This suggests that children should be wary of strangers, yet all the research tells us that children are most at risk of abuse from adults who are known to them, mainly family members and friends of the family, or those in positions of trust with whom they come into contact. It is therefore difficult to see how such a ban, even if it is done with the worthy aim of protecting children, achieves anything except discriminating against single adults, male or female. It is, however, a sad reflection of the hysteria that surrounds keeping children safe. We need to recognise that some children have been sexually exploited by gangs and others, and that streets have not always been safe places for them. But very few children are abducted. This is why, when it happens, it makes headline news. But even then the majority of snatches are by people known to the children, for example divorced parents in contact disputes.
Our main focus on stranger danger in 2015 should instead be online, which is why it is so pleasing that at the #WeProtect summit new measures were announced to tackle the proliferation of indecent images of children on the web and that new legislation will be introduced so that sexual communication with a child will be made a criminal offence for the first time. Too often, adults intent on abusing have pretended to be children in order to groom their unsuspecting victims. We can and must educate children to protect themselves better, especially where no adult supervision is available. The internet is often such a place.
We can teach them to share with trusted adults when they feel uncomfortable around other adults, or when they are concerned about an adult’s behaviour towards them. We must also ensure that adults understand how sexual offenders operate. Too great an emphasis on stranger danger, or on secondary issues such as the ban on single adults in parks, can only confuse the situation and deflect us from where the real dangers lie.
