Quote Originally Posted by Frank Giger View Post
Jeez, the sort of person who is concerned that their child would be molested by a pilot who is actively piloting an aircraft is so whacko that they wouldn't be there in the first place.

Indeed, the safest thing to do is turn the parent and, yes, the child away as that parent is shopping for someone to sue.
Although I agree that the question seems ridiculous enough for us to joke about it, it is not itself a joke.

Well meaning parents have been bombarded with stories of teachers, clergy, politicians, and so on engaging in predatory sexual behavior with the young and impressionable. This happens so often in our insatiable news cycle that people forget that what is in the news is the unusual, the rare -- indeed -- the exceptional. They are confronted with the exceptional so often that they begin to believe it is the common. So...they have a reasonable if not entirely rational concern for their children, especially around those they do not know and in situations that already make them feel a bit nervous. (Forgetting or unknowing that molesters are most likely to be people they know and have decided to trust.) Then, we have organizations that overreact, mostly in the effort to protect themselves, rather than promote the image and reputation of those working on their behalf. There are also "influencers" who suggest that any adult who actually wants to work with children must have some sort of nefarious motives.

So, to us, the concern seems irrational. In fact, it is, by definition, irrational. However, the people who are concerned and asking the questions are not themselves irrational. They are just the outcome of a society that discourages rational inquiry. (And I think that is true regardless of political affiliation!)