Don't Talk To Strangers?

Henderson

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Rhetorical questions.....

How many people tell their children "don't talk to strangers?"
Why is this done?

A poll of elementary school children will almost always reveal that the majority of the children have been told "Don't talk to strangers" by their parents. Why does this happen? Every person we know (relatives excluded) has at one point been a stranger. Your best friend hasn't always been your best friend.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that parents, in general, send mixed and incorrect messages to their kids. Kids are told "don't talk to strangers" and then are instructed to "say hello to Mr Johnson". "Don't talk to strangers"...."help that nice lady with her grocery bags." I'm all in favor of kids saying hello to Mr Johnson or helping the lady with her bags. But why the antiquated thinking about strangers?

I think any LEO on this forum can provide a more accurate statistic, but I believe that the percentage of sexual molestations against children by complete strangers is somewhere in the neighborhood of 15%. Where does the other 85% come from? People the victim (child) knows!!! Children have a sense of intuition about them. When little Suzie says, "I don't like Uncle Michael, he makes me feel funny", there is likely a good reason for it. But comments like this are usually met with angry statements like "He's my brother. You be nice to him."

Children have not yet been jaded by the world, nor do they feel they have to say all the right things to keep people happy. They are smarter, and more in tune with their surroundings than most adults give them credit for. Listen to them!!
 

still learning

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Hello, The real problems is our justice systems. The bad guys know..the risk is small..everyone gets out on parole sooner or later.

When you mix religion with laws...they do no work. Our sentences are too short and not long enough.

If you steal from a store..and got only one dollar...sentence is real light..same store this time a thousand dollar ...a little longer sentence..yet they both are the same crime....yet treated different? WHY?

lying is lying ...stealing is stealing..yet in America..our laws say it is different for each? WHY?

When a person does harm to a child..if first time...sentence is different from someone who does it again? ...WHY?

If you believe there is a differance...you have been brain wash...by our justice system.

So when a person does a crime....he knows he will be out soon again and again.

What about the victims..who have to live with the horrors...? ..What is there rights...

When a person post bails? ...what do you think is his first reactions out? ...Simple to get you to drop the charges/witness...then you become a victim again and again.

ONE DAY THE PEOPLE IN AMERICA WILL SAY "NO MORE" ....Aloha from Hawaii...where we have the same problems too...

Our children are the future...lets protect them and raise them to be good.
 

Hand Sword

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It will make it hard to meet someone. I have enough trouble as it is..Crap!
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bushidomartialarts

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our child safety curriculum goes strongly against that advice in the first place. there are 3 major reasons...

1. the rule, as henderson pointed out, is inconsistently observed and enforced. children talk to strangers every day, watch their parents talk to strangers every day, and are frequently punished for refusing to talk to strangers ("johnny, be polite and say hi to the nice lady...")

2. the overwhelming majority of harm to children is done by somebody they know. the rule give parents a false sense of security and children a false sense of safety.

3. the blanket statement robs children of the opportunity to use good sense and judgment about who to approach in an emergency. if your child gets lost, they must talk to a stranger -- if there was someone around who wasn't a stranger, they wouldn't be lost. and the last thing you want is for your lost child to wait for somebody to approach them at the park.

it was a good effort, but 'don't talk to strangers' belongs in the same pile as 'just say no'. doesn't work. does harm by not working while the responsible parties sit back and think it is.
 

stickarts

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We tell our kids not to let a stranger take them anywhere.
Good points made in previous posts.
 

Kacey

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Also, remember that other advice is for people who feel uncomfortable with the person approaching them to go where there are more people - hard to do if you can't approach strangers!

When I teach self-defense classes (kids or adults) one of the things I point out is that the stranger you approach is almost certainly safer than the stranger who approaches you and makes you feel uncomfortable.
Is there a risk that the person you approach will be an accomplice? Possibly, but your chances are better approaching a random stranger, than if you are accosted by someone who makes you feel uncomfortable.
 

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