User4/draft/Millions of children are killed or injured every year in bicycle accidents

This is a fact. You can check the government figures, and it is absolutely true! (I looked it up once, but I didn't keep a record of it.) Millions of children are killed or injured every year in bicycle accidents. It's a fact.

"My god! We have to do something about this! Millions! Killed! Injured!" some concerned parents, child savers, and politicians looking to further their careers may cry out. "We need laws to protect children from bicycle accidents!"

This is an example of deceiving people while still telling the truth. It is a kind of framing--the average person sees only "Millions/Children/Killed/Injured" and doesn't stop to think exactly how many children are killed, and how many children are injured. And they don't ask, "What percentage of children who ride bicycles die from doing so?" "What percentage of children are injured riding bicycles?" "What percentage of children ride bicycles and suffer absolutely no injuries at all, and neither do they die"?

In fact, the number of children who die is very very small. I have not checked yet, but it is probably in the range of dozens, not hundreds. As a percentage of all children who ride bicycles, it is so small that it is virtually inconsequential.

(Begin obligatory "politically correct" addendum: "But every loss of a child's life is a horrible tragedy!" End obligatory "politically correct" addendum.)

How about the number of children who are injured in bicycle accidents? The fact is, millions of children are injured every year in bicycle accidents!

"My god! We have to do something about this! Millions! Injured!" some concerned parents, child savers, and politicians looking to further their careers may cry out. "We need laws to protect children from bicycle accidents!"

But then you have to ask: what does injured mean?

(Begin obligatory "politically correct" addendum: "But every child injured in a bicycle accident is a great tragedy!" End obligatory "politically correct" addendum.)

Yes, millions are injured. But what kind of injuries do children receive in bicycle accidents? There are serious injuries, less serious injuries, and minor injuries.

As for serious injuries, I have not checked yet, but it is probably in the range of hundreds, not thousands. As a percentage of all children who ride bicycles, it is so small that it is virtually inconsequential.

(Begin obligatory "politically correct" addendum: "But every serious injury to a child's is a horrible tragedy!" End obligatory "politically correct" addendum.)

What percentage of children injured in bicycle accidents suffer from minor injuries, like skinned knees? I am sure (but, no, I have not recently checked) that the vast majority of injuries are minor ones, requiring no medical treatment other than a little disinfectant and a Band-Aid.

"My god! We have to do something about this! Millions! Injured! Think of the psychological trauma those innocent children must suffer!" some concerned parents, child savers, and politicians looking to further their careers may cry out. "We need laws to protect children from bicycle accidents!"

Right. Let's ban children from riding bicycles. The harms to children are clear!

(Begin obligatory "politically correct" addendum: "Of course I want to protect children from harm!" End obligatory "politically correct" addendum.)

Uh, huh. Children should not have the right to ride bicycles. Children should have no right to independent transportation. They should have no right to the joy, the feeling of freedom, and the simple pleasures that riding bicycles gives them. There is no real necessity for children to ride bicycles--they can refrain from riding bicycles until they reach the age of legal majority.

Children cannot make "informed decisions" about riding bicycles. They cannot fully understand the social, legal, and health consequences of riding bicycles.

They have not yet reached cognitive maturity. So if an adult offers to buy a child a bicycle for his/her birthday, the child cannot give "informed consent". And "simple consent" can never be sufficient. Think of the possible social, legal, and health consequences!

OK--now that that is settled, let's look at another problem. Child sexual abuse.

Millions of children are either killed while being sexually abused, are the victims of unwanted sexual assaults, and are sexualized each year by pedophiles!"

"My god! We have to do something about this! Millions! Killed! Sexual assaults! Sexualized!" some concerned parents, child savers, and politicians looking to further their careers may cry out. "We need laws to protect children from sexual abuse!"

Hmm. The intelligent, thinking, and informed reader may want to ask, "Maybe, but what percentages of children..."

But if he does, he will be shouted down by the concerned parents, by the child savers, and by the politicians looking to further their careers.

"We need laws to protect children from sexual abuse!" "And think of the psychological trauma those innocent children must suffer!"

Yes, but...

Hmm... Oh well... So what if millions of families are destroyed, millions of adults are investigated (rightly or wrongly) for alleged "sex crimes and millions of children are at risk of being accused of molesting their fellow classmates and then subjected to (unproven, contested, and even potentially harmful or fatal) forms of "treatment," for being "sexual offenders"?

After all, it's all about "saving the children," isn't it?

See also

• framing
• child savers
• at risk
• cognitive maturity
• sexualization
• informed consent
• simple consent
• (more to be added)

External links

(under construction)

• political correctness MUST ADD WIKIPEDIA LINK
• damned lies and statistics-joel_best
• More Damned Lies and Statistics How Numbers Confuse Public Issues-Joel_Best(2004)
• Stat-Spotting- A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data by Joel Best(2009)
• Flavor of the Month- Why Smart People Fall for Fads by Joel Best
• Killing the Messenger- The Social Problems of Sociology(2003)Joel Best
• Children and Youth Services Review Volume 14 issue 5 1992 [doi 10.1016%2F0190-7409%2892%2990048-z] Elizabeth D. Hutchison -- Threatened children- Rhetoric and concern about child-victims- By Joel Best
• The Razor Blade in the Apple- The Social Construction of Urban Legends(1985)Joel Best and Gerald T. Horiuchi
• The Shag-Band Menace- Tracing the Spread of a Contemporary Legend(2012)Joel Best; Kathleen A. Bogle; Chelsea Johnstone
• What’s New_ What’s Normal(2011)Joel Best
• Everyone's a Winner Life in Our Congratulatory Culture-Joel_Best
• DON'T HAVE THE BOOK YET--THIS IS REVIEW ONLY--Random Violence- How We Talk about New Crimes and New Victims by Joel Best(2000)Review by- John M. Johnson
• Standard Deviations Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie with Statistics-Gary_Smith()EPUB_CONVERSION
• Flavor of the Month- Why Smart People Fall for Fadsby Joel Best)Review by- David Grazian
• Argumentation Volume 8 issue 4 1994 [doi 10.1007%2Fbf00733480] Joel Best -- Innumeracy in social problems construction- Missing children, vanishing workers, and other statistical claims
• Lies, Calculations and Constructions- Beyond _How to Lie with Statistics(2005)Joel Best
• Promoting BAD statistics(2001)Joel Best
• Damned Lies and Statistics Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists-Joel_Best()(BookZZ).pdf
• How to Lie with Statistics (Penguin Business)-Darrell_Huff(1954)
• The Journal of Popular Culture Volume 14 issue 4 1981 [doi 10.1111%2Fj.0022-3840.1981.00611.x] Joel Best -- The Social Control of Media Content
• Society Volume 34 issue 4 1997 [doi 10.1007%2Fbf02912204] Joel Best -- Victimization and the victim industry
• Frightening and High-The Frightening Sloppiness of the High Court’s Sex Crime Statistics By Ira Mark Ellman--SSRN-id2616429
• SOCIAL PROGRESS AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS- Toward a Sociology of Gloom(2001)Joel Best