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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

Pantone363 · 04/02/2015 23:19

The attack has been reported in today's paper.

Headline "Masked man attempts to drag child into van"

Actual story: van stopped and man encouraged child to get in.

Original email that was circulating on FB was not from the school, police aware of social media rumours and are investigating what actually happened.

OP posts:

UncleT · 04/02/2015 16:02

Clearly not all children lie about things like this. Unfortunately, some do though - twice when we were at school there were ridiculously serious allegations made about an attack and an attempted attack that had the whole community freaked out - unfortunately they were proven to be totally false. As usual, it's not about either believing everything blindly, nor about dismissing it without proper consideration.

LurkingHusband · 04/02/2015 15:43

Thing is we all hear about the "suspicious activity" but never heard the 99.99% of cases where it turns out to be something innocuous.

The same way newspapers print retractions an apologies in small type by the adverts ....

Notrevealingmyidentity · 04/02/2015 15:16

I wonder this. I don't deny it happens.

There was a report on out local radio of a teenager approached by an elderly man and woman in a car. It's a real report it's on our police website.
But the police website says no more than that and that there may well be an explanation.

Yet the radio was reporting it as an attempted abduction.

It's a bit...I don't know. Worrying. They may have just been asking for directions for all we know.

OldLadyKnows · 04/02/2015 15:05

Re white van man, that was pretty much Robert Black's modus operandum. But he's been inside for quite some time now.

KnittedJimmyChoos · 04/02/2015 13:29

How many abducted by men in a white van while on the way to school?

I have no idea, op wasn't talking about white van man op was talking about peoples over active imaginations.

We have had two reports in two years, of two cases of cars, can't remember name or make, behaving suspiciously round schools and during this time, there was extra police patrols round the schools.

Do I think that was active imagination? No.

Hakluyt · 04/02/2015 13:17

"140 000 children go missing in uk each year. "

How many abducted by men in a white van while on the way to school?

BarbarianMum · 04/02/2015 12:09

^ I agree with this. And it does matter because if genuine alerts are drowned out in a sea of fake frothing. Either parents will become blase and fail to react appropriately or children will live in terror of something that is actually pretty rare (unlike the sexual harrassment of teenage girls but that's another thread).

LurkingHusband · 04/02/2015 12:04

Anyone recall the "bogus social worker" scare(s) ?

Aussiemum78 · 04/02/2015 11:56

The news reports are always vague and involve white vans doing not much but driving past. Here white vans are common in the streets as postal couriers drive them, stop often etc.

mobile.abc.net.au/news/2009-05-16/man-in-white-van-an-urban-myth/1685570

I think there's a boogey man factor with seeing a white van.

TheCraicDealer · 04/02/2015 11:55

Another one agreeing with peppermint. Most of the people on my newsfeed who share things of that nature are also guilty of sharing those, "like and I'll be cured of cancer" pictures or "win an iPad courtesy of dodgyshit.com!". Or inviting me to play FarmVille. I don't want to say they're gullible buuuuuut they kind of are, for the most part, and liable to feed off each other. I don't want to say their children are lying, because I don't think there's any mischief there, just that it snowballs and becomes embellished.

You can say, "better safe than sorry, what harm does it do?", but the reality is that certain elements of the media perpetuate the idea that there are paedos lurking around every corner, ready to snatch your kids. Whilst it's obviously a good idea to listen to kids and take them seriously (and reporting to the relevant authorities), putting out warnings like this carte blanche only increases the distrust we have in men, let's face it, and their interactions children when in reality they're most at risk from people they already know and trust. They're putting their efforts in the wrong place. Tell the police and school, if there's a pattern or theme there'll be an official warning or notification.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 04/02/2015 11:49

It's a shame this thread has got blurry with talk about the children / teens as unreliable witnesses.

That's really not the issue here. The issue is the Facebook rumour mill, which spreads hysteria and exaggeration at incredible speeds.

In this digital age, we need to focus on how we can ascertain the credibility of information, especially when it's so important.

I don't set much store by Facebook panic spreading or whipping up some mass hysteria or mob rule.

I do listen to police reports and messages circulated by schools.

It's not the children that are the problem here, it's the adults.

sugarman · 04/02/2015 11:21

We had a spate of them in our neighbourhood late last year, roughly 12 in the space of 5 weeks.

