Tabloids' bigger crime to foster fear

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that just 15 children under 15 were murdered in Australia in 2010, out of more than four million children.

We cannot tell how many of those were abducted by a stranger before the murder, but reported cases are so hard to find it may be none at all.

Yes, it is appalling and shocking for a child to be abducted and sexually assaulted or murdered by a stranger. But it is extremely rare. Probably less than one in a million. It is so small that it can be dismissed, especially in middle-class areas where crime is generally lower.

And it should be dismissed, because the media-engendered fear of child abduction by a stranger is hurting our children. The vast majority of children are being denied the joy and social interaction of unstructured, unsupervised play because of this utterly unjustified climate of fear.

That is going to cause long-term damage to children. Further, the fear is keeping children indoors where they lead dangerously sedentary lives and are exposed to the dangers of obesity, inactivity and excessive television-watching.

Men who are strangers and aged between 40 to 70 (the supposed pedophile age) are many thousands of times more likely to help than harm a child lost or hurt.

Any child could knock the door of any house in Australia and ask a stranger to help and be safer than wandering lost or injured trying to get home on their own.

Politicians love to play on the fear – elect me and I will make your child safe. Police love it – give us bigger police forces to make your child safe. Security companies love it – install more cameras and alarms. But it means less money for education and sport.

We should act on the real dangers to our children. Murder, abduction and sexual assault of children are many more times likely to come from within the family than from a stranger. A child is 10 times more likely to die in car accident than be murdered. And even that it is a fairly low risk.

But fear-induced obesity and lack of exercise look like a major long-term threat to our children.

Then there is fear of terrorism. Terrorism gets massive media coverage. Yes, it is terrible. Yes, we should know about it. But we should not allow our consumption of media coverage of terrorism to result in needless fear and acquiescence in various disproportionate political actions to prevent it: engaging in far-away wars, massive spending on intelligence and security and unnecessary infringements on civil liberties.

And the News of the World used to revel in criminal violence perpetrated against the aged. Yet the over-60s are the least likely to be victims of crime. The result: some aged people too fearful to go out on their own and being denied exercise and social contact.