Good question. As I said - personal experience. I grew up in pretty weird times after the fall of Eastern Block. Former criminals, secret police confidants and assholes of all kinds suddenly become our first elite, high society - people of enormous power, influence and money. Wealth earned by fraudulent trade with state property and obtained by tricking naive and economically illiterate people into giving them their savings for useless securities, frauds of a massive scale (it was more than half of the population if I remember correctly?) Pimps pimped celebrities in their decadent brothel palaces, police chief were also gangsters or paid by them. Students of chemistry cooked meth and sold around the world to earn for a study and black market gun traders, selling casually army weaponry of two armies, including explosives they bought for few vodkas and some cheap rings from drunken quartermasters. Now, also drunken, sitting every night on balcony drinking bottles of homemade moonshine and shooting to the air from AKMs or Sa vz.58 all night long. Mafias and organised crime gangs wanted to secure their position and power over this country - our strategic location was essential for any serious business. Soon, we were transit country for all kinds of trafficking from stolen cars to humans. And to make things even more interesting and fun, our newly elected democratic president, unjustly glorified idiot (or worse, bastard masked as human rights activist) ordered amnesty for all prisoners no matter why they were arrested. Releasing political prisoners, artists… murderers, deviants of the worst kind, army of pedophiles and sex offenders. They become hitmen for our elites, formed new violent extremist groups, robbed and killed few dozens of people, found their new territory in parks and forests waiting for people of all kind, age, gender, to be raped or sexually assaulted. And some entrepreneurs started their own business, kidnapping children and trafficking them abroad as a sex slaves.

I met my first pedophiles when I was 4 years old, two guys in old cars trying all usual tricks, offering all from expensive American chocolate bars to POGs and hockey collecting cards, following me and finally trying - not with real intentions thankfully- get me to their car. They couldn’t care less my mother was like 50m ahead of me but weren’t really committed. I knew from the very first moment who am I dealing with, scared to death but trying to figure out how to get quickly to safety (I couldn’t yell - fear sometimes do that). I am convinced not only parents’ usual “don’t go with strangers don’t take anything from them” wisdom got to work that day. but also my anxiety I felt listening to one of the pretty fucked up versions of Little Red Riding Hood, I guess, one regionally adjusted for war generation from Sudetenland, my grandparents. They needed to know their wolves, bears, rats… all zoo of vermins and ragtags.

I am definitely against this, trying to scare children to act careful by scarring them for life but still, I feel it was this fairytale that gave me clear warning I meet pedophiles and I need to get away quick because they mean suffering and death.

I remember guys and even women trying to lure children and I remember interfering when kid got caught on “your mama send me to pick you up” trick once, years later my friend almost broke up when pedo tried much bigger calibre “you mum owns me money come with me or I beat her.” I am lucky to keep thinking logical when in deep stress but still, maybe I should have brought them to my grand-grand oma and let that 90 years old lady to tell them her version of Red Riding Hood.

But it was definitely Nymph kidnapping kids from the Little Coal Man that triggered alarm when I myself was at the brink of getting soft and making my fatal mistake. Just half an hour after parents left, women came pretending to be in shock and with some sirup on the face as a blood tear. Pretending she had an accident, people were injured and she needed to enter house and call for help and family. Almost she got me and I failed. But nope, nobody can be trusted. It’s never just two fingers they wanted to warmup. She left but returned few minutes later, angry and frustrated, calling me names and kicking front door like crazy. Not hysterically because someone was in danger but angrily she failed to get inside and finished what she (and possibly her crime partners ?) intended. Much later occurred to me they might have been stalking us, observing house and waited for a perfect moment to get to action.

Later I developed strong street smart instinct but as a small child? Cute squirrels and other critters weren’t singing survival guides how to take care of themselves for children who are often alone, without mobiles or any way to call for immediate assistance. Just with keys, Pokemons, pogs and knife in a pockets and other kids. Hating each other but cooperating in danger. To find more understandable metaphor… Using these gen X, Y, Z… etc. groups, we are Millennials by age but based on description, we checked most boxes in Gen X column. We are like long lost tribe of Gen X, late for everything we felt related to : Nihilism not cool anymore, punk dead, Cobain dead, Grunge dead, Courtney Love not even close to be dead but getting close to get Miss Responsible Award. Placebo returned just to say they are not angry anymore but are buddhists full of inner peace and harmony… deal with it punks :D So we are loop watching Fight Club and peacefully waiting for Apocalypse world promised us and never delivered :D Struggling to take anything seriously as nothing feels like big enough deal to be worthy of all the energy. Or it is a big deal, massive even, way too big to be taken seriously.