The Stranger Danger message is a controversial one for some.
The Stranger Danger message is a controversial one for some, and every so often I’ll come across an article or posting where someone is offering a negative opinion on the subject, and so I would like to offer my own opinion, as another perspective.
Typically, the ‘anti-stranger danger’ people will claim that the media ‘hypes up’ child abductions committed by strangers, making them appear to be more common than they actually are. Then they’ll proceed to inform us that child abductions by strangers are extremely rare, and that most child abduction cases involve one parent taking their own child away from the other parent. It is because family abductions are so common, usually involving custody disputes, that we don’t usually see these types of child kidnappings on our nightly news.
Regarding whether or not the news media ‘hypes up’ child abductions by strangers, simply by reporting on them, I would ask if the anti-stranger danger people think that the media should ignore such incidents? However, don’t most people want to know if there's a stranger driving around their town who's trying to lure or abduct children off the streets of their neighborhoods or in their child's school district? Of course we do.
On the matter of children being abducted by strangers being an extremely rare occurrence, let me offer that statistically there are 115 to 150 children abducted by strangers every year in America. That equates to 2 to 3 children being lured away or abducted by a child molester or murderer, every week in our country, and in the UK that number is as high as 270 per year. Some of these ‘statistical children’ will never see their families again, and those who do make it home will never be the same. So should we forget the stranger danger message just because the numbers of children kidnapped by strangers isn’t as high as many think they are? And do you think these abducted children or their parents care at all that the odds were in their favor that it would not be them who was taken?
As a concerned parent and grandparent, I don’t believe that the world is growing into a kinder, friendlier place for our children, and there are sick people out there right now with degrees on their walls who are claiming that pedophilia is simply another alternative lifestyle, and perfectly normal. And so I would encourage you to have the Stranger Danger talk with your children, so that they won’t be easily fooled into getting into a smiling strangers car. Consider that, much like a fire drill, the Stranger Danger message (given properly), could teach your little loved ones a lifesaving skill that they’ll hopefully never need to use.
Ken McClelland
