This is true of people. Yes, we need be afraid of what free children might do, but only because of what fear has done to them. It has made them imbeciles. Modulation must occur in the brain that the brain adapt to what is life. We are not born with a functioning brain the way we are born with a functioning heart.
Any instincts are only the very first steps of survival, e.g., nursing.
Apart from that it is up to adult models to demonstrate success at living. What they demonstrate will be imprinted into the child's brain. Millions of new connections form at four, six and eleven years. That this is new hardware is true only to an extent. We are genetically programmed to bond at birth with mother, explore at her side, then explore with her safely close by, explore others while having mom to return to, explore the broader environment knowing parents still provide, and finally to explore on one's own when realizing that autonomous survival is an exciting adventure.