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AIBU?

To think a large amount of attempted abductions are just the result of over active imaginations....

106 replies

Pantone363 · 03/02/2015 21:56

Possibly I am. Just pondering yet another report of a local child being approached on the way to school and nearly abducted.

Reports usually posted on FB and involve a car stopping and child being called over or a van driving past slowly and then driving off fast.

Today's report is a teenage girl who fought off a man wearing a balaclava driving a big black van. On a very busy stretch of road during rush hour. Which nobody else saw. Police are investigating according to the email from the school.

IABU to think that a lot of these reports are products of over active imaginations, attention seeking or the result of fear mongering around peadophiles? Or are there actually monthly attempted abductions of small children by strangers?

OP posts:

Report

Dr0pThePirate · 03/02/2015 22:00

Dr0pThePirate · 03/02/2015 22:00

Yeah! I was first! That was my first biscuit too!

MrsRayOfSunshine · 03/02/2015 22:02

Awh I was just about to do this as my first biscuit pirate!

Lucyccfc · 03/02/2015 22:06

YANBU. Greater Manchester Police announced today that only 1 report out of 33 in the last month actually had any substance to it.

Social media and FB has a lot to answer for. 1 report and people's imagination goes into over-drive and they are reporting all sorts of stuff.

Pantone363 · 03/02/2015 22:06

Ah biscuits...how cliche

I'm being serious. Child walks to school, van pulls up near child, man acting 'suspicious' and child reports to school/parents. Suddenly it's being treated as a near abduction? Parents warned to be on the look out?

OP posts:

ILovePud · 03/02/2015 22:07

Histrionic teenage girls are well known for making stuff like this up, all those silly attention seekers trying to make out Jimmy Saville had touched them up. There's a lot of fear mongering nowadays thankfully the authorities over in Rochdale ignored it.

expatinscotland · 03/02/2015 22:08

So you are suggesting children shouldn't be believed. They are just scare mongering and over-active imagination. YABU.

And yeah, have a

amarmai · 03/02/2015 22:08

Depending on how many children are assaulted over the lifetime of a pedophile and depending on what % of these victims act out what has been done to them thus creating an ever increasing number of pedophiles , it seems to me there must be many pedophiles and therefore many attempted abductions.

LumpenproletariatAndProud · 03/02/2015 22:08

To be honest Ive wondered the same.

I would always give a child the benefit of the doubt because it would be awful not to.

But I have wondered...

expatinscotland · 03/02/2015 22:08

Because it is serious.

Pantone363 · 03/02/2015 22:09

Re the attempted abduction this morning by the man in a balaclava. Nothing in the local paper. Nothing on the local police website. Yes parents on FB warning each other about it and organising school runs so kids don't have to walk.

OP posts:

Pantone363 · 03/02/2015 22:11

Who said anything about girls?

Today's report was a girl. The last few were boys.

Rochdale was grooming by peadophiles of vulnerable children. Not really the same as stranger abduction of kids walking to school...

OP posts:

NoArmaniNoPunani · 03/02/2015 22:11

There are a number of hoaxes that make their way around FB. A quick check on snopes before sharing them is best.

Samcro · 03/02/2015 22:12

the stuff on fb, i don't believe half of it.
but other than that yabu

MrsRayOfSunshine · 03/02/2015 22:13

So if someone tells me there child got nearly abducted by a man in a balaclava, so as to look out for my dc, I'll know not to take it seriously and just put it down to over active imaginations, kids these days and all that

ILovePud · 03/02/2015 22:14

The OP said the report was about a teenage girl, a theme in many cases of child abuse is victims not being believed.

Northernparent68 · 03/02/2015 22:14

The Rochdale and saville scandals did nt involve abduction.

Child abduction is mercifully rare,and the fact the Rochdale/ saville victims were telling the truth does nt mean social media reports of abduction are true.

WhenMarnieWasThere · 03/02/2015 22:16

There is something in this.

A friend told me that a mutual friend's daughter had narrowly escaped being abducted by a couple of men in a van. It had pulled over, the side door had slid open and men were in the back who tried to grab her. She legged it.

Upon meeting another friend, who was also the mum of the girl's friend too, the matter arose in gossip conversation. She was shocked to hear how the rumour mill had gone to work as yes, the van had pulled up and yes the door had slid back, but no, the men had not tried to grab her, the girl had been spooked by them pulling up alongside her and she had run away with her friend before anything could happen or before she could even tell if they were calling her or trying anything suspicious.

I also know of someone who was reported for merely stopping and asking If a child who should have been in school was ok. By the time the local paper had hold of the story it was suspected to be suspicious.

When the driver called the police to say why they had stopped and how they had just asked if the child was ok, the police officer verified that their account corroborated what the busybody who reported them eye witness said they had seen and heard. The papers had embellished the rest.

AalyaSecura · 03/02/2015 22:16

I would believe a child. What I don't believe is the "I heard that so and so said" stuff. Which we had locally a couple of months ago, which got to such fever pitch that we got a warning from the school, and the police did investigate, and concluded that there were no substance to the stories. Two different things imo - absolutely believe the child, but not the rumour mill, that seems to exaggerate and extrapolate.

ILovePud · 03/02/2015 22:19

They did involve abductions, I can see how some reports of attempted abductions reach evolve in the retellings and become urban myths but I think we should always start from the point of believing children and young people. Sadly this is so often not the case.

Pantone363 · 03/02/2015 22:20

A quick google brought up 5 newspaper stories in the last few months of reported abductions which turned out to be false.

Teenage boy reported being lured to a van. Driver traced and it was a case of mistaken identity.

Mother reported man walking away with her toddler. Toddler was actually running towards the road from a park and man brought her back

Girl reports man trying to lure her from supermarket. CCTV and witnesses checked, false report.

OP posts:

Idefix · 03/02/2015 22:22

Not so sure about small children but I certainly recall man in white van curb crawling me whilst beckoning me to get in said van as soaking wet teenager on busy city road many, many years ago. Didn't get in van and didn't say anything about it - was bemused that someone imagined I would be that stupid arrogant teenager
I think it happens far more than it is reported Yabu op and far as supporting evidence I don't suppose anyone notice me and white van man all those years ago and I didn't write down the reg...

Pantone363 · 03/02/2015 22:23

I'm not saying children shouldn't be believed. I'm saying that children do tend to blow "scary" things (like the scenario with the van pulling up above) out of proportion. And that before it is reported as an attempted abduction their version of events should be investigated

OP posts:

ILovePud · 03/02/2015 22:28

This is a horrible thread, a tiny proportion of children who are sexually assaulted ever even report what has happened to them an even smaller proportion of them will see that result in a successful prosecution but don't let that stop anyone peddling myths that children frequently make things like this up. You would never get these responses to a thread about adult women making allegations.

amarmai · 03/02/2015 22:31

so when children tell us that they think someone tried to take them , we should not beleive them because of these examples?

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