's unsafe today and maybe even irresponsible.

Is it really unsafe or are parents just afraid from the media hype? All we hear is negative news. It's easy for me to judge and tell parents to get there kids outside but what if it's working?

According to statistics from Missing Kids, the numbers of missing children in the United States are actually decreasing. So, is there something to staying inside? Should we stay on course and keep our youth monitored safely inside during the best years of their lives? Or is it safe to risk it, get outside and get dirty like the old days?