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It sucks to say this but in the US if you're male, the smart/safe thing to do is not have any contact with an unaccompanied child at all. There is a non-trivial
by arjn 14y ago
It sucks to say this but in the US if you're male, the smart/safe thing to do is not have any contact with an unaccompanied child at all. There is a non-trivial chance that may be misconstrued as something else and you could find yourself in a whole world of trouble. Of course this should not stop someone from bringing a distressed child to the attention of the flight crew and other passengers.
- gitarr 14y agoThis is a very interesting phenomenon. 1) A child approached by an adult man = everyone is alerted. 2) A helpless child that should be helped = nobody cares. It seems that in case 1 it's more about getting the bad guy then to help the child. This is all sorts of crazy if there is any truth to it. I'd love to see a study on this.
- corin_ 14y ago> more about getting the bad guy then to help the child. Another way to look at it is that the worst outcome of one is the child gets lonely and scared for a small period of time, the worst outcome of the other is they get kidnapped and worse. That said, I'm playing devil's advocate here, not arguing that the above logic should be used by anyone.
- gitarr 14y ago> worst outcome of one is the child gets lonely and scared for a small period of time Actually the outcome could be the exact same thing in both cases.
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- ZoFreX 14y agoFuck. That. If you're not willing to take the negligible* risk of the situation being misconstrued to help a lost scared child, you are no better than the United Airlines employees. * Yes, it is negligible. For every scare story you hear, thousands of people interact with minors with absolutely no issues at all.
- waveman2 14y agoIf it happens to you it is a 100% result. Just today a man was ordered to move his airline seat away from two young children. Until he proved they were his children. In another story out today a woman aggressively approached a man and threatened him with arrest for taking his own children to a store. Another man found a lost child and returned the child to its mother, only to be abused and threatened by the mother. You see enough of this, eventually you conclude "OK, have it your way".
- objclxt 14y agoSorry, are you claiming these as factual stories, or are you just citing anecdotes?
- lunarscape 14y agoUnfortuately I'm pretty sure they're all real reported stories. In one case the man asked to move away from his own children was Boris Johnson, the mayor of London[1], when he was an MP in 2006. Edit: There's more on wikipedia [2]. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3634055/Come-off-it-folks-how-many-paedophiles-can-there-be.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3634055/Com... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_sex_discrimination_policy_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_sex_discrimination_pol...
- drgath 14y agoSo, a handful of instances out of millions over the last 5 years. Got it.
- cmiles74 14y agoIf no one cares enough to point this child at the correct gate, I'd be surprised to find someone who cares enough to file a report with the police or to hail down security. We're not talking about putting this kid in a car, we're talking about a little guidance in an airport.
- fjarlq 14y agoDo you have evidence to support this claim?
- arjn 14y agoEnough people have posted links in this thread. Its also easy enough to search for. However, as mentioned, no matter what you read or infer, if there is a child in distress on an airplane or in an airport the very least you should do is bring it to the attention of airport or airline staff.