>It's a constant discourse in my country to think of today as "dangerous" and idealize some earlier decades where you'd "leave the door open" while by all metrics crime was actually higher.

This highlights a great point about past media. Films like The Warriors, Class of 1999, and even A Clockwork Orange play into this notion that juveniles have become worse and worse and we can expect a hellscape from future generations of young people.

Truth, though, is that Gen Zs are so laughably well behaved compared to those my age were that we finally have a period where this genre simply has no place. I hear things from my nephews and nieces about "staying home for the weekend" and think of all the money my sister wasted on a home security system to make sure they don't sneak out and get arrested all the time like we did. Leave that door wide open with soundproofing and they still have no desire to sneak out, especially because nobody else their age is out anyway.

I don't think your experience generalises. Kids are still sneaking out.

I doubt it's about last century media, "youth have no respect these days" goes literally back to before Christ, we have ancient Greek texts that say this, and probably older still.

I do agree kids _seem_ to be more risk-averse these days.

I'm not saying it doesn't go back far. I'm saying that every generation says it, while media promotes it, and we've come to a crossroads where the current young generation has become so laughably well behaved compared to my generation that even a biased and nostalgic perspective can't sustain the myth of the forever worsening youth.

The news also plays a big role in this. If (in a given city/area) crime happens every day, it’s just business as usual, so nobody bothers to report on it. However, if crime happens once a year, it’s headline news.