Truly disturbing: This 6-year-old's family pretended to kidnap him to "teach him a lesson".

How far would you go to teach your child about stranger danger?

The family of a 6-year-old Missouri boy have been charged with kidnapping after they pretended to abduct the child in order to “scare him” because he was “too nice” to people.

Read more: Are we preparing our kids to be cautious enough?

A friend of the boy’s aunt, 23-year-old, Nathan Firoved lured the boy into his pick-up truck while he was walking home from school on Monday afternoon, according to a statement released by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

Firoved then threatened the child with a handgun telling him he would “never see his mummy again” and would be “nailed to the wall of a shed”.

The victim’s aunt organised the kidnapping with the support of his mother and grandmother who both agreed he needed to be taught a “terrorizing life lesson”, police say.

The boy was driven around in the truck with his hands and feet bound by plastic bags and his face covered for an indeterminate time, before being taken to the basement of the family’s home.

In the basement his aunt Denise Kroutil, 38, removed his pants and warned him he would be sold into “sex slavery”.

She was apparently upset that he did not put up more of a resistance.

When the boy was freed, he was taken upstairs where he was lectured by his family on stranger danger.

Authorities were alerted to the incident after the boy told officials at his school.

He has been taken into protective custody, while his family members and Firoved — now in Lincoln County Jail — face a number of charges including Felony Kidnapping, Felonious Restraint, and Felony Abuse and Neglect of a Child.