Curley: Teaching ‘stranger danger’ is a disservice to kids

From John Curley, taken from Tuesday’s edition of The Tom & Curley Show.

As Halloween comes around the corner – let’s talk about “stranger danger.”

I’ve always said, look at the numbers on this because there are (millions of) kids in the United States and 100 of them, and it’s a terrible tragedy, but a 100 of them are abducted by strangers.

The majority of stuff that happens, unfortunately, comes from people that they know. It’s uncles and aunts, step parents, coaches, pastors, camp counselors; it’s those kinds of people the come after these kids.

You do a great disservice when you say to them: “Stranger danger! Stranger danger! Stranger danger! Don’t talk to strangers.”

Because then what happens is, it cuts them off from people. They’re not able to communicate with kids and they always look at everyone as a particular threat.

Whenever my kids were out at the bus stop, (and I had a lot of time to do that before I was doing this show,) I used to drive by, roll down the window, and yell ‘Hey, kids, hey, I got a puppy made out of chocolate! Do you want to come in here? I know it’s not a white van, but come on kids!’

And then my kids would mockingly yell, ‘Stranger danger! Stranger danger! Stranger danger!’

Fifty children a year die from falling in buckets. What I’m saying is, it’s a terrible tragedy that kids are abducted by strangers. But it does a disservice to the kids who are going to be out there during Halloween. A lot of these parents think they’re protecting their kids by saying ‘stranger danger,’ when really, there is a lot more danger coming into the home through the Internet, texting, and things like that.

If kids are spending seven hours a day in front of a screen, like the Internet, or TV, or their smart phone – that’s a tragedy, too. We have the gigantic bellies and man boobs on 12-year-old boys, and that’s unfortunate.

Taken from Tuesday’s edition of Tom & Curley Show.

AK