Stranger danger

Stranger danger is a presumption that interaction between a child and an adult that a child does not already know has a significant risk of harming the child, particularly kidnapping or child sexual abuse.

But a lot of times, this perceived danger is overblown relative to the facts. A 2002 study found that of the nearly 800,000 children reported missing per year, most were runaways, not abductions, and the vast majority of abductions were by relatives, often a father without custody. Only 7 percent were abducted by other than family, and fewer than 0.02 percent are "stereotypical kidnappings" where a stranger holds a child overnight and more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

By the 2010s, the hysteria had become so out of hand that video games and the Internet are all that kids have nowadays other than sitting on the couch and watching TV, to the point where children end up with so-called "nature deficit disorder". Even prisoners get more time outside than many children. Law enforcement officers in the USA are far quicker to assume "neglect" and "endangerment" on the part of free-range parents than before. Let your kids play outside while you watch, and you may get arrested for child endangerment. Police and child protective services in fact kidnap children more often than actual criminals do. In the United States, it took a federal law in January 2016 to keep local authorities from harassing parents of children who walk to school. And this lack of outdoor play is causing children to become nearsighted.