A clip of Loose Women (the talk show for those who are unfamiliar with it - and nothing else!) in which they talk about a course aimed at children to prevent abductions reminded me of all the times I'd been taught as a child to be wary of strangers. As a child, we didn't have any courses as such - which was odd considering the number of child abductions and murders that were going on at that time - but we did often get one of the local police officers come into our school to give us talks (we also had the firefighters come in to talk to us about fire safety.) This would then be followed with further instructions from our class teacher or head teacher which would include videos that we'd have to watch. Though thankfully nothing too scary! Then of course there were all those public information broadcasts that we used to get during the commercial breaks. Oh and of course our parents would always be telling us not to talk to strangers; accept sweets from strangers; get into cars with strangers etc.
How were you taught about the dangers of strangers and what to do should you find yourself in a dangerous situation? And furthermore, do you think that being taught about the dangers of the world made you aware and alert as a child... or downright fearful?
The area I grew up in was hardly the safest area of London. But that said my mum didn't try to wrap me up in cotton wool or anything. My parents knew it wasn't the answer and knew I'd have problems as I got older if they did that. So they taught me what to do and gave me the right skills to know what to do if ever I was approached by anyone dodgy. Plus as we had lots of family and friends in the area, we were quite confident that there was always someone who'd be able to help if either me or my siblings needed it. In any case I was hardly ever on my own, as I was always hanging around with my little group of friends.