With almost one million subscribers on YouTube, Joey Salads is one of the most famous pranksters on the popular video streaming website. And in one of his most-watched videos, with over 10 million views, he conducts a social experiment to demonstrate to parents and guardians how easy it is to lure children from their parents.
He conducts the experiment in a public park, the most common place where predators lurk. . First he comes up to a mother sitting on the bench watching her daughter play.
He asks her permission to do a social experiment, and once he has her permission, goes up to the child as asks if she wants to pet his dog.
He says that he has more puppies, and when he asks if she wants to see them, she willingly agrees and walks away with him.
Meanwhile, her mother looked on, horrified.
Joey does the same to the next mother; he asks what she thinks her son would do if a stranger comes up to him. “Probably run back to me,” she says, and then points towards her son and puts her theory to the test.
After a brief interaction with the Joey, the child agrees to see more puppies and comes with him.
The same scenario happens with the third mother. “How often do you tell your kids not to talk to strangers?” “Often,” she replies.
But when he asks her son if he wants to see the other puppy, the kid comes with him.
Later, the boys reprimanded by her mother. “You got to ask me if you wanna go see somebody. You know what’s gonna happen? He will take you an you’re never gonna see mommy anymore. Would you like that?”
By default, children respond well to anything cute and flashy. That’s why, just like Joey’s dog in the video, most predators have something at hand to disarm their victims, typically sweets or toys.
It make sense then to teach children not only not to talk to strangers, but to instill in them an intuition to discern the kind of people they should get in touch with.
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