Perspective: How outrage over relatively uncommon threats can hijack parents’ common sense
By Jessica Lahey March 5 at 12:04 PM Recently, I had the opportunity to speak to an auditorium full of middle and high school kids about learning through failure. Part of the way through, a few of the students revealed that their parents monitor them via GPS apps on their phones.
Put simply, parents may believe a hazard to be more dangerous or commonplace than it is if they are outraged about it, and that may in turn cause them to go overboard in protecting their kids from it. After the event was over, several students emailed to question my logic, upset that I’d imply the risk of being lured into the sex trade is lower than that of neglecting to wear a seat belt.While any child could conceivably end up in the sex trade, traffickers predominantly target vulnerable children: runaways, victims of sexual abuse, children in foster care, and LGBTQ kids who have been rejected or stigmatized by their family.
On average, 16,375 teens die in the United States each year, and one-third of them die in motor vehicle accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seat belts reduce the risk of motor vehicle death and serious injury by half. What’s worse, it can obscure meaningful solutions for those kids who are at real, imminent risk of being victimized.
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