As kids me and my friends used to play outside. What the hell happened to that? Are parents really that worried about child molesters?

Yes, there was an attempted abduction of a school girl here who was waiting for a school bus one morning and the school put a policy into place where the students can't leave without a designated person (on their list) showing a pass with the student's name on it. And now they can't even do that if they normally ride the bus unless the parent or guardian e-mails the teacher before the end of the day.