"Rather than teaching children to fear strangers, which is at best, woefully inadequate, we need to use positive messages," says Dr. Broughton. "Children need to learn skills and confidence, not fear and avoidance."
Dr. Broughton is one of the authors of the newly published American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Report entitled, "The Pediatrician's Role in the Prevention of Missing Children." Published in the October issue of Pediatrics, the report offers prevention strategies for pediatricians to share with families.
Dr. Broughton says, too often, emphasis is placed on stranger danger. However, most children reported missing are runaways or were taken by noncustodial parents. Only a small number of children are victims of classic kidnappings, though many are abducted for shorter periods and released. Most people who perpetrate these crimes on children are not strangers in the eye and mind of the child.
"It could be a neighbor, a familiar face in the child's daily routine, or someone the child's parents know well enough to greet," says Dr. Broughton.
According to research conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in cases of long-term kidnapping in which the child was found alive, 85 percent of the victims did not consider the kidnapper to be a stranger. In at least 65 percent of the cases in which a child was found dead and the perpetrator identified, it was clear that the child would not have considered the person a stranger.
"Those statistics are powerful reasons to teach children a different approach than "don't talk to strangers," says Dr. Broughton. "The stranger danger message frightens them without any proven benefit."
What to teach instead
"Parents can teach about personal safety without causing unwarranted fear," says Dr. Broughton.
Children need to know that they do not need to kiss, hug, touch or sit on the lap of anyone, relative or not, if they do not wish to. This respect for their wishes translates into self-respect and the ability for children to say no to unwanted contacts without generating fear.
The pediatrician's role
Pediatricians can be a resource to families and help put the risk of abduction in perspective. The pediatrician's advice for preventing child abductions needs to be a balance of safeguarding children while not causing fear, says Dr. Broughton.
"None of these safety approaches needs to be taught specifically as safeguarding against abductions -- with all its overtones of danger and threat," says Dr. Broughton. "Instead, safety should be taught as common sense so children can learn confidence and independence."
Facts on abductions
Missing children overview
Nonfamily abductions
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children, 2002)
Family abductions
PEDIATRICS