Basically, I was reading a post on unpopular opinion about how men are treated when interacting with children and one of the replies got me thinking.

In the reply, the user stated that wikipedia lists that 'the fear of pedophiles as a moral panic that started in the 70s'. Unfortunately they did not include a link, and I could not find a source in a quick Google search, but I did start to wonder. If this is true then we have had around 50 years where children have been taught to fear strangers - or more specifically male strangers. In the same time we have also had a rise in women who talk openly about their fear of men. I was wondering if anybody here knew if any research or studies that had been done on the correlation between the two or if I am just seeing a connection that isn't there...

Just to be clear, I know that there are a great many other reasons why women would fear men but I am wondering if this might be a part of it and looking to see what (if any) evidence can be found on the subject.