I'll think of a good title later

I have heard about this before, mostly thru CBS60 Minutes.
I must say that here in Sweden the trend is somewhat different altho yet worrying: Instead of super-fussing about the kids safety, it's the extreme lack of discipline that is escalating. Teachers who are baffled that kids now seem totally surprised at the prospect of, for example, not being allowed to talk on the cellphone during tests, or even in regular class (just one example).
We now have a generation of parents that truly believes that saying "no" to your child is in fact abuse.
Of course there are plenty of parents who has a healthy idea about how to teach their kids respect for others, and others property. Note that I do not advocate physical discipline, that has been outlawed since I was a kid (I am 33) and I turned out just fine. I wouldn't dream of wanting that back.

My Dad's response to being asked for spellings of words (by a much smaller me) was to buy a dictionary and leave me to it.

I didn't rate it much at the time, but these days I reckon he had the right idea.