'Stranger danger', 'abduction risks' and 'fear': Media coverage of children's independent mobility and parental attitudes

The media plays a powerful role in shaping health-related attitudes and behaviours. We investigated media reports about children's independent mobility (CIM) and associations with parental attitudes towards CIM. CIM-related media reports (newspaper, online, television) during a 3-month period were extracted from two databases. Concurrent parental attitudes were collected via telephone interview from 1779 parents of children aged 9-15 years. Media reports were overwhelmingly negative: 94% mentioned only risks and 6% mentioned benefits. There was no association between media reports and parental attitudes. Parental CIM attitudes are often complex and pervasive and may not be shifted by media coverage alone.

Automated summary

This study investigated media reports on children's independent mobility and found that the reports were predominantly negative. However, there was no direct association between the media reports and parental attitudes, suggesting that parental attitudes are influenced by multiple factors.