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If you saw a 16 year old girl meeting up with an older man she didn’t know, would you step in and say something? That’s exactly what an ABC News show focused on in a recent episode. The television news magazine show, Primetime: What Would You Do? (WWYD?), features actors who publicly act out different scenarios while a hidden camera captures bystanders reactions.
The background for this episode is that Maria, a 16 year old girl, has been texting and chatting with a boy named Brian that she met online. Brian told her that he was also 16 and they decide to meet for the first time in person at a cafe in New York. When Brian arrives he is clearly much older than 16 and starts to pressure Maria to leave with him.
How do fellow diners react to this sketchy situation? The first couple, a man and woman seated nearby, stay silent until the two are about to leave. The woman pulls Maria aside and offers her a ride home, saying that she is a mother and the man she’s with is a police officer.
She refuses to let Maria leave with the creep, then directs her to sit on the inside of the booth. The whole time she remains adamant that the girl will not be leaving with the older man, even when he challenges her and begins to argue. Finally the host, John Quiñones, comes over to explain the situation and interview the couple.
The woman, upset and shaking, gives her take on the situation and says to never trust anybody. The second set of diners sit down and the scene replays. Maria and the older man get up to leave, and the woman bystander steps in saying, “Don’t go with him. Don’t. You don’t know him.”
Another couple ask Maria her age, learn she is 16, then threaten to call the police. Over and over, the customers step in to stop Maria from leaving with the man. They all voice warnings and every woman reports having the same reaction; they are so upset they shake. They see the young girl as if she were their own child, and simply react in the way that they’d want other strangers to, if it were their child in Maria’s place.
They want to protect the young girl and stop her from leaving with the man. The last segment involved seeing what would happen if teenagers were in the cafe, instead of adults, and overheard the situation. Two teen girls sit nearby, giggling and joking, before growing worried as they figure out what’s happening.
After the man gets up they ask Maria if she’s all right and let her sit with them. They warn her about how dangerous the situation is and say that the man is likely a pedophile. He returns and they confront him, and when he grabs Maria and tugs her towards the door they call the cops, follow him outside, and do whatever they can to stop him from taking her.
It appears that every single person spoke up and intervened, would you have?
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