Thinking back to my childhood, I used to go everywhere around town on a bicycle. Then I built a go-kart I used to drive all over town, until the police put the kabash on that. Finally, I ended up with a little Honda mini-motorcycle, that was street legal if you went for the moped test at 15 or so.

The point of all that is, I don't think my parents could have kept an eye on me if they wanted to. They taught me things, trusted that I would follow them, and hoped I would stay out of trouble. When I occasionally screwed up, the threat of, "just wait until your father gets home" was enough to set me straight.

Otherwise, I never had any real problems with strangers. If anything, most were helpful. I can remember one little old lady driving me over to the parts store so I could get a new sparkplug for one of my motorized toys, so I could get home by supper. Usually I liked to get home before my father to avoid him asking, "so, where were you today?", which he would do like clockwork; but supper time was generally when I had to check in, then I could go out again until the street lights came on if my homework was done.

Fact is, from time to time, bad things do happen to good people. Thankfully, it's relatively rare, but there is always a risk in anything you do. Sometimes one just has to live their life and hope they're properly prepared and have the right amount of luck on their side.