Here's my story of overprotection. In June 1991, a 14-year-old girl disappeared from the suburb to the east of here in southern Ontario Canada. Her body parts were discovered later that month. Then in April 1992, a 15-year-old was seen being grabbed off the street just after school, in the town to the west of here (St. Catharines), and pushed into a white two-door car. As you can imagine, all parents were totally freaked. Billboards were up not far from my daugher's school with pictures of the car and the words, "Have you seen this car?" No one was allowed to walk unsupervised, not even across the street. Eventually this guy was arrested in February 1993. I don't know anyone who has studied the effect of this on schoolchildren and their parents. I don't think I let my daughter cross the street until she started high school. Myself growing up though, I was undersupervised and roamed and roamed from an early age.