Hmmm... from what? That's 20 years. I don't recall discussions about school safety... metal detectors, cameras in class rooms or turning on the TV to see terrified faces on students who've scrambled to stay alive... more than 20 years ago. I lived in a world where I could, as a female, go shopping at night alone... not so now... not in a metroplex and the perps are young. I grew up in a time when "respectful" wasn't a dirty word to youth (I was one.) We didn't lock our doors and our handshake was our word... and it was good. We learned from our elders and took their lead. There were inner city gangs, sure, but now they're everywhere. I'm not saying this is due to video games, certainly, its a complex phenomena but I seriously question those stats. That very complexity is due, in part, to the fact that stats are just about worthless today. They're cleaverly manipulated for varying agendas. When I want to know the "truth," I ask someone who lived the history.
I'm 40 years old, so I certainly remember back 20 or 30 years. And what I remember, and what I see now, lines up pretty much exactly with what you described.
So you, me, and a lot of other non-young people remember back when young people were basically decent, and the world was more or less safe. And we see how the young today are out of control, violent, and insolent.
But Peter the Hermit saw the same thing. And so did Socrates. And so did Hesiod. And so did every other generation going all the way back through history. In fact, most of your post sounds remarkably similar to the three quotes in the original post, and you could pretty much add it as a fourth quote. Don't misunderstand me; I'm not trying to pin this on you. Like I said, everything you said resonates with me, and most other people my age. So we all see it this way.
But clearly, each generation can't have been drastically worse than the one before it. But every generation has "seen" that the younger generation is. Obviously, at least some of these generations must be wrong.
So, basically, we're perceiving the same thing that every generation has through history. And they all saw all of the evidence to back up their perceptions. How can I just assume that my vision is somehow more clear and accurate than theirs? If they were wrong without knowing it, why should I suddenly be right?