Forget 'Stranger Danger.' Here's What We Should Really Teach Kids To Keep Them Safe.

Growing up, your parents likely told you not to talk to strangers and to be wary of people you don’t know who might try to lure you away and harm you — also known as “stranger danger.”

These days, however, top child safety experts are more likely to recommend teaching the concept of “tricky people” instead — and for good reason.

It’s a term coined by child safety expert Pattie Fitzgerald, founder of safelyeverafter.com. She defines a tricky person as someone who “tricks” a kid or a parent into believing they’re a safe person when, in reality, they are not. They might ask a child (rather than another adult) for help, tell a kid to keep a secret from their parents, try to arrange alone time with them (like special outings that don’t include a parent), touch their body excessively and/or inappropriately, or invade their personal space.

“A tricky person who intends to target a child often uses ‘grooming tricks’ to gain access and/or privacy with a child. This means gaining the trust of the child or the parent, until personal boundaries become blurry and lines are crossed,” Fitzgerald, author of “Super Duper Safety School,” told HuffPost.

One reason to use the term tricky people? It’s more accurate. Consider the fact that more than 90% of reported child sexual abuse cases happen at the hands of people the child knows — not strangers — according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Child abductions by strangers are very rare; most abductions are committed by a family member or acquaintance (though stranger abductions do usually pose more of a threat to the child’s safety).

“If we are only teaching kids about ‘stranger danger,’ then we are missing a much larger and more important issue that needs to be