Nursery World - Tim Gill addresses the impact of a preoccupation with 'stranger danger'

This week's columnist Tim Gill addresses the impact of a preoccupation with 'stranger danger' Let's get one thing straight. The threat from strangers is, and always has been, very small, no matter what you might think from the tabloid headlines and distorted television coverage.

Let's get one thing straight. The threat from strangers is, and always has been, very small, no matter what you might think from the tabloid headlines and distorted television coverage.

It is tempting to think that we - and children - have to be prepared for the worst. That we have no choice but to frighten them, in order to protect them. Tempting, but disastrously wrong. For it ignores the corrosive impact of the fear of strangers.

The message 'don't trust strangers' takes us to a place where nobody trusts anyone, where the slightest pleasantry with a child is grounds for suspicion, where basic human concern is rebranded as a naive and foolish emotion, and where people are anxious even to come to the aid of a child in obvious distress.

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