By telling children the world is more dangerous than it is we risk exposing them to more danger in the long run. Once they realise that parents and teachers have been telling them lies about how dangerous the world is, and how noone can be trusted they are liable to go to the other extreme and think all the warnings are lies.

It's rather similar to the way lies about the danger of cannabis or beer can backfire, and make people blasé about the things thta really are dangerous.

And another process thta happens is that in a worlds where kids are taughht that all strangers are dangerous, grownups, especially men. become frightened to take any notice at all of children, and that includes doing anything to help in situations where they might be at risk - lost in a shopping precinct or whatever.

It's a vicious circle, in which exaggerated fears aboutb dangers which have always beenthere make the social environment far more dangerous. If it's true that "it takes a village to raise a child", what happens when the child thinks the village is made up of monsters, and most of the villagers have learnt to turn their back on the child, because of the fear of being taken for monsters?

Vin Garbutt wrote a good song about this very aspect of the modern world.