It's about time sensible people spoke up about this:

Kidnap reports just part of 'panic'
RECENT reports of child abductions - more than 20 since Monday - are mostly the result of community panic supported by cautious police and a blinkered media, a top criminologist says.

"It's an unfortunate collusion between the police who want to warn early and secondly the media who have a very narrow view about what the danger is," Professor Mark Findlay, from Sydney University's Institute of Criminology, said. "[That collusion] ends up perpetuating a stereotype which creates fear, and produces no good criminal justice outcomes."

The wave of reports from across Sydney were sparked by a report of an attempted abduction of a 14-year-old girl at Cambridge Park. Since that report last week, police have issued 15 media alerts covering more than 20 reported abduction or abuse attempts.

(snip)

The latest figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology reveal that of the 117 juveniles killed in the 12 months to June 2006, 74 per cent were murdered by friends or family. But despite this disparity between perception and reality, police inadvertently fuel the media storm, Professor Findlay said.

www.smh.com.au/news/national/kidnap-repo...4/1222217331234.html

This happens in the UK also. I've noticed that whenever children claim to have "fought off" an attempted abduction it follows a special talk in school about the dangers of getting into cars with strangers. The attempted abduction usually turns out to fantasy, but a warning is still issued to local parents which fuels the fear.

yes..I always say whatever happens in the UK will happen here eventually-or perhaps visa versa.

Is there any co-incidence that the major influence in the media happens to be Rupert Murdoch who owns the majority of newspapers in Australia and the most influential ones in the UK ?. Indeed..when he bought the NoTW all those years ago ( and manipulated poltical events in OZ so he could move money off-shore to the UK), he imported a bunch of Aussie journalists who were experts at "foot in the door" interviews and the "truth" wasn't a priority..

I'm actually a great supporter of the police and I really want children to be safe..but I'm convinced the endless "pedo panics" have the opposite effect.

Just reading a book about the awful Jeffry Darhmer-gay mass murderer in the USA and the psychiatric reports done for the FBI are fascinating.

The real abuse that creates monsters out of children is from physical, mental and deprivation with sexual coming in last.

Obviously sex abuse can't be ignored but we must get this in perspective which is just what the FBI experts say..because if we don't, we are partly responsible for future innocent victims.

When I used to work for the Government we used "phrases" which were dropped constantly into material we wrote for ministers etc. briefings.

At the moment Fear is one of the words that is being introduced and the phrase "something must be done" is being repeated by all the media types ( They are applying it to the financial meltdown etc )

If you can make a population afraid then you can pass dictatorial type laws with no or little resistance. The general population become passive. It is like pain - eventually you can get used to it.

It is a frightening time to be alive and living in the UK - but my view is that we must all try to "out" this bad stuff and laugh in the face of it all. We should try and appreciate the great things in life - music - food - art - each other - family - friends.......and show that we are not going to be made to be afraid in our own homes and towns/cities.

Fear is in the mind and therefore can be banished by positive thought.