While it's certainly important to teach children to avoid dangerous strangers, as Richard says, the bigger risk is from dangerous trusted adults.

So I think the more important (though difficult) lesson is to teach kids that adult authority isn't absolute - they have a right to say no to an adult, they have a right to complain about an adult, etc.

When I was a kid, we were socialized to believe that the adults were always right and you had to do what the adults in your life told you. That kind of socialization contributes to children's vulnerability to abusive relatives or other well-known adults.

Marion