I know this feeling all too well and I would do exactly the same - ignore them.
I donāt even look in the direction where children stand anymore incase some delusional moron thinks Iām mentally undressing them instead of staring into space like I usually do.
There was a āwhite van guyā here in the UK a few years back who saw a lost child - which escaped from a daycare center - wandering a road he was driving down. He didnāt stop because he knew what exactly would happen if he did.
Instead, he phoned the authorities. But, the time they got to her it was too late; she child fell into a pond and drowned.
The parents tried to sue the driver. (They lost.)
This is exactly how stigmatization harms the entire society: not only raises crime rates but also takes away the warmth inside hearts.
Mentally imaging undressing someone, even a child in real world, shouldnāt have become any problem.
Iām no pedophilia, not even a lolicon/shotacon, but l can feel the pain when looking at them being crucified as if they committed genocide. I sometimes blame myself for being too weak that I can only help by refusing to pay a buck to companies known for supporting lolicon/shotacon incrimination (e.g. having rules treating loli/shota/bishijou/cub like real childporn in their ToS).
Related Psychology Today article.
Iām bumping this thread. This is an important message and needs to be repeated to the public at large, regularly and often. Children need to learn independence and self-reliance to mature. They also need to be educated on realistic possible dangers. I donāt mean candy from a stranger, but the ways that those few predators actually use to entice or control children. And what to do in those situations.
The UK loves demonizing men.
This isnāt just the UK, but the US too.
If I saw a kid wandering around by themselves, Iād pretend to see nothing or call the cops, but Iām staying away from the kid. I go near a kid to ask where their parents are or if they need help, someone gets the wrong idea and Iām now apparently suspected of attempted kidnapping and/or molestation. Especially if the parent/guardian coaxes the kid into saying I did something. My social life would be over and I donāt think I could make it in prison, especially with that kind of charge being the reason I got put in.
I also had a friend who blatantly told me theyāll likely refuse to babysit for any relatives because of this too.
This is the logical conclusion of where something based on fear leads. This is what people wanted and itās not a sparkling utopia, itās just a place where kids are at higher risk and any good natured adults who would have helped have every reason not to get directly involved.
Amazing how the ideal of such a society is so much prettier than what it would look like in reality.
This is what stigma does.
Censorship, shame, suicide, and neglect.
Just like in China, where helping out the elderly might result in said elderly trying to get money out of you by suing you for āinjuriesā. In this world, compassion can only be weakness.
At least 2 white van hoaxes hapenned this year.
1 In spring field ohio a video was recorded allegely showing a white van pullup on a little girl.
2 Another was totally unsubstantiated and occured in baltimore and spread on face book. Even the idiot mayor said ānot to park next to white vansā and to keep a cellphone with you incase they try to abduct you.
Iām in Baltimore scouting locations for our sci-fi film, and havenāt heard of any āwhite vansā (except for the ubiquitous Comcast cable TV ones) or āhuman traffickingā - - unless the latter is just an overly dramatic term for the preteen girls who regularly offer themselves to passing men in exchange for a bottle of beer!
One thing being overlooked here is that itās not as uncommon as one would wish for some people to use children of that age group as professional beggars. Iāve seen this myself in many parts of Europe and, in southern China when I first went to Guangzhou in the early 90s, the tour bus driver (day tour from HK) specifically warned us before one rest stop, āthey might look like innocent children, but theyāre actually professional beggars taking the money back to their relatives.ā In the 70s in the country now known as North Macedonia, I saw cases where families had cinched childrenās legs so that the calf muscles would atrophy, giving them an extra needy āleg like a stickā look for begging. There were also, of course, adults displaying the same condition. I hope this particular type of family business has long since passed into history.