It was easier when my parents were young kids to protect them, your circle of friendships and circle of life back then was small, everyone knew everyone else and most parents even back then knew who was a danger to kids both male and female.
This is the thing we forgot, we label it all onto men when there is a high % of female sexual predators out there also who do much worse to young kids than male predators do, sadly the male predators claim to love the children they abuse, the female predators never claim to love the kids they abuse, which makes a female predator much much worse than a male one, don't get me wrong, both are bad.
When I was young the world was changing and heading towards multimedia big time, the internet available everywhere, you went from no internet, to 360 million people having entry into an unlocked and open door into your house with full access to your kids, in the past when asked, your parents would say, sure I trust my kids, now they were being asked good, but do you trust the other 360 million people online who you kids will come into contact with on a daily/hourly basis?.
Pedophilia was controllable prior to the full explosion of the internet, cheap computers, 1 for every home, or 2 or 3 per home, cams on computer, file sharing on a 1 to 1 basis, online grooming of kids, cam sites for young teens where they exposed everything on cam, the list is endless.
When I said Pedophilia was controllable prior to the full explosion of the internet, it was, everyone is every small town or small village in every county in every state in each country in the world, knew who was a danger to kids back then and kids were kept safe, with sadly some falling prey and losing their lives, then in some other countries even in todays world, their cultures permit a 40yo or 50yo man to marry a 10yo girl or a 23yo man marrying a 14yo girl and it is accepted as normal.
It is a really sad stat of most cultures in the world, the kids are a target from birth and the sex of a child was one protector of 1 sex once, now both male and females kids are targets of both male and females sexual predators.
My Dad and Mom told me when I was young, there are no secrets in our home, no secrets kept from Mommy and Daddy, Mom will always be giving you your baths as Daddy is crap at washing him self never mind you lol, Dad would sit in at bath times and talk but always leave embarrassed, some parents shower with their kids and it is normal, some dont, some like my Dad leave and leave bathing to Mom, the birds & the bees chat happened when I was 10 as most of my friends were talking about it and my parents explained it all to me, my 1st period happened and in panic I rang my Dad, and as embarrassed as he was, he got everything I needed, explained it all to me and then left it to Mom while he went to inhale into a bag having some panic attack lol.
When I was young, we were less safer than my parents were as kids, but A LOT safer than kids are now today, there was talk of putting a chip into babies, so they could be located to the nearest foot or inches even if kidnapped, but the usual civil rights groups went on another bra burning march to stop it, citing it and saying well, it could be abused to program our kids, which I guess a chip could be used to do, sad really that A Hole in the world in some shady Government lab would be programming kids chips to control them.
Anyway, the world is a lot less safer place these days for your kids, and will be even less safer for mine when I have them one day, teaching kids to be street smart early is a must, teaching them when he or she walks down a pathway on a street, be aware of everything and everyone, and be on the defensive constantly, as the attack will come one day, when they get older, they are still no safer, they may have moved out of the age range of a pedophile, and into the age range of a sexual predator, and it just never ends as you move into an age range of something else and something else.
Love and cherish your kids, teach them to be street smart, if your son or daughter or both wants to do boxing, martial arts as a child, encourage it, give them both the verbal and physical skills to defend them selves in the world of today or tomorrow, make sure their self esteem is high, their personality is strong, make sure you are always positive, you always encourage their hopes and dreams, you always without fail build up their spirit, and make sure that they have a happy home to come home to each day, each night, and that they know they are loved by you both always.
Do the above, and you will have armed them for the world of today, that sadly we all Old and Young alike had a hand in creating.