[HemanHeartYou]

It's all fun and games until someone gets kidnapped.

There's also the situation where a lot of American towns/cities aren't so crowded that you can walk everywhere. And not everywhere in America is there good public transportation.

[CaptSpify]

> It's all fun and games until someone gets kidnapped.

But statistically, how often does that happen? Is it enough to be seriously worried about?

> There's also the situation where a lot of American towns/cities aren't so crowded that you can walk everywhere. And not everywhere in America is there good public transportation.

I don't think it's an issue of being crowded. I think it's an issue of how we design our cities. We assume everyone will have a car, so those that don't have a car (kids) have less independence. A lot of Europe was built before cars existed, so they don't assume that everyone will have their own car.

[dsr_]

There are 115 abductions of children by strangers in an average year, in the US.

Traffic accidents are a much, much more prevalent threat.

(There are 800,000 children reported missing each year. 90% have misunderstood directions or ran away on their own initiative. 9% are kidnapped by a family member in a custody dispute.

http://www.pollyklaas.org/about/national-child-kidnapping.ht... )

[antisthenes]

> And not everywhere in America is there good public transportation.

First off, that's by design. Car-centric infrastructure planning really did a number on the American public. The damages ended up being far worse than just economic.

Second, that's an understatement of the century. Public transportation is pretty much non-existent in most of US. It's good in exactly 1 city (NY), and probably decent in another 2 or 3.

[maxxxxx]

I bet more parents beat their kids to death each year than strangers kidnapping children. Based on that parents should not be allowed to get close to their children.

[seanmcdirmid]

Almost all kid kidnappings are from someone the kid knows, like a parent without legal custody.