When I was younger, parents generally monitored their children's online activity. I remember my parents being around watching me play games online or whatever, and our computer was out in the main living room.
It wasn't like today, where every room has a screen with internet and parents leave their children to do whatever online. Not all parents obviously, but I mean, do commercials about online content still say "Ask your parent's permission before going online?"
Sure, the danger of people online was there. But it definitely didn't seem as bad. Maybe my parents had something to do with it, maybe not. I mean, American society was never the same after 9/11/01. It changed for the worse and has not got any better.