A Parent's Worst Nightmare

Here in Britain this week, we in the media have been pushing the panic button. In particular, we've highlighted two deeply unpleasant attacks on children which have left parents across this country alarmed and sometimes terrified. The attacks were the stuff of nightmares.

One involved an 11 year old schoolboy called Joe Geeling, who disappeared after leaving school for home. His body was found in a ditch -- he had been stabbed to death. A fourteen year old has been accused of his murder.

And then came an even more disturbing story, of an 11 year old girl out shopping with her mother. She visited the restroom in the store while her mother waited outside, and the girl was raped. Her mother is tormented with guilt, with the thought that if only she had gone with her, this would not have happened.

All around the country parents shuddered and held their children a little tighter. The message, underlined by us in the media, is a clear one. Trust no one -- let the child go nowhere -- take no risks.

The reality, of course, is that children are no more at risk now then they were in the past -- maybe they are even safer. Paedophiles, murderers and rapists were not invented in the last decade. They have always been there.

Of course I sympathise with the suffering of the families involved in these cases. I cannot imagine their agony. But the rest of us cannot allow ourselves or our children to become neurotic, obsessed with fear.

I am afraid that, as a society, we just have to accept that terrible things happen from time to time. And that while we should take reasonable precautions, there is nothing we can do to stop them entirely.

These days, if there is a mistake by a surgeon, or a policeman, or a teacher or a social worker -- and someone dies as a result, then the demand led by your old friends in the media is for an investigation, for a new set of rules, for security, for an absolute promise that bad things will never be allowed to happen again. Well, forget it.

Bad things will continue to occur whether we frame a new set of rules or not. Life is a risk from the moment we are born -- a slender thread which can be snapped by no more than misfortune. Just accept it, smile and get on with your life.

And don't worry. In the words of someone who once graced this very network from this very city, good night ... and good luck.
by Peter Allen