Like me, I'm sure you've told your kids countless times not to talk to strangers. I have told mine to never pay attention to someone who comes asking for help because you just never know. But have you ever wondered how your kids would react if they were actually approached by a stranger in real life?
The producers of a British television show did and that is why they decided to do an experiment to see how many children would walk away with a stranger asking for helped finding his doggie. The results are alarming.
Seven of the nine children fell for the stranger's story and went with him without even thinking twice about it even though they had no idea who he was. It took the stranger less than 90 seconds to convince the kids that he needed help. All the kids in the experiment were under 10 years old, except for an 11-year-old girl who initially went with the man, but later realized she'd made a terrible mistake and ran to her mom.
All the mothers who agreed to have their children participate in the experiment were sure their children understood the dangers of walking off with a stranger. It's obvious that we're not doing a good job making it absolutely clear to them.
One of the most important things we have to explain to our children is that those who can potentially harm them don't always look like bad, ugly or scary people. Many times, it's just regular men and women who seem kind and friendly.
For me, the scariest lesson is that a child predator doesn't even have to use violence to get to his victim, because, as demonstrated in this experiment, many kids will willingly walk away with them.
Image vía itv.com
