They told me that in the 50s-80s people didn't know about child abuse,
didn't know it was wrong and no one really believed children when they
claimed they had been abused - even worldly people.
I do know that in the United States there were absolutely no legal protection against children abuse. It was so bad that in the first case of child abuse that made it to court, the prosecution had to use laws to protect animals and try to demonstrate that the abused child fell into the protected animal category and therefore the animal anti-abuse law protected the child. Yes, there were laws that protected animals in USA before there were laws that protected children.
Today the WT still can't care less about children. All the actions they take are forced actions by the law and are taken to protect themselves, not for the benefit of children.
They have no interest in children's well being. As I have posted before, look how all the children are never removed when they are talking about all the adult themes that they talk about in their meetings. Just go to one meeting and start counting the number of things that children should not be exposed to that they talk about.
The WT has never cared about the well being of children, period.