Americans Don’t Talk to Their Neighbors. That’s a Problem for Kids.

If you were sentient in the early 1980s, you probably remember watching public service announcements that made it seem as if every neighborhood in America was teeming with creeps. A typical “stranger danger” P.S.A. went something like this one, from the American Medical Association. A maternal voice-over intones: “You’ve taught your children to be polite and friendly. But have you taught them when not to be?” Then, a central-casting child predator rolls up in a sleazy sedan and tries to kidnap a little girl on her way to school.

The announcement claims that in the previous year, 50,000 children disappeared, but that figure is wildly misleading: Nearly all of those missing children were runaways,........

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