UK - how many paedophiles can there be?

Boris Johnson relates his recent experience flying BA and how our fears are harming our children, affecting their education and, ultimately, our society. I'm reminded of Pink Floyd's song "Momma" and the words "did you have to build it so high".

As a parent of 3 young children, two boys and a girl, I have to confess to having some of these fears. I'm sorry but as a parent of young children you can't be too careful in this day and age. You can't undo what's done.

My wife and I talk about this often and we try and balance our fears with rational thought. Still, depending on the situation, the radar is on and the defenses go up depending on the situation.

While the numbers of paedophiles may be small and the number of teachers or other adults in positions of authority who molest young children is likewise small, no parent wants their child to be the one in the news. Everytime there's a newsreport about such incidents, the report usualy talks about how surprised everyone is that it happened in their town or how they never suspected so and so.

With increased awareness, improved police investigative techniques and more people willing go come forward, we've discovered in the last few years that the paedophile problem is much worse than we thought. We now know that our old sterotype of what a paedophile looks like was totally wrong. A paedophile can be young, old, male, female, professional, doctor, lawyer, teacher or doctor, to name a few. This is what makes defending your child so difficult. As with most things, authorities differ on what the profile looks like, or indeed, if you can profile a paedophile. But from what I've read this one sounds close.

No doubt people will have their own views and ways of handling the situation. All I know is that I would never forgive myself if I didn't do all I could to protect my children. That doesn't mean we build the wall so high, that means we educate our children about the dangers, provide them with the tools to stay safe, keep our ears and eyes open, talk to our neighbours, teachers and the police and keep abrest of the news on the subject. We owe it to our children to give them at least a start in life.

Having said all that, BA's policy, if it is a policy, seems a bit overboard. I've never heard of a child being attacked on a plane.

UPDATE

Case in point.

A COUPLE let their 12-year-old son help an arthritic grandad with gardening — not realising the pensioner was a paedophile.

Kenneth Tracy, 76, repeatedly sexually abused the lad — and took him to meet a fellow pervert who raped him, a court heard yesterday.