Wigan news - Wigan Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More Miroslav Macheček, a teacher from Prague in the Czech Republic, spent five months in prison and endured a living hell after being accused of indecently touching the 10-year-old as she stood holding her mother's hand in the delicatessen queue at a Wigan supermarket. ... "I did a joke with the child and touched her on the right shoulder. The mother looked toward her daughter and saw my hand there, I did not do anything wrong. " ... "In my country you can do a joke with a child, but here you can get in very serious trouble."

This is a very interesting example of acceptable public behavior in different countries. While in many (if not most) cultures, it is acceptable for adults to interact with children they don't know in public, it is becoming more and more a taboo in the UK and the US - and can be taken to this sort of extreme. Czechs, are, in general fairly withdrawn and don't touch each other that much. Children are an exception.

BTW: I'm surprised more Albanians don't get in trouble. Albania is a country where it seems almost anyone will cuddle a child in public (no fly-by huggings in the street, perhaps, but certainly enough to give expat parents pause).