When you were a child, you probably remember your parents telling you something like;

If you don't clean up your room, the child catcher will get you !

or if you don't go to bed the boogy man will get you

These attempts to scare the child into action with threats work with very young children but stop working later on.

Unless...

I could design a fictional service for parents with which to threaten naughty or disobedient children.

I could design:

Uniforms with logos

A website

An illustrated story book with reference to the fictional service.

I could run focus groups with desperate parents and create a level of personalised user engagement

"I'm phoning them now jimmy..."

This would give me the opportunity to both get into the workshops (making things which reinforce this fictional reality) and get stuck into some of the theory behind it all .

Are there threats like this in all cultures ?

It is well known that when trying to get a child to do something one might offer an incentive. A positive reward for good behaviour.

Interestingly , both negative and positive reactions to bad behaviour are ways children get attention from parents. Indifference is worse.

There is an opportunity to create all the artefacts and objects of a fictional company to help parents out with incentivising their children.