Neither solves problems.
I don`t know if you have kids, but, would you try to raise them by exploiting their fears, or, ignoring their problems? Don`t think so.
Instead, you discover the problem and then work with your child, and maybe some others, to solve it.
Neither. Exploiting my childs fear would be cruel, to say the least. Ignoring a problem with a child will only make matters worse as time goes by. How is he exploiting our fears?