It is all too easy to manipulate young children.

This is very clear with the phone. A stranger on the other end of the phone line could fool or trick a naive child into doing bad things, even after being trained successfully by a parent.

For example, a person could call and ask for the mother. The child will give the "right" answer, as he was trained: that the mother is not available at the time. He would then ask to take a message.

A skillful predator can get past this block in various ways. He might say, "You answered the phone very nicely. This is Ruthie from the shule and I do want to speak to your mother. Please tell me where your mother is right now."

This is likely to work.

• Children love praise
• Children feel that if it is somebody who knows the mother from shule, then the person must be good. The person can easily convince the child that he is a friend of the family, not a stranger. He will make the child feel guilty for not responding right away and giving the person the benefit of the doubt.

  This can be modified so that the predator can get past the training.

  

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  Keywords: Children, Control, Persuade
  /GrossmanParenting/Phone/Manipulate