I've been reading through the Wayfair stuff from the past day or two & am reminded of why I initially got my son into taekwando. I recommend it for everyone. They'll learn self defense skills for sure, but the best thing they can learn is to yell when someone grabs them.
Many times kids do not say a word because they're too trusting of an adult that approaches them confidently. At our academy, each class has a section that teaches them how to yell and how to break grip. These two things might just save their lives and save you a lot of heartache.
I have a daughter, so I've been training her with the techniques I learned in Navy EOD.
I'm sorry, OP, but taekwondo, at least the way it's taught here in the States is too flashy and will lead to your son getting his ass royally beat down in a true fight.
If you're wanting a system that works great for self defense and ALSO teaches a proper mindset technique, go with, at a minimum, Hapkido. After the first 3 belts, it's all weapons based training and each level katta is a different weapon. I started learning Hapkido before going into EOD. I faired way better with the combat hand-hand training in EOD School with Hapkido than the guys that were skilled in taekwondo as kids. They got their asses beat up pretty good by the instructors during sparring practice in the first couple days.
What we learned in Navy Special Warfare is more akin to Jeet Kune Do. Which is what I suggest finding for ALL of your family. Most of the moves and techniques taught in combat hand-hand in the Special Warfare community come from the original jeetkunedo Bruce Lee developed. He even taught some of the original SeALs/UDT guys and some of his best students, who went on to start their own schools, continue to train various SpecOps, SWAT, FBI's HRT, etc today.
If you can't find a class near you, you can go to jeetkunedo.org I believe, and order the whole video set. It's relatively inexpensive and taught by some of the original students of Bruce Lee and some of the second generation students. That system is the father of Mixed Martial Arts and is one of the MOST EFFECTIVE forms of Martial arts when it comes to all around fighting. Which is what is needed in modern hand-hand combat. And the self confidence it breeds once you become proficient is invaluable.
Taekwondo is centered too heavily on kicks and showy forms that I can defeat easily, even being out of shape and having a lumbar fusion. It's a good starting point to build strength and self confidence, but at the end of the day, even an untrained yet slightly skilled street fighter will be able to defeat a black belt taekwondo student 90-95% of the time.
Just some words of advice for everyone here.
Edit:
Go here:
http://www.jeetkunedo.org/
TKD teaches plenty of hand, elbow, and knee strikes that are practical. They are also integral to the “showy” kicks and forms, so the simple strikes are more likely to be second nature. Many of the strikes have blocks associated with them as well, or in similar form and fashion.
Yes, someone using ONLY form correct Krav Maga or BJJ would likely wipe the floor with someone ONLY using form correct Taekwondo. However, in an actual fight, that would not happen. Especially in a self defense/abduction situation, your attacker is unlikely to be a trained assassin or MMA fighter. Just like in firearms training, when the pucker factor is introduced everything breaks down to your proficiency in the most basic skills youve learned. If attacked, everyones genetic baseline is fight/flight.
So for those who move to fight, anyone trained in any type of discipline, even just street fighting, knows that creating some kind of distance is an essential first step. If you can, you gain an advantage to make a decisive move. If you cant, many of your options, outside of simply fighting like hell til you CAN create distance, are likely off the table. While some disciplines are certainly better suited for regaining an advantage once you are grabbed, you STILL have to remember that, once puckering, you revert to your most basic level of instinct and training.
Thats a lot of words, but just pointing out that nearly ANY disciple, and TKD specifically, will be good for self defense at its core. Its easy to say such and such is better because in sport it may be. Just remember that fighting for sport in NO WAY equals fighting off an actual attacker. Especially in regards to our kids. They need the skills to fight off an attacker and gtfo. Being able to choke them out or break their arm or kill them would be a great bonus, but thats not the main point of self defense.