Time we took responsibility for the warped world our children live in

I cringed when I heard a father ask his child last week: “Would you like to go home with that man?”

Fortunately the child knew he was joking. But in the light of the terrible revelations of child abuse in recent years, and the horrific abduction and murder of Holly Wells and Jenny Chapman, it was a joke with a dark shadow.

I recall my own mother warning me not to take lifts from strangers. I was given none of the gory details as to why, however. I imagined that another family might want to “steal” me. Or a travelling circus might take me away. Sexual abuse or murder never crossed my innocent mind.