Stranger Danger?

Should we really teach our children to never talk to strangers?

Not long ago, I did a short talk for some of the young children in the community, regarding the topic of Stranger Danger. As I was preparing the information that I would talk about, I came across a point of view that really made me think about this topic. 

As far back as I can remember, we have been teaching our children to never talk to strangers. When we define what a stranger is to children, we tell them that a stranger is anybody who you do not know. So we are basiclly teaching our children to never talk to anybody you do not know. I can honestly say that I do not agree with this. What if your child is lost? Should they not ask someone for help? What if your child notices that he/she is being followed by an adult who could be looking to kidnap them? Should they not approach an adult and inform them of this and ask them for help? We could be telling our children not to do something that could potentially save their lives.

We must educate our children about strangers who are likely safe to talk to and those strangers who are more likely unsafe to talk to. Let's face it: An overwhelming majority of the people out there are not dangerous to children and would likely be more than willing to help any small child who is in trouble. Also, kidnappings by people that the child knows quite well are much more common than kidnappings by strangers.

So what strangers are not safe to talk to? I tell children that any adult who approaches them looking for help with something or looking to befriend them is someone they should stay clear of. If an adult is really in need of any help with anything, he would ask another adult for it, not a child. Likewise, an adult would not go looking for a real friendship from a child. What could they possibly have in common with a child? Another stranger to avoid is one who approaches them and claims to be someone with authority. Examples of these situations would be 1) a man approaches a child in a store, perhaps with a badge, claiming to be a store detective and accuses the child of stealing and tells the child he/she must go with them, 2) a man approaches a child with a badge, or even a police uniform and tells the child that he/she must go with them to the station to identify some lost property, or 3) a man approaches a child in a doctor's coat and tells the child that his/her parents have been in a terrible accident and to go with him to the hospital. Something should feel wrong to the child in each of these situations.

In the first situation, if the child did not steal anything they should sense that something is not right. The second situation is just a weird, out of the blue circumstance that should cause them to raise a red flag. In the third situation, anyone would initially ask themselves, "why would the doctor come out looking for me?" and should realize that something is wrong.

Bottom line: I tell children to trust their first instinct. If they get that little shot of adrenaline causing butterflies in their stomach and their legs to feel like jello, that is a sign that something is not right. Listen to it and get out of there as fast as you can!

Keep up the good fight!

What do you think? Tell us in the comments section below.