I was almost that kid.

My dad worked for Sperry Univac. For a while he was working on a ground-support trailer for the Sergeant surface-to-surface missile. He went in to work one Saturday for some kind of a major test. For some reason, he brought my mother and I along (maybe to give my mom a break). So this four-year-old (yours truly) goes into the trailer, and sees this bright red button...

It was not the launch button. It was the emergency shutdown button, which would have cost them an hour to bring the trailer back online. Someone stopped me before I actually pushed it, but still, this did not make me popular. What I remember from that day is actually the parking lot, because I spent far more time in the parking lot than in the trailer.

The wikipedia entry lists a reference explaining the history of mollyguard, along with a pic of Ed and little Molly, but an HN comment has the relevant text excerpt. see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26633835

OMG I ordered this book the second I saw your comment. It came out in 1992 and today is the first I've ever heard of it.