IMO things are just getting out of hand as time goes by.
I grew up in italy and I guess I had similar experiences (at least, I did start fires and explore abandoned buildings :) ).
But my friends' kids in my home town don't do that anymore.
It seems to me this is in a way a result of the replacement of the "local community" with a wider world, which often brings a sense of uneaseness or unsafety.
I.e. if you know basically everyone who lives in your neighborhood you feel kids are pretty safe, and at most tell them not to go play near the "bad people".
If you don't know who lives near to you, and you hear a lot of news about kids being abducted/molested/injured (which might have happened before, but it was less often in the news) you get worried about kids running around unsupervised.