The reports came directly from the school. They were not described as attempted abductions but as children being approached by strangers. The descriptions varied slightly but had similarities, too. In all cases boys were being targeted at busy times.

No child was abducted and no suspects ever caught.

But we have had spates like this before and I recall 2 in which children were grabbed but got away. Again, reports came from the school and were also written up in our local papers.

Equally we have had cases, not in our neighbourhood but in our city, of children getting upset by strangers only for it to turn out to be entirely innocent. For example, a child waiting in the rain was approached by a couple of young men in a car. The child ran away, very upset. The men recognised themselves from ensuing media reports and went to police. They had been concerned for the child's safety and stopped to ask if he needed help.

KnittedJimmyChoos · 04/02/2015 11:07

BTW I had lots of near brushes when I was younger, lost count of times saw man wanking in bushes on way home from school, seen flasher, been approached by dogy man on a beach wanting to take photos of me in under wear...been approached by odd man by river, and offered sweets at motorway services when very young...and lots more to add....looked out window at home whislt cleaning upstairs one, and saw man driving round with a t shirt on and nothing else...

I have also heard the scream of a woman being attacked in near by alley way.

not my imagination.

KnittedJimmyChoos · 04/02/2015 11:05

It was only when i took a good look at the letter i realised that the "gangs" where the bloods and the crips. I'm pretty bloody sure them gangs don't venture into rural Cumbria and the letter was probably circulated around LA

awful for la but hilarious for cumbira

KnittedJimmyChoos · 04/02/2015 11:04

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2638708/Faces-Britains-lost-children-Missing-People-launches-The-Big-Tweet-campaign.html

140 000 children go missing in uk each year.

No i dont think its over active imagination, if anything we underplay abuse and possible abusers in this country.

VitoCorleoneAgain · 04/02/2015 11:01

This reminds me of something i read on Facebook a while back, somebody had took a photo of a letter and posted it on fb, this letter was warning people not to flash your car lights at cars that where driving along with no lights on (to remind them to put lights on) as it was some sort of gang initiation, as soon as you flash your lights you become a target.

This was being shared by people from all over my area, people were warning others not to drive at night etc

It was only when i took a good look at the letter i realised that the "gangs" where the bloods and the crips. I'm pretty bloody sure them gangs don't venture into rural Cumbria and the letter was probably circulated around LA

People actually believed they where going to be shot.

Anyway, that's got nowt to do with this but it reminded me of some of the shite you read on fb

Fanjango · 04/02/2015 10:37

Apologies for double post, my app seems to playing up.

Fanjango · 04/02/2015 10:36

The police have said it's an 11 year old boy that has made the accusation. Strangely a girls school in the same street chose not to pass the school watch message on to their parents and social media alerted them to it instead!
Article here
m.gazette-news.co.uk/news/11769711.Masked_man_attempts_to_drag_child_into_blacked_out_van/?ref=

Fanjango · 04/02/2015 10:31

sashh · 04/02/2015 10:01

We once went to visit some relatives, my cousin was about 7 at the time and playing out with friends so we stopped to say hello and then drove the 50m to the house.

Her mother had just had 3 phone calls from neighbours telling her about the stranger talking to her daughter.

LurkingHusband · 04/02/2015 09:57

PeppermintCrayon

People fixate on stories of attempted abduction because it's reassuring to think of stranger danger and threats you can avoid.

Distracts them from the reality, which is that the majority of child abuse is perpetuated by people known to the victim.

Sadly true. There was an article a while ago and the author pointed out that statistically, it was safer to let children go outside to play than (as we now do) keeping them indoors, since indoors - indeed at home - was where there was the highest chance of abuse happening.

Hakluyt · 04/02/2015 09:57

If a report is made to the police it is obviously taken seriously and the schools warned. That doesn't mean it actually happened. If you dig a little into most of the FB "shared" stuff they tur out to be hoaxes. Like the don't stop for a car seat in the road and check the back of your car for rapists tell all your woman friends things.

Interestingly, when my dd was younger it was always Asian men in a white van. Now it's Eastern European looking men in a white van.........

Fanjango · 04/02/2015 09:44

All good points, it may not be true. This morning it has been posted by Essex police on the gazette online

PeppermintCrayon · 04/02/2015 09:17

People fixate on stories of attempted abduction because it's reassuring to think of stranger danger and threats you can avoid.

Distracts them from the reality, which is that the majority of child abuse is perpetuated by people known to the victim.

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