Child educators tell me that empathy is decreasing rapidly in modern society. Maybe that explains it.
They are wrong, empathy in general is icnreasing as Steven Pinker in his 'Better Angels of Our Nature' explains.
Viz-a-viz children we are very much a child-centred society with lots of legislation, policies already implemented and being proposed to protect and promote the rights of children everywhere. Most childrens charities are making lots of money from donations, the media casts a greater awareness of the expereiences of children both home and abroad and education policies (in the UK) obligate secondary schools to run PSHE/Citizenship courses promoting child welfare and educating children about the experiences of children abroad.
Sure, people complaing the education is not good enough or run by professionals, or that the money from donations is not enough, or that the sporadic outburst of media coverage is sensationalism and token empathy - but it is there and the situation is much better than before.
Things are getting progressively better for MOST people throughout the world and its because we as human beings, counter to what some people like to think, are generally nice people. We really are and we care about others. Particularly, when it comes to children. And modern society with its rapid increase in globalisation, instantaneous access to information and disenchantment with ideological frameworks which brainwashed us into not caring about the other has helped most of us to achieve this.