"You might get kidnapped or taken by a stranger," says Jojo.

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
This makes me very sad:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6720661.stm

Thanks to tabloid hysteria over peadophilia, of which the whole Maddie episode is the most recent incarnation, there's now a phantom nonce on every street corner and in every park. The reality is that the vast majority of abuse is committed by a relative, step-parent, 'carer' or some other adult known to the victim.

Add to this parents' awareness-campaign-induced terror that their kids could get run over or offered drugs the moment they set foot outside the front door and is it any wonder we've got a nation of overweight, unhealthy, suspicious, alienated kids?
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
lots of people don't like thinking, have little understanding of the concept of probability and get lots of their information about the world from the sun/NotW/mail/express?
 

john eden

male pale and stale
It's just all very sad, is all.

What can you say about 8 year olds who don't want to go down to the park unaccompanied in case they "get raped".

One of my neighbours never lets her kids out because she is vaguely phobic about flowers or insects something and it clearly isn't doing them much good.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
One of my neighbours never lets her kids out because she is vaguely phobic about flowers or insects something and it clearly isn't doing them much good.

For God's sake, what's the worst that could happen? Raped by flowers? Sold crack by wasps in hoodies?
At least a fear of bad people would be based on the fact that if a Bad Person were to get hold of one of her kids, the results could be awful - even if it is microscopically unlikely.

We're raising a generation of fat, unadventurous, alienated, paranoid worriers. :(

Edit: bah, I said pretty much that in the first post. What more is there to say about it?
 

john eden

male pale and stale
It also depends where you live, I think.

Plus - nobody wants to use their kid as a social experiment to prove it's all OK.
 

Lichen

Well-known member
Suad

I blame Flinty Badman and his '91 lyric:

"Kids on my street are afraid to play, 'cos dirty dirty old men wanna take them away"
 

mos dan

fact music
It's just all very sad, is all.

What can you say about 8 year olds who don't want to go down to the park unaccompanied in case they "get raped".

well quite.

i joined a facebook group recently which - in mildly poor taste - is called 'madeleine needs more media attention!!!' i've found the length, depth and breadth of the media's coverage truly astonishing - even post-soham.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Yes it's one of those things where ANYONE feels they can start a conversation about it with you - like smalltalk.

"ooh isn't it terrible"

"..."

I mean, it's a no brainer, like "Nice weather we're having".
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
I had the core of this conversation with my wife a couple of days ago - around the question, at what age will our boys be able to go the park unaccompanied? We think about ten. Pretty much the same as when we were growing up.

Mind you, our local parks are literally over the road from where we live, and our area is pretty much the safest place in the Britain.

But yes - the risk of being killed crossing the road is far, far greater than the risk of being killed by a sexual predator.
 

mos dan

fact music
Yes it's one of those things where ANYONE feels they can start a conversation about it with you - like smalltalk.

"ooh isn't it terrible"

"..."

I mean, it's a no brainer, like "Nice weather we're having".

oh god i hate it when people ask questions like that. i think the statement about the weather is a far better opening gambit.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
oh god i hate it when people ask questions like that. i think the statement about the weather is a far better opening gambit.

At least with the weather you can open up the conversation into other things like how you spent the weekend or whatever. "ooh ain't it terrible" either goes nowhere or just ends up in a parallel universe of terror.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
well quite.
i've found the length, depth and breadth of the media's coverage truly astonishing - even post-soham.

Is it bad of me that when the first Maddie pictures were in the papers, I thought "Christ, you'd have thought parents would have learned not to dress their pre-teen daughters in football shirts by now."?
 

tomd

penis like a micromachine
I cant remember the exact figure, but it was definately between 60 to 70,000 people go missing in america alone every year.
 

sodiumnightlife

Sweet Virginia
but people go missing for all sorts of reasons....it's not just down to peadophiles. I'm pretty sure that the majority of people who go "missing" have just decided to bugger off for one reason or another and not tell anyone. Don't have any figures to back that up mind you.

There was a report a while ago on the bbc i think about how the lack of social interaction is harming children nowadays. Unsupervised play is a vital part of a child's development, it teaches them social skills. I can understand parent's worrying, and obviously when I have kids i will worry about them too, but i can hopefully take the long term view of small risk now vs big payoff later. I don't want my kids to be as socially retarded as alot of my generation are.
 

Noah Baby Food

Well-known member
I blame Flinty Badman and his '91 lyric:

"Kids on my street are afraid to play, 'cos dirty dirty old men wanna take them away"

That was either PJ or Smiley, not Flinty Badman (or Demon Rocker). I know pretty much all the bars from that song...aaaaaaaah nostalgia!

Pedantically yours,
Noah



I reckon the parents strangled her. Bet you a tenner that's what happened.

(stifles hissing chuckle through nose)

Is it bad of me that when the first Maddie pictures were in the papers, I thought "Christ, you'd have thought parents would have learned not to dress their pre-teen daughters in football shirts by now."?

...POW! I think it is probably bad of you...
 
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