Child safety service InstantAmber reminds us that this month is National Child Abuse Prevention month, calling attention to all facets of child abuse and child safety. The Galveston County Daily News put together a great list of things to make sure your child knows to prevent their abduction:
- Children should know their name, address and phone number with area code.
- Children need to know that appropriate strangers, store clerks or police officers, can offer assistance if they are lost or need help.
- Parents should continue to insist on safety measures through middle school and high school. Most victims of nonfamily abductions were 12 years or older and most were girls.
- Parents should promptly report a missing child. The Amber Plan is credited with helping recover more than 130 children in its first two years.
Talking to your children about being smart and safe could go a long way towards keeping them out of harms way!
Do you allow your kids to send text messages from their cell phone? Or do worries of bullying and other safety issues have you block that service from their cell phone? Debbe Geiger, mother to a 14 and 11 year old, writes an impassioned piece for the New York Times about why she and her husband do not allow their children to send text messages.
When the phone bill listed more than 3,000 texts in one month, we told her it was time to chill out. Granted, we had unlimited messaging so it wasn’t costing us any more. But does that make it O.K. to send an average of 100 messages a day via text? What could she possibly say in those sentence fragments and abbreviations that was so crucial? And what exactly was she talking about?
As it turned out, it was what other people were saying to her that began to concern me more. That’s when I learned about the mean-girl texts, the ones no one would have the nerve to say to a person’s face but are easy to send from one nonconfrontational phone to another. “We all hate you,” I saw on the tiny black screen one night when I picked her up from religion class. First it tore my heart out. Then I got annoyed. Why was she texting during religion class?
Just like many children out there, yours probably have some sort of gaming console. But what kind of games are appropriate for your child’s age level? There are many child safety concerns when it comes to video games, and PCmag.com gives us a great handy list to check and make sure the rating on the back of the latest game matches what is appropriate for your child.
-Early Childhood ("EC"): Ages 3 and older
-Everyone ("E"): Ages 6 and older
-Everyone 10 Plus ("E10+"): Ages 10 and older
-Teen ("T"): Ages 13 and older
-Mature ("M"): Ages 17 and older
-Adults Only (Adults Only): Ages 18 and older only
Is your child fully prepared to know what to do should they go missing or taken? Many parents find it hard to talk about this with their children since it is such a tough subject to even think of. Indiana company KinderVision aims to help your children learn about safety for themselves should the inevitable happen to them.
KinderVision is working to provide parents and children with the tools to help keep their child from becoming the next victim. "It’s really the only solution we have in protecting our children," said Sebastian.
That was why six-year-old Jadarious and his younger brother got in front of the camera lens and were recorded onto a copy of the KinderVision D-V-D. "It’s really to get them to watching the DVD and watching it over and over again. We put them on their, they watch it, and learn the information, said co-founder, Nancy Sebastian.
The 14-minute long program teaches children what they should do if they are in a risky situation. "They should never go to a public bathroom alone. They should never go with a stranger to help him find something. Even if they offer money," said Sebastian.
As spring break approaches for many high school students across the country, many parents worry about their child’s safety as they travel to various destinations to spend their break with friends. Law enforcement encourages parents to keep a close eye on their children at this time of year, not only as the break approaches but as the weather improves and children spend more time outside.
According to Officer Jeff Hopson of the Nacogdoches Police Department, they see a lot of criminal mischief during this time of the year. "We have the bb guns, and paint balls and so forth. Just keep an eye on their kids. Be careful, watch them. Don’t let them stay out late. If they have a lot of idle time, they’ll be on the roads and young inexperienced drivers can get hurt and cause a problem".
And while you may not be able to be with your kid 24/7, local parents advise from experience.
You have got to always call and make sure they’re where they’re supposed to be and make sure somebody responsible is with them" advises Scott Smith, a Lufkin Parent.
If you are a MySpace user, they have no implemented a new application to keep track of Amber Alerts. The application can be added to users’ profiles to help spread the word of Amber Alerts across the country.
You simply install the Amber Alert application like any other Myspace application. Once installed an Amber Alert box will appear on your profile displaying any current alerts, or if there are none, the text "There are no active alerts" will appear.
This system covers Amber Alerts for both the United States and Canada.
A New Jersey community has opted into the “A Child Is Missing Alert Program”, which was created to help quickly spread the word about missing children. The Cape May County Herald explains exactly how the system works:
ACIM uses a three prong program, a telephone data base, GEO mapping system and satellite imagery System.
When a child or elderly person has been reported missing in Lower Township, police will call ACIM and provide pertinent information about the individual such as description, clothes worn and time and location last seen. ACIM Technicians will pull up the location provided with a computerized satellite mapping system.
Then a customized phone alert message is recorded and phoned to the area where the person was last seen. ACIM can place up to 1000 calls in 60 seconds. Call recipients are to call police with any information they have about the missing person. Answering machines will record calls so that residents will receive the alert when they return home. The program is available 24/7, 365 days a year.
Moments after the police department contacts ACIM, the technician punches up an aerial view of the region complete with street names, local landmarks, type of terrain, business listings, types of restaurants, schools, water hazards, parks, bus and train stations. The technician is then able to grasp the distance, scale, and proximity of the last known sighting of the missing person. All of this information can prove invaluable when evaluating a missing child or elderly person’s scenario.
Data forensics expert and iPhone developer Jonathan Zdziarski has created an Amber Alert iPhone application to assist in finding missing children. Utilizing the GPS function built into the iPhone, it helps alert local law enforcement when a missing child has been spotted.
The app lists all current, active AMBER alerts with a small photo of the victim. Clicking one of the alerts brings up detailed information about the abduction, including physical description, last known whereabouts, and details and photos of suspects (if any). A "Report Sighting" button allows you to report a sighting of a victim or suspects along with your current GPS coordinates. This information is analyzed for accuracy and forwarded to the investigating state patrol agency that issued the AMBER alert.
"The iPhone is ideal for not only disseminating [the alert] information, but also for its GPS, which can allow us to aggregate multiple sightings together to assess credibility and to also build better reporting logic to the state police conducting these investigations," according to Zdziarksi.
The application will be free for download as soon as it is approved by Apple.
Are you concerned with your children’s activities on social networking sites such as Facebook? Then Stanford University has the perfect class for you. Dubbed “Facebook for Parents”, the class aims to teach parents exactly how social networking sites work and what you can do to keep your children safe within them.
In the free Stanford class, open to all parents but designed for those with children younger than 18, Fogg and Phillips teach such subjects as "The ABC’s of Facebook," "Ten Steps To Protect Loved Ones," and "Friending, Posting and Updating: Life Skills for the Future."
"It isn’t about spying on kids. And it’s not just about safety and importance of teaching children to guard their reputation," Fogg said. "It helps you build a relationship."
Are you constantly worried about product recalls on your child’s toys and other things your child uses on a daily basis? Parents.com has recently launched a Toy and Product Recall Finder that allows you to enter a product name, brand or model number of any of your child’s items to ensure that it hasn’t been recalled. This is a great resource for parents and child caregivers and a very easy way to make sure your child is always safe.
Safe Parenting