Posted by Scott on April 11th, 2007 — Posted in Child Protection
Daniel Vasquez recently reported about free child safety classes in South Florida offered by John Peek, owner and head instructor of ATA Black Belt Academy, a Deerfield Beach Tae Kwondo studio. I have included some of the tips below:
Saying NO: Peek says the way a child says it is key. A child should step back with their hands waving in the air and shout “no” in ways that call attention from others nearby.
Don’t touch me: Children need to be taught it is not appropriate for any stranger to touch them in the “bathing suit” areas of their body.
I don’t know you: It’s OK for kids to call attention to themselves whenever an unknown adult approaches them. Yelling “stranger danger” will let other adults in the area know something is wrong.
Home safety: Children need to know predators will sometimes pretend to be a friend of a parent or a person bringing news about a parent being injured or hospitalized, so strangers should never be allowed to enter a home. And they need to know it’s not safe to provide strangers any information over the phone.
Read entire article by Daniel Vasquez.
Some of these tips may seem common-sense to parents, but parents need to realize that kids don’t think like parents. Parents need to explain these simple tips in a simple way to children, and continually reinforce them. Because of their innocence, many kids don’t realize the danger or threats of certain situations or decisions.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on March 17th, 2007 — Posted in Child Protection
Rachel Arora reports from Inda on child abuse:
There are millions of children in the world who are victims of child abuse in one way or the other. What does it take for someone to carry out such a horrendous crime? Children are vulnerable and they easily bestow their trust in others. Do those villains, who commit this gross act, ever feel ashamed or guilty? They not only devastate the trust of a child at such a tender age, but also crush his childhood.
Says Dr Rajat Mitra, director of Swanchetan, a well-known non-profit working for the cause of children, “Child abuse is a very serious crime and its implications are likely to be visible on a whole generation of children. A series of scripted violence and abuse will be cascaded by the victims if no one hears their cry soon. Parents are also responsible for letting their children suffer.”
But what can be done to prevent this? “There are no safe institutions or policies to defend the rights of the children. Awareness needs to be created on a large scale. If a child turns up for help, teachers must be equipped with the ability to handle such a situation. The mothers often feel scared to raise their voice if the criminal is the father or a close family member. The government will only take action when it is shaken up. We need to build public opinion and bring out the extent of abuse and trauma.”
Read entire article by Rachel Arora.
I highly recommend reading the entire article by Rachel Arora. It goes into even more depth than the part I excerpted above. Plus, it uses specific stories of abused children.
Sadly, prosecutors have a hard time prosecuting child abuse, because children cannot provide reliable testimony. Worried adults can help prevent unreliable testimony by having a professional question their child on video tape. The more people that talk to the child about an incident before the child gives a testimony, the less reliable the testimony. Additionally, never use suggestive questioning; doing such makes any accusation of the child useless.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on March 15th, 2007 — Posted in Child Protection
Chuck Plunkett and Jeffrey A. Roberts recently wrote an article about the sexual assault of children:
…the most likely victims of sexual abuse — by far — remain young children.
A review of about 55,000 reported cases of rape and sex assault in 2004 shows that about 67 percent of all sex victims are 17 and younger, and 30 percent are 11 and younger.
What makes the data more troubling, experts say, is that there is no simple fix to the problem of childhood sex abuse.
“Most people don’t know about these statistics,” said Victoria Strong, who directs Colorado’s Front Range Center for Assault Prevention, which provides sex-abuse prevention education to schools.
“I don’t think most of the school districts pay attention to it as much as they need to,” Strong said. “Until something happens.”
Strong and other experts say that while it is common for adults to warn children about the very rare danger of stranger abduction, studies have shown that most perpetrators are trusted relatives, friends, teachers, coaches and clergy. Older siblings or cousins also can be abusers.
And experts say even the best prevention education for young children isn’t enough.
“You cannot expect children to protect themselves,” said Mary Wyman, a counselor with Lost and Found in Wheat Ridge, Colo., which works with victims and perpetrators of sex assault.
“Children are so programmed to submit to authority,” Wyman said. And those who prey on children are skilled at what they do, she said, adding, “I’ve never met a sex offender I didn’t like.”
Read entire article by Chuck Plunkett and Jeffrey A. Roberts.
Unfortunately, the overcrowded, underfunded, and inefficient incarceration system in the United States releases non-rehabilitated convicted sex offenders, many of which continue to victimize people. Once convicted, I say do not let these victimizers out of jail until, if ever, they have been rehabilitated.
Non-violent drug “offenders” make up over 25% of the United States inmate population. Instead of wasting resources on victimless crimes, why not use the space and resources to jail and, where possible, rehabilitate victimizers such as child sex-predators?! Further, instead of wasting resources chasing down non-violent people for victimless crimes, why not put the resources towards protecting children from sexual victimization?!
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on March 3rd, 2007 — Posted in Child Protection
Michael Starr offers the following self-defense tips:
What are the top 5-tips any parent can teach their child?
