I listen to the same radio station every morning and I am surprised at the apparent disregard for the stranger danger they could be exposing innocent children to.
My favourite radio station of a morning that I wake up to and listen to while I'm getting ready for work and then in my car driving to work is Mix106.5.
There is a segment where young children can ring in and ask a question of the crew that is answered in the same way the show is run - a fun way. But there is a problem with this segment that really angers me and frightens me, and this week I went to the website of the station and left a comment on what I see as being a lack of duty of care on the part of the breakfast show and the station management.
When a child rings in to ask a question his/her christian name is aired and then the child is asked what school he or she goes to. Sometimes the child is asked about the class he or she is in and the teacher's name. This I find to be totally off the wall dangerous. Stranger danger is a big item now in our society and it's no longer a stranger in the street or a shop or outside a home. It's the stranger lurking on the Internet and the strangers that listen to the radio and read newspapers and magazines.
As far as I am concerned there is no excuse for Mix106.5 to be putting children at risk by telling the audience which school they go to. Anyone that follows stories about children being stalked outside schools and other places knows only too well that children have to be taught not to give out any information to anyone about their school, their name, their address, their phone number, where they play sport, friends' names. An innocent show segment yes, but just think how many thousands of people are listening in to those children. Most smile and think how cute the kids are and how funny the crew is with answers. But how many think of the danger that disclosures like these can and do bring unto children?
It's time for all of us to start thinking more positively about the issues of today that aren't so nice. We have to protect children and teach them about stranger danger. Telling information about yourself on the radio is so many times worse than telling one person on the Internet because you are beaming live to thousands.
I wish that many more adults besides me would contact the radio station and complain about the lack of care for children that is being portrayed here just to get a few more listeners, to let Mum and Dad hear little Joey on the radio or maybe even for show and tell at school. Wake up parents - don't let your littlies take part in this segment for their sake, and yours. The Education Department should be hammering on the doors of Mix106.5 and demanding they take the segment off the air.
It's never good enough to say it's just for fun. Lives are precious and children are very precious and innocent and should be protected.
I am not bagging the breakfast show or the crew I am just asking for more thought to go into segments that could prove dangerous. How would the breakfast crew or management of the station feel if they found out that a child had been faced with danger, or harmed, after someone heard the segment and went in search of the child? Life is stranger than fiction and more deadly.
You have raised a very credible point that deserves to be noted and indeed acted upon.
As adults regularly involved in commercial transactions and interactions we are assured that our personal details are strictly confidential. No doubt the radio station DJs benefit from this protection. Yet here they are publicly eliciting personal information from children that potentially places them in the radar screen of a predatory listener. I don't believe for one moment that the DJs mean any harm. They appear to have indulged a momentary lapse of care that needs to be addressed in the first instant. In a world of uncertainty and frankly moral free for all, the most vulnerable need to be protected. Huh, it's ironic that the most influential voices called upon to protect our young are the very same compromisers of the ethics that once underpinned our childhood security. Such has been the insidious infestation of politically correct excesses.
I hope your contact has prompted action to this end
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As adults regularly involved in commercial transactions and interactions we are assured that our personal details are strictly confidential. No doubt the radio station DJs benefit from this protection. Yet here they are publicly eliciting personal information from children that potentially places them in the radar screen of a predatory listener. I don't believe for one moment that the DJs mean any harm. They appear to have indulged a momentary lapse of care that needs to be addressed in the first instant. In a world of uncertainty and frankly moral free for all, the most vulnerable need to be protected. Huh, it's ironic that the most influential voices called upon to protect our young are the very same compromisers of the ethics that once underpinned our childhood security. Such has been the insidious infestation of politically correct excesses.
I hope your contact has prompted action to this end
Regards
Daibhidh