Experts warn against teaching the phrase ‘stranger danger’

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is now encouraging parents to steer away from using the phrase “stranger danger,” a slogan that has been taught for decades to emphasize to children the potential threat posed by strangers.

Although the group moved away from “stranger danger” years ago, the phrase is so pervasive that many parents still teach it. The group renewed their call to end its use on “Good Morning America” today.

“It’s so easy, it rhymes,” Callahan Walsh, a child advocate at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told ABC News. “It’s just this one phrase, blanket statement, but it really doesn’t fit all scenarios and that’s why we want to re-think stranger danger.” Full Artic

Related posts

Subscribe
Notify of

We welcome a lively discussion with all view points - keeping in mind...

 

  1. Submissions must be in English
  2. Your submission will be reviewed by one of our volunteer moderators. Moderating decisions may be subjective.
  3. Please keep the tone of your comment civil and courteous. This is a public forum.
  4. Swear words should be starred out such as f*k and s*t and a**
  5. Please avoid the use of derogatory labels.  Always use person-first language.
  6. Please stay on topic - both in terms of the organization in general and this post in particular.
  7. Please refrain from general political statements in (dis)favor of one of the major parties or their representatives.
  8. Please take personal conversations off this forum.
  9. We will not publish any comments advocating for violent or any illegal action.
  10. We cannot connect participants privately - feel free to leave your contact info here. You may want to create a new / free, readily available email address that are not personally identifiable.
  11. Please refrain from copying and pasting repetitive and lengthy amounts of text.
  12. Please do not post in all Caps.
  13. If you wish to link to a serious and relevant media article, legitimate advocacy group or other pertinent web site / document, please provide the full link. No abbreviated / obfuscated links. Posts that include a URL may take considerably longer to be approved.
  14. We suggest to compose lengthy comments in a desktop text editor and copy and paste them into the comment form
  15. We will not publish any posts containing any names not mentioned in the original article.
  16. Please choose a short user name that does not contain links to other web sites or identify real people.  Do not use your real name.
  17. Please do not solicit funds
  18. No discussions about weapons
  19. If you use any abbreviation such as Failure To Register (FTR), Person Forced to Register (PFR) or any others, the first time you use it in a thread, please expand it for new people to better understand.
  20. All commenters are required to provide a real email address where we can contact them.  It will not be displayed on the site.
  21. Please send any input regarding moderation or other website issues via email to moderator [at] all4consolaws [dot] org
  22. We no longer post articles about arrests or accusations, only selected convictions. If your comment contains a link to an arrest or accusation article we will not approve your comment.
  23. If addressing another commenter, please address them by exactly their full display name, do not modify their name. 
ACSOL, including but not limited to its board members and agents, does not provide legal advice on this website.  In addition, ACSOL warns that those who provide comments on this website may or may not be legal professionals on whose advice one can reasonably rely.  
 

4 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Callahan Walsh is just a cowardly fear profiteer following in the footsteps of his old man. By no means are they “experts” with their extreme personal and emotional biases towards us, (the so-called “confirmed” threats) against children.

Oh course they depend on the registry to validate their existence.

Yet, you hear Samuel L. Jackson state this very phrase in a commercial during the Final Four games last night!!

Of course there is stranger danger. Every time you get in your car and drive somewhere in a big city, you are in danger. Thousands of cars whizzing past you with who knows who is behind the wheels. Teenagers who just learned how to drive, 80 year olds with cataracts, soccer moms in their too big to handle SUVs, the texters, the speeders, the inebriated, the distracted, the fatigued, the angry – and the list goes on.

In the realm of possibilities , a stranger with a vehicle is much more of a potential threat to anyone than an ex criminal is .

And those statistics are real.