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5 Tips to Keep Your Children Safe

Many parents around the world are expressing their concerns over keeping their children safe from the worst possible scenarios such as kidnapping and abduction. It is a worrying fact that kidnappings and abductions have increased worldwide by 30% since 1998. If you have children between the ages of 7 and 15, you will naturally want them to learn to be independent so that they will be able to make their own way in the world eventually – but how to balance this desire with the desire child security? We have compiled five useful tips for keeping your children safe.

Author: amitkumawat
Date: Aug 30, 2013 - 5:39:01 AM

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Many parents around the world are expressing their concerns over keeping their children safe from the worst possible scenarios such as kidnapping and abduction. It is a worrying fact that kidnappings and abductionshave increased worldwide by 30% since 1998. If you have children between the ages of 7 and 15, you will naturally want them to learn to be independent so that they will be able to make their own way in the world eventually – but how to balance this desire with the desire child security? We have compiled five useful tips for keeping your children safe.

Teach Your Children about Strangers
Teach your children about strangers from a young age as well as anti-kidnapping strategies. While you don’t want them to completely distrust all the people they meet, you do want to caution them about interacting with adults that they do not know, especially if the strangers are offering them gifts. Teach your children that while it is ok to interact with strangers while they are with an adult that they know and trust, they should be careful when they are on their own.

Curfews for Children
It is very important to give your children curfews to stick to while they are growing up; especially teenagers who will want to go out on their own and meet their friends. Most parents do create curfews for their children. It might not be easy to get your children to agree to curfews when they are in their teens and fighting to gain their own independence, but try to let them know that a curfew is in their best interests for their own safety and not just a way to stifle their independence.It is directly aimed at child care security.

Empower Through Awareness
We’ve all been exposed to some kind of viral video at some point in our lives. Whether it’s the latest dance craze video, amazing acts of heroism caught on tape or cute animals doing even cuter things. With the continued growth of the internet and the ability to create, share and send via Social Media outlets there is a very high chance that your child could also be exposed to those viral videos that are not so kid friendly. Many parents try to ignore the media in an effort to protect their child. But in fact, that shield could be blinding them to certain dangers making them a potential target.

Instead of trying to act as if it does not exist, a good idea would be to sit down with your child and have a healthy conversation. Listen to their thoughts about what is going on in the world around them. Perhaps start by using a local story of something that has happened and ask what your child would do in that sort of situation.

This is also a great way to begin dialogue to gauge where your child is and also which of your current methods are working and not working. Encouraging them to discuss how they are feeling about things is empowering them. One of the best ways to protect your child is to make them aware of certain situations and teach them the best ways to handle them.

Setting Healthy Boundaries
Many of us learn from a very young age what boundaries are. When we are babies our toys and play time may be restricted to a certain area or part of the house, we learn to look both ways before crossing the street and we are taught to stay in our own lanes on the road when we drive. The need for boundaries do not stop when we reach adulthood therefore they should be continued through out your child’s life. As your child grows those boundaries should expand based on maturity.

Discuss with your child that they are set in place to protect them. Setting boundaries for your child will also let them know that you love them and care about their wellbeing. It may not be easy in the beginning but the younger you start the more natural those things will become. It is not too late, even if you have teenagers start with a little compromise but do not be passive. Stick to your decision.

Family Security Apps and Big Brother Parent Control
Personal security devicescan be a great way to keep your kids safe, and they do not have to be intrusive on your child’s freedom either. Online phone trackerswith big brother parent control of your children’s location using GPS are a good way to know where your child is however they give no independence to your child. Even worse they will eventually not trust you and disable the app experts fear. On top of all that, do you really want to be looking at your phone every 2 minutes?Apps like Safetracer however take a different approach in that you only get an alert if and when the child is in danger.

In a worst-case scenario where your child goes missing, you will have the details of their location on the GPS, and this can be given to the police.
Although children are more at risk of kidnapping and abductionin today’s modern world, we are lucky to also have the know-how and technology to prepare for, and even prevent any bad scenarios from happening.

View all articles by amitkumawat

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