A child safety program replaces the ‘stranger danger’ philosophy with 'tricky people' to teach kids how to identity safe and unsafe strangers.

When Jodie Norton rushed to hospital in searing pain, with her four kids in tow, she innocently left her two eldest waiting outside for their friendly neighbour to take them to school.

But what she thought was a five minute wait for her sons, aged 10 and 8, turned into a 40 minute wait – with the boys sitting alone outside on a hospital bench.

While Jodie was seeing a doctor for a ruptured ovarian cyst, she was completely unaware her kids were still waiting and facing a real danger - potential abduction.

LISTEN: Peter Helliar on the most important lesson he wants his three boys to learn. (Post continues after audio)

But thankfully her two sons ignored a group of stranger’s requests for help and stayed safe after remembering a lesson their parents taught them; “Tricky adults ask kids for help. If a safe adult needs help, they'll ask another adult."

Jodie Norton thanks the 'tricky people' message for saving her boys.

Identifying safe and unsafe adults

Jodie, who blogs at Time Well Spent, and her husband Bennett have taught their kids about staying safe.

While some parents focus on the idea of ‘stranger danger’, Jodie chose to teach their kids about ‘tricky people’.

It’s a way of identifying safe and unsafe strangers, created by Pattie Fitzgerald, founder of Safely Ever After – an educational company dedicated to the prevention of childhood sexual abuse.

'I felt sick and grateful'

While waiting for their ride to school, CJ and T-Dawg, were approached by three strangers who asked them to go into a hospital bathroom to convince their friend to be seen by a doctor.

“My two boys experienced their first real-world experience with the freaky, perverted strangers they’ve been intermittently warned about,” Jodie wrote in a blog post.

The boys felt a sense of possible harm, and repeatedly refused to help them.

"Even after CJ replied, 'No, thank you,' they kept at them," she wrote.

"Shortly afterward, the neighbour showed up and my boys jumped in his car, but not before they saw a third adult male come out from the bathroom, jump into the car with these other three hooligans."

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Jodie didn’t find out what had happened until the boys got home from school that afternoon.

“Their story of what had transpired while I had stupidly left them out there alone made me simultaneously sick and grateful,” she admitted. “My mouth hung open the entire time they relayed this account.”

Her anger and shock later turned to immense gratitude, when CJ repeated the family stay safe rule for identifying a tricky person.

That only dodgy adults ask kids for help. Safe adults ask other adults.

“This experience has made me grateful that we had gone over this in the past, but even more so, it’s made me determined to continue going over these stay safe rules. Regularly.”

What are tricky people?

Tricky people are the new strangers, according to Pattie, the creator of Safely Ever After.

She encourages parents to stop telling kids 'don't talk to strangers' because they might need to talk to a stranger one day. Instead, teach them which strangers are safe.

Patti founded the program after years of being a teacher and a mother made her aware that kids needed a way to learn about safety in simple terms.

“Tricky people' is more effective because most strangers are not dangerous…kids think a stranger is going to be somebody who is kind of scary looking or scary sounding, but statistically, if someone wants to harm a child they are not going to appear scary, they're going to be charming, have an enticing offer, and seem friendly," she told Today.

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Patti's prevention tips

• Remind your children, safe grownups don’t ask kids for help

• Never leave you child unsupervised, not even for a minute

• Replace the word stranger with tricky person. It’s not what someone looks like it’s what they say that makes them unsafe, or ‘tricky’

• A tricky person can be someone you know well, don’t know, or just know a bit. Anyone who tries to get a child to break their safety rules, or hurt their body is not OK

• Practice personal safety strategies with kids. What would they do if they were lost in a store?

• Do no write your child’s name on the outside of any personal belonging, like backpack or jacket.

• Establish the family rule – no secrets allowed, especially if it involves private parts

• Spend time with your kids. Children who are starved for attention can be especially vulnerable to a predators tricks