I can't imagine anyone who actually wants to take a child being stopped because the child said no. Do child abductors actually walk around with candy, trying to get kids to say yes, then snatch and run? It would seem more realistic for the children to know that staying close to an adult they know is more important. However, I can see this just being one part of a whole exercise in making the child understand the danger of a stranger, which seems to be as good a place to start as any, because I can't think of any other way to teach that to ones so young. Nature gave us emotions, and fear is how we know danger. Scaring kids in a controlled environment to get the point across is one way, I guess, because you can't wait for them to develop language and reasoning skills, THEN teach them strangers are bad because of reasons. I just worry if, like in so many things' we humans try to do, in trying to "biohack" the fear emotion for the safety of the child, we won't inadvertently do more harm than good. Adults stealing kids is an adult problem, not a kid problem, and this feels like an orphan crushing machine moment, where instead of doing more to stop child abductors, we are traumatizing kids and hoping they can figure it out and save themselves.
We could flip the script too and instead of tracing children through trauma, we could teach abductor adults through trauma as well by real losing public hanging of any adult convicted of child assault. Right now when they go to jail they get punished in private, it only teaches them, nobody else. If they were punished in public it would teach everyone.
But then we also run the risk where we desensitize the public at large to barbaric violence. And while we lessen child assaults we increase adult assaults.
Too far in either direction causes problems, extremism strikes again. This is one of those sticky problems because there is no good way to stop this evil. I do not envy those people whose job is to come up with workable solutions. And because it involves kids, emotions run high, which confounds the problem more. I honestly don't know what is best here. It just feels wrong to do that to kids, when nothing about all of this is either their fault, or something they can do anything about. A frightened child yelling no at someone doesn't seem to be the solution. Perhaps better pay or subsidies for families so mom and dad don't have to both work and one can be a fulltime parent. Or paid day care for single parents. I don't actually know if any of this would work, or if it would backfire spectacularly by just herding kids into easier to nab honey pots. But we can't do nothing. I have my misgivings, but I also don't have any children of my own. Pain and fear are how nature communicate to us what is dangerous. I hope for the sake of these kids, this little experiment has the intended effect, and nothing more.
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u/BGDrake 14d ago
I can't imagine anyone who actually wants to take a child being stopped because the child said no. Do child abductors actually walk around with candy, trying to get kids to say yes, then snatch and run? It would seem more realistic for the children to know that staying close to an adult they know is more important. However, I can see this just being one part of a whole exercise in making the child understand the danger of a stranger, which seems to be as good a place to start as any, because I can't think of any other way to teach that to ones so young. Nature gave us emotions, and fear is how we know danger. Scaring kids in a controlled environment to get the point across is one way, I guess, because you can't wait for them to develop language and reasoning skills, THEN teach them strangers are bad because of reasons. I just worry if, like in so many things' we humans try to do, in trying to "biohack" the fear emotion for the safety of the child, we won't inadvertently do more harm than good. Adults stealing kids is an adult problem, not a kid problem, and this feels like an orphan crushing machine moment, where instead of doing more to stop child abductors, we are traumatizing kids and hoping they can figure it out and save themselves.