Child abductions by strangers are NOT everywhere or 'so common these days'

[Echobelly]

Aaagh! So annoyed at people forever sharing totally unverified 'Weirdos in white van tried to abduct this child' with only a link to a social media post by the parent, or attention-seeling posts about 'A man smiled at my child in Tesco and my motherly instincts told me 100% that he was sex trafficker trying to abduct them, we had such a lucky escape' and then the torrent of concerned replies about 'Oh hun, weirdos are everywhere' 'This is so scary, I'm not letting my 12 year old out of my sight' 'I'm so glad you're OK, how terrifying' 'This is why we need to track our kids' every move' 'Why aren't the police doing anything?' 'Why isn't this in the national press?'

The latter two because 99% of the time they are bollocks! It's a parent on social media seeking attention or just something made up by someone. In some cases (like the latest one I saw) the police have investigated and it is in the national press as a footnote that the police did investigate and concluded there was no abduction www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/south-london-child-abduction-reported-b1852116.html

Please don't share these - unless you actually know the parent and more happened than a child being smiled at or talked to, or unless it's actually a genuine police appeal for caution (and then check it is from a genuine police account) unecessary fear about imaginary abductors does our kids so much harm collectively and takes attention away from the real issues. Known people are far more likely to do harm to kids, sex trafficking most commonly happens to teenage girls who are groomed into it by people the know, not snatched in a van and carried off somewhere

The article admits that there have been 4 separate attempted abductions in that area.

As a parent I would want to know of attempted abductions in my area.

I'm not saying it never happens, but that article also doesn't say they were abduction attempts, just reported as such by the police - it's exactly the climate of fear created by unverified posts about it.

Potentially of these 'reported abduction attempts' could be misunderstandings. All we know was an 8 year old child was 'approached' and there are people who will report anyone unknown who speaks to their child as a potential abductor, a boy was 'followed on the street' - again, could have been completely innocent; a child's hand was grabbed - could just be a mistaken identity when the person thought it was a family member. Don't know what the story was with the van, but certainly if a heightened degree of concern is created by people posting on social media, people can start jumping on any incident as 'attempted abduction'

*sorry reported as abduction attempts TO the police, they're not actually saying if they were on not, just that no one was abducted or hurt.

A lot of child abductions are gang related. They definitely do happen but are rarely investigated properly as the child is often in a chaotic home or care setting & the police don’t take it seriously.

Well exactly, where they do happen in tends to be to the most vulnerable. Some people say 'why aren't the press reporting on it', but they're most interested in the stranger abduction of white, and ideally, middle class, girls because that's what sells papers on the rare occasions it happens sadly

As a mum, I want to know if there is an attempt locally which is why I'm on the local police text alert system.

It can happen anywhere, anytime. We all live with that and I know I need to be always vigilant, but if there is any (possible) information such as a description of a person or vehicle, I want to know. It doesn't increase my fear, it makes me more observant, and that's a good thing.

I don't take much notice of social media though.

Yambu. I won't go into details but there was an incident I found out about through my job. Mum says an 'old foreign man' leapt forward to try and snatch her kid while waiting for the lifts at a shopping centre.
Turns out the CCTV showed the poor bloke had fallen forward over his walking stick and sort of 'lunged' forward.
Poor bloke didn't speak English and was terrified.
No further action was taken, next thing you know the mum has posted saying A foreign man tried to kidnap my little boy at shops!!!! Police did NOTHING. Share this Post- Mums need to be aware!!!!
The police force had to release a statement explaining why no further action was taken as they were getting battered by random huns who think they know better than the people who were actually there.

YANBU at all.

The attempted abduction of the 11 year old was quite serious and there were witnesses. I cringe at your suggestion, without evidence, that these are somehow fake reports. How do you know this?

The only time this issue appeared on my FB was when it happened in Chorley last year. In September a man lured a student into woodlands and forced her to remove clothing. He was arrested.

In November, in Chorley, there were two incidents of a man in a van trying to get students walking alone to approach the van. Both times the students ignored them and reported the incident to school and the police.

These things happen and I see more real incidents that are reported by local news than I see hoaxes.

@Echobelly

Well exactly, where they do happen in tends to be to the most vulnerable. Some people say 'why aren't the press reporting on it', but they're most interested in the stranger abduction of white, and ideally, middle class, girls because that's what sells papers on the rare occasions it happens sadly

The South London ones recently have all been black boys, early secondary age

@chickenyhead - not saying these reports are just totally made up, but they are unverified. Clearly something did happen with the 11 yo, but there is certainly not enough detail to conclude it was an attempted abduction by strangers who could have targeted anyone.

Yanbu at all. There was one shared prolifically on a few s London FB groups in the last week - blurry shots of two men near a white van, no crime number, no licence plate even, no indication of where “my child’s school” is down to even first half of postcode. Cue howling rage and fumming when the page admins removed the post. Are people this dumb, really?

I live in the area in the news report, while the first one appears to be true (boy being chased in to a park) some of the others are questionable at best.
The child in the shopping centre has been on all the local FB pages but every time to story is different. I worked in the shopping centre for years, right next to where this ‘attempt’ took place. That part of the centre is covered by approx 10 security cameras belonging to both the centre itself & shops - if it happened there is no chance at all it wasn’t caught on camera - zero change, yet there has been no description of the men, no appeal from police, no cctv images with an appeal.

Yes, for all the people saying 'Oh weirdos are everywhere these days', it's actually harder than it's ever been to snatch a kid off the streets without being identified. Sadly internet grooming probably a better bet - and even that doesn't happen the way its popularly supposed to by the way - heard one abuse expert say while they do sometimes move on kids by being nice and winning them over, more often they jump into threats/ blackmail in fairly short order.

During the last couple of years we have had several 'abduction' attempts in our town - all have been absent parents attempting to see their children - not a pleasant situation for the actual families involved but absolutely no threat to the rest of the local population but the mass hysteria they generate is ridiculous and i fear it is damaging our children keeping them so 'safe.