There were a number of publications disseminated in social networks claiming that “children in the UK are taught that they should not be scared of paedophiles but make friends with them.” This claim is accompanied by a photograph of an English-language leaflet with the following title: “What to do if a stranger comes up to you in the street.” The photograph also includes another four pages of the leaflet with following three points: 1) Do not be afraid, 2) Do not scream or cry and 3) Do not call him a paedophile. This information was also disseminated in Georgian-language sources. These photographs indicate that the leaflet teaches children to trust strangers and not call them paedophiles since this word may be understood as insulting. The claim and the photographs went viral in Russian social networks.
In fact, a close scrutiny of the leaflet’s photographs show that they contain no logo or other mark of ownership of any institution/organisation so as to identify who published this leaflet. Therefore, there are no other indications to assume that this leaflet was published in the UK except for the fact that the text was written in English. Of additional note is that the leaflet does in fact has six pages (three photograph captions per each side) whilst the main publication includes only five pages of the leaflet.
Of further note is that the information contained in this specific leaflet is not found in any English-language sources. However, a publication containing all six pages of the leaflet is accessible on one Russian website. The sixth page reads: “Invite him over to visit. You wouldn’t believe how kind and funny your new friend might turn out to be!” Logically, this sentence is fully absurd when dealing with paedophiles. Therefore, unsurprisingly, this page was not included in the social network publications. This raises further doubts that the leaflet (if it is real, after all) was in fact produced on a different issue.
The initial source of for this publication can be accessed on the Russian website aftershock.news. After the publication of the leaflet’s photographs and attaching a Russian-translated text, the website indicates that the leaflet is distributed in British kindergartens. However, no information can be found about distribution of leaflets under this headline in the British kindergartens.
In order to verify this piece of information, FactCheck reached out to the British fact-checking organisation Logically. The latter stated that there is no evidence that this leaflet was printed and published in the UK, especially given the fact that the leaflet contains no logo or other marks of ownership. In addition, Logically stated that such a claim has not yet been promoted in the UK’s disinformation domain, although they traced one of the first sources to the USA to some Tik-Tok accounts.
Therefore, the aforementioned leaflet is a part of Russia’s campaign to discredit the West and there is no evidence that the leaflet is used in the UK’s kindergartens. Certainly, Russia uses such fake news to denounce Western society as “promiscuous” in the eyes of its target audience.
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