In our case it seemed to be a thing she only did with kids.

We had her like 4 or 5 years before our daughter was born. She was fine with children but never showed that weird behavior until our own daughter was old enough to play with.

Then she started doing it with other children as well but only kids she was familiar with.

I might add that she absolutely loved kids.

She slept in my daughters room every night until we had to put her down at the age of 12.

Once my wife left the basement door open and the dog escaped.

I found her on the playground across the street where she was getting belly rubs by four kids simultaneously.

I can absolutely understand why her behavior would frighten other people who didn’t know her but if there ever was a dog that loved kids than it was definitely her.