Stranger danger

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Stranger danger is the idea or warning that all strangers can potentially be dangerous. The phrase is intended to encapsulate the danger associated with adults whom children do not know. The phrase has found widespread usage and many children will hear it during their childhood. Many books, films and public service announcements have been devoted to helping children remember this advice.

Although there are other dangers such as kidnapping for ransom, the main threat with which stranger danger campaigns are concerned is child sexual abuse. Portrayals in the news media have tended to reinforce public fears of strangers as potential paedophiles, despite sexual abuse of children being more likely to occur in families.^[1] In the early 2000s the emphasis of such campaigns shifted somewhat, to reflect the risk of abuse by persons known to the child.^[2][3]