My Kid Would Never Do That: Stranger Danger, was meant to demonstrate just how vulnerable kids are to ploys from strangers that could lead them to harm. In the show, an actor was hired to play the role of a man who was working on a reality TV show who took their picture and asked the children for personal information including their names and addresses first, and an ice cream man who would offer the children free ice cram and offer to show them the inside of his van second. They definitely accomplished their goal of showing parents the danger that strangers pose to their children, as most of the kids went along with the man— although a few did refuse him.
However, like any media production, the first priority of Dateline isn’t keeping children safe, it’s making money. They frame the situations in a way that provides entertainment while also offering it as a sort of educational parenting tool, giving parents advice on how to protect their children. What this show seems to overlook though, is that the main threat to children isn’t coming from strangers with elaborate ruses set up. Only about 0.1% of missing children have been abducted by a stranger. So, when it comes to keeping children safe from abduction, the focus shouldn’t be on “Stranger Danger.”
Rather than focusing on specific scenarios— because there will always be new ones— teach kids to trust their instincts, even if they know the person. They should learn that just because they know someone or just because someone is an adult, doesn’t mean they should trust them. Even “Stranger Danger” doesn’t seem to work well. Can you really blame 8 year-olds for not standing up to someone at least 3 times their age and twice their size? It’s clear that , although they know they shouldn’t trust strangers, they don’t know how to safely get out of the situation. I think that kids often don’t get the message because rather than the lesson being focused on how to get out of bad situations safely and listening to their instincts, the lesson is just focused on not to trust strangers.
While a lot of kids listen to this message, it’s also pretty clear that some of them don’t fully understand what a stranger actually is. One of the kids said, “He could have been a stranger!” After their encounter with the ice cream man. People who seem to be in a trustworthy position (like an ice cream man, acquaintance, or people in uniform) tend to not be seen as a dangerous person to many children because they don’t seem like a stranger.
Overall, Dateline used many techniques, however misleading, to capture the attention of their viewers. The emotion of the parents and the “reality” aspect of the show likely helped viewers form an emotional connection with the people on screen. As well, the situations and commentary by an expert make the program informative, and probably prompted a lot of parents to have another conversation with their children about “Stranger Danger.”
Danielle's Criminology Blog 
So who is shown in a positive and a negative light here? Did you notice that there was an “expert” who not so surprisingly had a book to sell? In the show men are portrayed as abductors. Did you notice any differences in the parents and how they were shown (their reactions and their socio-economic backgrounds at all)? Do you know about Festinger’s Social Comparison Theory? It basically states that people have an innate drive to evaluate themselves, often in comparison to others – upward and downward…people compare themselves to those who are better when they want inspiration to improve, and they compare themselves to those who are worse when they want to feel better about themselves. Do you think this played a role in the production of the program at all? Nice work
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