Outcry Over Child Molesters (Press, 28 October 1983)

In 1983, British children's television began airing a 20-second public information film titled “Say No to Strangers,” created by the Government's Central Office of Information with assistance from the police. This film, featuring a 10-year-old girl and a menacing stranger attempting to lure her into his car with sweets, aims to address rising concerns over child safety amid growing public outcry regarding attacks on children by sexual predators and violent offenders. The film is being broadcast on both the British Broadcasting Corporation and Independent Television, with a longer version being shown in schools across the country. The initiative follows a series of disturbing incidents, including the abduction and murder of a five-year-old girl from Edinburgh in July 1983, suspected to be linked to the same individual who killed an 11-year-old girl the previous year. There have been numerous other reports of child assaults, including a five-year-old girl in Nottingham who was taken from outside a tavern, a two-year-old girl assaulted in Willesden, and a 15-year-old youth who attacked four young boys in Tamworth. Additionally, reports surfaced of muggings in south London involving an eight-month-old baby and an eight-week-old infant, showcasing a troubling trend of violence against women and children. The outcry over these cases prompted Home Secretary Leon Brittan to announce a review of police protocols for investigating such crimes. Brittan expressed public outrage regarding a particularly brutal assault on a six-year-old boy from Brighton, where three men attacked him before abandoning him nearly nine kilometres from his home. The case garnered significant attention, leading to public donations totalling $160,000 for a reward for information related to the perpetrators. In conjunction with these events, Brighton's homosexual community reported feeling unfairly targeted by blame for the rise in violence against children. Advocacy against child exploitation has intensified, including strong backlash against a group called the Paedophile Information Exchange, which advocates for the legalisation of sexual relationships between adults and consenting minors. Brittan condemned the group's views as "utterly repugnant," although he refrained from further comments due to potential legal actions against its members. The Home Office disclosed that while there were 83 homicide victims under the age of 16 in 1981, it lacked comprehensive national statistics regarding sexual assaults on children, acknowledging a gap in data tracking such incidents. Contrastingly, psychologists have highlighted a concerning trend indicating that both violence against children and child-on-child violence are on the rise. The “Say No to Strangers” campaign and the public's furious response to recent crimes reflect broader societal anxieties concerning child safety, prompting authorities to reassess their approach to protecting vulnerable children from predatory behaviour.

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