Kat, it might ease you a bit to remember that the children in this country are very safe, even if they go places by themselves. It is hard to believe this based on the media coverage given to horrific abductions, online predators, school violence, etc, etc, but the fact is that there are very few children abducted in this country each year, and there isn't any trend that suggests the problem is increasing. The fact is, the overwhelming majority of 'kidnappings' are done by a non-custodial parent or family acquantaince, yet these incidents are statistically counted as kidnappings, and almost never are these children harmed. Since the FBI does not keep a count of 'kipnappings performed by total strangers', it is difficult to tease out how many of these occur a year, but it constitutes a tiny fraction of total kidnappings.
You would never guess this by watching the news, though. It seems that every night between O'Reilly, VanSustren and Grace, Dateline, etc. you would figure that predators are everywhere. This just isn't the case;so much time is given to the topic because they know concerned parents will tune in to get the daily dose of horror....if it bleeds, it leads, as they say in the business.
Am I saying you should throw safety to the wind? Of course not! Teach your kids to use common sense when they go anywhere;they are smarter than we give them credit for! I find it interesting that we accept the fact that kids are the most technically savvy when it comes to computers, but once they get online we strip this quality from them and fear that they are a few clicks away from being led to the mall by a pedophile who will abduct them!
I hope this helps a bit;I have found that the best tonic for our nerves might be to turn off the TV!