I remember playing soccer pretty much every day... on gravel - yeah, go ahead, make that sliding tackle... It was a different time - I remember when I was 8, my classmate and I would go off wandering after school, often winding up at the WW II museum (this is USSR), where we'd climb all over T-34's, IS-3's and all sorts of other wonderful toys.
I can only imagine what would happen now if your kid was missing for 4 hours after school...