I may or may not have been in a particularly bad mood last night when I was flipping through Facebook and spotted a post which made my previous bad mood seem rather tame.
I was in a bad mood because of Tony Abbott and the way he talks about asylum seekers using emotional blackmail, and actually everything else he and Scott Morrison say and do, I was feeling sad from watching the footage of Sri Lankan women and children, I was anxious about the situation in Israel and on the Gaza Strip, I was horrified by the stabbing death of a three-year old boy in Adelaide. There were real things on my mind. Real and horrific things that I couldn’t quite shake.
And that’s when I saw a post from the NSW Police Force shared by one of my friends because as neurotic as I am I don’t follow the police on Facebook.
The message read in part
“Police are appealing for information after a teenage boy was approached at Rose Bay yesterday.
Police from Rose Bay Local Area Command have been told the 16-year-old was walking along Old South Head Road about midday (Tuesday 8 July 2014), when a white van stopped near him.
He told police the man driving the van offered him a lift; the teen declined and ran away. Police were advised of the incident about 7.30pm.
Police are now appealing for witnesses to the incident to come forward. The van is described as being a white VW-brand with yellow and black number plates.
Anyone who may have witnessed the incident, or who has information about the man or vehicle, is urged to contact Rose Bay Police or Crime Stoppers.”
The post then went on to discuss how we should talk to our children about “Safe People, Safe Places”
As far as I can tell a 16-year-old boy was walking on a very busy road when a white van (because it’s always a white van) pulled up near him. I assume the boy went up close enough to the car to determine that the man offered him a lift. He declined the lift (I assume) and ran away. Smart child. His mother reported it to the police. Smart mother (one can assume the whole family is smart)
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I do not want to trivialise the many heinous things that could happen to a child on the street if the wrong person got to him. But I refuse to believe that everyone driving a white van is a pedophile or the abductor of small (or in this case – big) children.
The paranoia we feel about the “man in the white van” is actually hugely disproportionate to the actual danger our kids face.
The data around attempted abductions is difficult to capture – some attempts might not be reported, and some may be reported under different sub categories. I’m not sure that this incident was reported as an attempted abduction because there is nothing in the report that points to an attempt to lure the boy away.
Recent figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology state that just over 750 abductions occurred Australia wide during one calendar year and that just over half were by a stranger. Children made up less than 20% of the cases. Less than 20% of the cases HALF of which were committed by people known to the child.
If anything happened to this 16-year old boy to terrify him or make him feel uncomfortable I am hugely and profusely sorry – for him, for his parents and for anyone else affected.
But to the hundreds of people who have gone into a major panic about allowing their children to walk outside because of this incident I implore you to recognise the facts. Educate your children like this boy was educated, teach them to ignore people they don’t know and to call for help if the person won’t go away (scream ” I do not know this person”), to use busy roads, to learn about safe adults and obviously not to get into the car of someone they don’t know.
But educate them in reality not in fear.
Rant over.
*UPDATE: As I was finishing this post the mum of the boy contacted me via Facebook. Scary shit when you realise how close you are to that person who is in the “news”, we have about 10 Facebook friends in common. She says the man offered her child a lift and then demanded that he get in the car. That is some scary shit and I am even gladder now that he ran away. But it doesn’t negate my point that education is key – education not fear.
Yes, I saw your comment on FB! Didn’t quite know how to respond.
Before I share a missing child or abduction post on FB I try to make sure I share it from the police post or if not possible, then at least make sure that I say to contact the police. You just never know what the full circumstances of it is, and I’d much rather be in contact with the police than to unknowingly give someone information about a child who they aren’t supposed to have contact with.