Evaluation of a commercially available program and in situ training by parents to teach abduction-prevention skills to children.

The researchers bought a stranger-safety DVD marketed to parents. They showed it to five typical 5- to 8-year-olds.

After the video, kids still followed a stranger to a car 100% of the time.

Parents then got a 15-minute script: model the safety response, practice in the parking lot, praise correct moves. Training happened right where abductions occur—outside the school door.

The DVD taught zero useful skills.

After parents ran three short in-situ drills, every child refused the lure, ran back inside, and kept the skill one month later.

Miltenberger et al. (2013) ran the same steps with 48 kids in an RCT and got the same null DVD result, locking in the finding.

Cicchetti et al. (2014) moved the package to three children with autism; BST plus in-situ feedback still worked, so the method extends beyond typical kids.

Orner et al. (2021) looks like a clash—they saw mixed results when autistic preschoolers got only tabletop firearm-safety drills. The difference is age and diagnosis: little kids with ASD often need real-world practice, while 5- to 8-year-old typical kids learn fast with brief parent drills.

You can stop recommending safety DVDs. Instead, hand parents a simple script and tell them to rehearse outside the school gate. Three five-minute practices beat hours of screen time, save money, and keep kids safe.