“Don’t go with stranger”: A social study on child’s vigilance to a stranger

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

in

UNDERSTANDING, CULTURE, SOCIETY, and POLITICS

SY 2019-2020

INTRODUCTION
 Family day is an exciting day for kids to run and play on public area such as parks, malls,

and playground. It is the day for bonding and interacting with someone to play. According to the

article of Dr. Lund, D. (2018), the importance of letting the children to play outside is to create a

healthy and cognitive kid to the community and to develop skills and immunity. This explain

why parents are letting their children to engage in public area to grow strong and bright.

But, the child’s security is on risk, there is a certain possibility that some parents let their

child run on loose and socialize with someone and when they get along, abducting a child will go

easy. In an article of Kim, P. (2018) entitled Kidnapping Statistics, there are more than 460,000

missing children each year and those missing children, approximately 1,500 are kidnapped.

"Don't talk to strangers" has been the rule for many parents for generations. According to

the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), a stranger is anyone the family doesn't know.

Moreover, not all strangers look scary, and it is important to remind children to be careful around

anyone they're unfamiliar with. Additionally, parents shouldn't make it seem like all strangers are

bad. For example, "safe strangers" are people children can talk to in a time of need, like police

officers and firefighters.

But if a child is alone and approached by a stranger, that's a different story. Some

stranger are approaching to offer a ride or treats (like candy or toys) or asks for help with a task

(like helping find a lost dog) that are mostly child molesters and abductors but are regular-

looking people this classified as danger stranger, and many go out of their way to look friendly,

safe, and appealing to children.

Children is easily to please, according to American Academy of Pediatrics, children are

predictable, calm, and approach most new experiences in a positive way. A child’s behavior is

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clearly opening their hearts on anyone, that is why danger stranger sees this opportunity to bad

things to them.

The purpose of the experiment was to analyze the awareness of a child to an upcoming

threat. To make the assumption to be valid, a social experiment was planned. The researchers

chose Daet, Camarines Norte as the setting of the experiment because the researchers observed

that most of family are going out every time they had a time to bond specially on family day and

after school, which make it suitable to conduct the said experiment.

The target beneficiary of this study is the family. The family, specially the parents has

undying love and support to their child and because of unforeseen circumstances, losing their

child is like losing their mind. This social experiment serves as a bridge to evaluate their children

on how they response if they are in the situation. The results will be greatly help to the family to

show what they can do after knowing their child’s response.

Objectives:

The social experiment aims to determine the awareness of children to an upcoming

danger, on how they think when they are being bribe. Specifically, this sought to determine the

following:

1. Identify the number of children aware to a danger stranger.

2. Identify the number of children that are not aware to a danger stranger.

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 METHODOLOGY

The researchers used naturalistic observation method and event sampling as the research

method for the collection of data. Naturalistic observation is a research method commonly used

by psychologists and other social scientists which involves observing subjects in

their natural environment. The information gleaned from naturalistic observation may also lead

to insights that can help people overcome problems and lead healthier, happier lives. Event

sampling is classified and used in the experiment due to testing the behavior on a certain event. It

was deliberated as the most appropriate process in gathering data and obtaining outcomes that

address in the objective indicated in this study. The procedures in doing the experiment were:

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 Planning and preparation. Thorough planning is the initial step of the experiment and

also preparing the materials needed such us the request letter and camera before conducting the

experiment.

Finding a suitable place. A place where family are mostly spending is considered as

suitable for conducting the experiment because there will be a lot of possible respondents of the

study.

Talk and play. This is where the researchers commence the act. The researchers will

play and talk to the children before they will ask to go with the researchers in the popular fast-

food chain such as Jollibee and Mc Donald.

Record the data. The response of the respondents to the situation are then recorded into

two categories: yes or no. A respondent will be considered as safe to the threat if s/he will say no

to the researchers and if yes will labeled as in risk in abduction.

Before conducting the filming of the experiment, the researchers shows a permit and

request letter to the parent on letting their child be a subject and test the respondents whether

they are aware or not. After signing the consent form the researchers took place and start the

social experiment. The respondents’ response will be turn-over to the parent to assess what

precautionary measures they need to do.

Respondents/Participants

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 The researchers chose stratified random sampling as a method in choosing the target

respondents. It was then classified by age wherein 4-9 years old children were the target

respondents to conduct the social experiment.

Scope and Delimitations

The experiment will be conducted in the first class municipality of Camarines Norte,

Daet area. In the span of three days, the researchers utilized the family day and after school in

doing the social experiment. One to two of researchers will approach and play with the

respondents. The respondents of the experiment are children around 4-9 years old. Stratified

random sampling was used in this experiment wherein the data collection relies in partitioning

the respondents to a group that will meet the researchers’ target respondents. The respondents

will undergo observation from a distance by the remaining researchers.

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 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After conducting the social experiment, the researchers noted the results based on the

response given by the respondents.

Child’s response to the situation

ASKING PERMISSION
YES NO
TO THE PARENT

3 4 1

Table 1: Tally of the results

Visualization of the results of the social experiment

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4

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Figure 1: Tally of the results

The

table 1 and figure 1 shows that 4 out of 8 children were thinking rationally to the situation and

able to respond no even they are being bribe while 1 out of 8 children were tempted but seeking

their parents’ opinion. This shows that children are mostly in a low risk of being abducted by

danger stranger.

Additionally, some parents are glad that their child are responsible enough to think

critically in their situation. On the other hand, some parents are scared of the response of their

child, pointing that with a simple tactics their child was willing go with the researchers.

Moreover, most parents said that most of abductors are friendly-looking and not sly

looking, so they are glad to be part of the social experiment.

These are the following reaction of the parents:

 “Iba na kasi ang panahon ngayon eh, yung anak ko nagpaalam pa sa akin para sumama sa

inyo. Alam ko naman na experiment niyo lang to pero nababahala din ako sa anak ko.

Pati kabataan ay yun ang ginagamit para kidnappin ang bata.”

 “Masaya na hindi sumama yung anak ko, ngayon alam ko na, na yung mga bilin ko kapag

umaalis kami pamilya ay ginagawa nila.”

 “Hindi ko akalain na sasama ang anak ko para lang sa Jollibee, nakakatakot baka mawala

yung anak ko.”

Conclusion

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 After on the findings, the researchers concluded that children are wary to their

environment, they have the enough knowledge to think critically in the specific situation that the

respondents faced. But, a thorough guidance given by the parent is a great help for the children

in aiding them to learn and act appropriately in the situation.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the results and conclusion of this experiment, the following recommendation

were made:

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1. The same experiment can be replicated, but consider changing the geographic area to

attain the validity of the study,

2. The experiment can be improved by refining the objectives,

3. Consider to apply a larger amount of respondents in conducting the experiment,

4. The results can be utilized as a bridge to educate their child to the main topic, and

5. Utilized enough capacity of device to record audio and high definition video for clear and

further understand the experiment.