Is Wildwood safe for a family vacation?

Stick to the hotel/beach area and you're absolutely fine. The further inland you go from the boardwalk, the more residential/mixed it gets. As a tourist, you'll be in the tourist zone 99% of the time and it's great.

The resort areas, boardwalk, and beach are perfectly safe for families. Like any tourist destination, the key is staying in the main tourist zone, which in Wildwood means the beach/boardwalk area and the resort hotels. The boardwalk itself has security presence in summer. We've been going 8 years with zero issues.