A stranger suspiciously approached a child on the street, someone writes in a Whatsapp group. And suddenly you hear about a lot of cases. What’s behind it?
A strange man who stalks children on their way to school, gives them sweets and then drags them into a car. Such a scenario is the nightmare of many parents – and it feels like this danger is very close and theoretically lurks everywhere. Because reports regularly circulate on social media that someone has approached children in a suspicious manner or that a suspicious van has been sighted in front of a school. This unsettles the parents and sometimes has consequences for police work.
Example Nuremberg: In February, more and more parents contacted the police because strangers are said to have approached children on the way to school and sometimes offered them sweets. The Whatsapp groups of many parents are running hot, rumors are spreading, schools are writing e-mails to worried parents, the police are patrolling more and more. According to their own statements, the police finally determined three men who are said to be responsible for about a dozen of the cases. However, there were no crimes.
But even after that, more suspected cases are reported to the police – from all over the city to neighboring Fürth. “It always comes in waves. It’s a phenomenon that always accompanies us,” explains Chief Inspector Martin Richter, who is responsible for prevention at the Central Franconian police. The parents alerted each other via social media, and the location of the event could then change.
“Often there are misunderstandings”
Example Celle (Lower Saxony): As a father, the policeman Dirk Heitmann knows only too well what momentum can develop in social media when parents fear for their children. Recently, his Whatsapp groups almost exploded. Sometimes it was said that a child had been spoken to in Celle, sometimes it was said that it had been pulled into a car. “It builds up. Sometimes one case mistakenly turns into several. Talking to someone turns into yelling or being pulled into the car.”
In that case, an eight-year-old boy was approached by a car driver on his way back from school in February. The boy pedaled and rode home quickly. According to Heitmann, the police inspection was able to clarify a second, similar case at the time: In the pouring rain, a driver had offered a 14-year-old to take him home. Since the man used to live on the street, he thought the boy recognized him, says Heitmann. “We can actually solve many cases. Often there are misunderstandings.”
“There are many motivations for addressing children. Rarely is the intention sexual,” reports Nuremberg police officer Richter. It is extremely rare for a child to be dragged into a car in an ambushed manner. Sexual violence tends to happen at close range. “Most of the time, the perpetrator has a relationship with the child, sometimes building it up over months.” At information evenings in schools, he and his team explain the actual dangers to parents – and also appeal to them to contact the police instead of sharing suspicious cases, rumors or even independently written searches via social media.
The increasing number of suspected cases makes police work more difficult
Because the number of people who read these warnings is increasing exorbitantly, reports the police in the Oberberg district in North Rhine-Westphalia. “The problem is that children, parents and educators suddenly fear danger everywhere and everyday occurrences are then classified as potential dangers.” As a result, the phones at the police station are no longer silent.
“That makes our work more difficult because it ties up capacity to also follow up on phantom reports,” emphasizes Richter. In addition, it is sometimes hardly possible for the investigators to track where there is actually an accumulation of cases.
The police in Celle therefore carefully weighs up each time whether to go public with a case of suspicious contact – as the police say. “It’s a fine line,” says Heitmann. On the one hand, you don’t want to set off a wave. On the other hand, you also have to look at how much is already happening on social media in order to capture false information if necessary. After the two cases in February, the police therefore made a general appeal to parents, teachers and kindergarten staff to give them important rules of conduct in the event of suspicion.
Parents are increasingly monitoring their children
The insecurity of many parents also affects everyday life and the development of the children. Many parents bring their children to school in the morning and pick them up again later, reports Julia Möstl from KidsPro, which offers child protection training in schools and kindergartens in the greater Nuremberg area. When they start school, some children also get a smartphone or a smartwatch so that the parents can always reach the children and, in some cases, thanks to location services, can even see where they are, she says.
The expert thinks little of it. “That gives the parents and children a false sense of security,” she says. In addition, the child does not learn to be independent.
Holger Hofmann from the German Children’s Fund takes a similar view. “It does not serve the child if parents take them by the hand step by step.” Equipping children with GPS trackers, smartwatches or smartphones so that parents have a better feeling is questionable, he says. “We don’t think that’s okay from a child rights perspective.” It is about strengthening the children and teaching them how to react in the event of a possible danger. “But I don’t do that by always following them.”