Is Your Child Safe? Parents Horrified At YouTube Kidnapping Social Experiment
Would Your Child Be Fooled By This YouTube Experiment On Abduction?
Amy Packham— The Huffington Post UK
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One of the biggest lessons you teach your child is to never talk to strangers, but do they actually pay attention?
A social experiment by YouTuber Joey Salads has caused a storm after he managed to persuade three young children to walk away with him out of a park to see more puppies.
Joey has a gorgeous white puppy in hand and explains the experiment to the parents. He asks them: "How often do you tell your kid not to talk to strangers?"
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The majority of parents confidently say they tell their child a lot. Joey then asks for permission to talk to their children and all three mums agree.
What they weren't expecting, was the power of the puppy.
All the children in the experiment happily talk to Joey, and say 'yes' when he asks them if they want to go and see more puppies.
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The parents watch as their child walks out of the park, hand-in-hand with a complete stranger.
The social experiment on YouTube has already had nearly three million views, with many expressing their shock at what happens and encouraging people to share.
One commenter on the channel said: "Oh my goodness! Sometimes we think our kids will remember what we have taught them and it only takes a second for them to forget it. This is something! And it is quite scary."
And many others agree: "This is such an important video. It prompted me to talk to my kids, and it was frightening the response I got from my 5 year old - who also thought that a stranger was someone whose name you don't know, so if they tell you their name they are no longer a stranger."
"700 children are abducted a day? That is so heartbreaking... I'm lost for words."
Others have expressed sincere thanks to the YouTuber: "Thank you. This is really sobering. If you have a child, it's worth watching it. What you think your kid will do and what they will do might not always match up."
At the end of the video, Joey says that over 700 children are abducted every single day. Which begs the question: how do we make sure our kids really understand the lessons we're teaching them?
Famous Abduction Cases
Jaycee Dugard(01 of07)
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Dugard was abducted in June 1991 on her way to school in South Lake Tahoe, California. Then 11, she was held for 18 years by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. She was raped repeatedly by Garrido and gave birth to two daughters. Dugard was freed in 2009 after she and her two children appeared in public with him and a police interrogation revealed her identity. Convicted of kidnapping and rape, Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison. His wife received a sentence of 36 years to life. (credit:AP)
Elisabeth Fritzl(02 of07)
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Fritzl disappeared from her town of Amstetten, Austria, in 1984 at age 18. In 2008, she re-emerged 24 years later from the dungeon-like basement chamber where her father, Josef, had kept her captive. He raped her thousands of times. She bore him seven children, one of which died in captivity after Josef Fritzl refused to allow medical treatment. Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life in a prison psychiatric ward in March 2009. Elisabeth Fritzl and her children were given new identities. (credit:Getty Images)
Shawn Hornbeck(03 of07)
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In October 2002, Hornbeck – then 11 – was kidnapped while riding his bike to a friend's house in Washington County, Missouri. In January 2007, authorities found Hornbeck and another kidnapped boy, Ben Ownby, in the suburban St. Louis apartment of Michael Devlin. Ownby, 13, had been abducted four days earlier. Devlin was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and abusing the boys. (credit:Getty Images)
Natascha Kampusch(04 of07)
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Kampusch was kidnapped in 1998 off the street in Vienna at age 10. She managed to escape in 2006 but only after spending eight years as a captive, mostly in a tiny basement enclosure. She was abused by her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, who committed suicide soon after Kampusch freed herself. (credit:AP)
Elizabeth Smart(05 of07)
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At age 14, Smart was snatched from her bedroom in Salt Lake City in June 2002 by Brian David Mitchell, who did odd jobs for the family. Tormented over nine months by Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, Smart was freed after she was recognized in March 2003 while in public with both of them. He is serving a life sentence and Barzee is serving 16 years in prison. (credit:Getty Images)
Aged between 8 and 19 when snatched between mid-1995 and August 1996, the six victims were abducted, tortured and abused by Belgian Marc Dutroux. Only Dardenne, 12, and Delhez, 14, escaped alive after being found near the southern Belgian town of Charleroi a few days after Dutroux's arrest in August 1996. He is serving a life sentence. His wife, Michelle Martin, is now in a convent after serving 16 years of a 30-year prison term. (credit:Getty Images)
Steven Stayner(07 of07)
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The 7-year-old boy was kidnapped in 1972 while walking home from school in Merced, California. After Stayner escaped captivity in 1980, Kenneth Eugene Parnell was convicted of kidnapping him and a second boy, 5-year-old Timmy White, and sentenced to seven years in prison. Stayner died in a motorcycle accident in 1989 at age 24. (credit:AP)