Alas, I suspect the advice regarding “don’t keep secrets” is in vain. In my experience as a parent, kids default to “kid world” in which almost everything is held back as a matter of routine. “How was your day at school?” is met with a “OK” even if there was an unwelcome incident (bullying, a failed test, falling out with a friend, etc.). A lot of research has shown that children really don’t connect what they parrot back to adults (“never get into a car with a stranger”) with real-world behavior (“Hey, Suzy, want to see a cute animal? Here, just get into the car…” “Oh, OK!”). As they grow past around age 8 this improves somewhat but for the most part children are poor at self-preservation. This leaves parents in a dilemma that is not easy to resolve positively.