Age 4-8:
1. No adult ever needs help from a child.
2. Stay close to your guardian (within eye sight).
3. If separated from your guardian look for a police officer, someone who works at the store or other authority figure.
4. Make sure your child carries an identification card (i.e. Mom or Dad’s business card with a cell phone number and child’s name).
5. If a stranger tries to hurt you, scream for help, kick, make a scene. Don’t stop!
Age 8 and up:
1. You have more freedom. You MUST be aware of your surroundings.
2. Listen to your intuition. If a situation seems wrong, it probably is.
3. Carry identification and enough money to get home.
4. Make sure someone knows your schedule, where you will be and when.
5. If you find yourself attacked for any reason, fight back with everything you have. Don’t stop!
Read entire article by Cindy Hsu.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on February 26th, 2007 — Posted in Child Protection
Five simple self-defense rules for children:
1. If in doubt, out. Always trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.
2. My safety first, their feelings second. It’s OK to be rude sometimes. Do what you have to and make yourself safe.
3. Don’t be fooled. Adults don’t generally ask kids for help. They ask other adults for help.
4. If confronted, bolt and run. Follow these four steps: No, Go, Yell and Tell. Scream out “No!” Run as fast as you can toward people. Scream. Don’t keep what happened a secret, even if the attacker threatens to hurt someone else if you do.
5. If grabbed, stun and run. Never forget: No, Go, Yell and Tell.
Source: Mike Wilson, Bill Taylor’s Bushido School of Karate
It’s very important to protect children by educating parents and children about children’s safety, because nearly 800,000 children (younger than 18) are reported missing yearly in the United States.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on February 13th, 2007 — Posted in Child Protection, Internet Safety
Dibya Sarkar wrote an article about an internet safety group broadening its mission:
The explosion of social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Second Life, along with free video sharing sites like YouTube.com, is making it increasingly difficult to protect children surfing the Internet, says Stephen Balkam, who founded a voluntary website rating system seven years ago.
To deal with this new Web terrain, Balkam relaunched his group Tuesday as the Family Online Safety Institute with a broader mission of improving online child safety and protecting free speech through public policy, education and events.
The institute, originally called the Internet Content Rating Association, or ICRA, was originally formed to promote voluntary self-labeling through a rating system.
We don’t believe labeling is some kind of silver bullet,” Balkam said. “Labeling is one tool in a range of tools that’s going to be needed to tackle this problem.”
Nancy E. Willard, who directs the Portland, Ore.-based Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, said that blocking technology is largely useless because kids and teens can find a way around them.
“What we are doing is evaluating what exists right now,” Balkam said. “We’d love to see some government-funded research on what works and what doesn’t work.”
Balkam, who is the institute’s chief executive officer, said his group will host a series of round-table discussions involving educators, lawmakers and corporate executives in the United States, Mexico and Europe.
Read entire article by Dibya Sarkar.
Access to the internet provides a new danger for children. Firstly, it gives children access to inappropriate content. Even worse, it also gives predators another route to prey on and manipulate children and teens. These predators come not only in the sexual form, but also con men, thieves, and hackers.
The ignorance and inexperience of parents and guardians about the threat and about how to protect their children from it, makes the internet exceptionally dangerous. Most parents know to tell their kids not to take candy or rides from strangers at the playground, because playgrounds were around throughout the parents’ whole lives. In contrast, many parents do not know what advice to tell their kids about internet safety, nor do parents know what rules to set and how to enforce them.
Educating parents, guardians, and child supervisors (such as teachers) can increase internet safety.
I do not like the idea of state-funded research. I do not want the state to force anyone to pay to protect someone else’s children.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on September 1st, 2006 — Posted in Child Protection
A self-defense and martial arts school from the Iowa Area provides child protection tips on their website monthly:
- Never let your child go into a public restroom by themselves. Little boys may have to go into the women restroom with their mothers and little girls into the men’s room with their fathers. There are evil people out there – please don’t take any chances.
- Get a passport for your child. That makes it difficult for someone else to get one for him / her. Contact the Post Office.
- Keep fingerprints, footprints, and birth certificates of your child, as well as other means of identification.
- Communicate with your child openly so he or she will feel comfortable telling you about problems and troubles.
- Let your child know that it is not okay for anyone to touch them where their swimsuit covers.
- Teach your child not to walk over to a car whose occupants are asking directions. Most adults do not ask children how to get places.
- Teach your child not to ride home from school with anyone, even if they say you told them to pick up your child.
- NEVER let your child go into a public restroom by him or herself.
- Pay attention to threats by an ex-spouse of stealing your child.
- Just in case you step out for a minute, role play ways of answering the door. Tell your child what to say when someone knocks on the door, then you be the stranger.
- Teach your child to yell ” You’re not my Mommy” or “You’re not my Daddy” in case someone in a public area tries to abduct them.
- Does your child(ren) know your family’s secret password — just in case someone other than you needs to pick him / her up? Make up a fun password and keep your child(ren) safe. Superexbialidotious…
- Walk the neighborhood with your child. Pick the safest routes to school and friends houses. Discuss safe places to go in an emergency.
http://www.farrellsusma.com/selfdefensetips.htm
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