My father was born and raised a backwoods West Virginia boy. He was not quite 10 years older than Paterno. He warned me as a child to be wary of men becoming friendly in public places. Especially public restrooms. I recall a case when a young boy needed to urinate in a public restroom, and asked my father to hold him up to a urinal as they were too tall for him. My father refused, but hustled a man out of a stall so the boy could go in a toilet that he could reach.
My father explained his actions to me as it not being proper for a man helping an unfamiliar boy in that way and would likely be seen as him molesting the boy (this was in the late 1960's).
My father -- of approximately Paterno's same age -- was a cautious man in that regard. When he heard of a child -- male or female -- being molested or raped by an adult, he was ready to exterminate the adult.
I think my father's awareness and actions were common for that generation. I don't believe Joe Paterno.
My parents were born and raised in a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania and they knew such things existed. My FIL was born on a farm in rural Indiana and knew those things existed. Now, I will admit that such things weren’t in the media or openly discussed is public. However, people of older generations had the same fears/worries/about deviancy as we do today.