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- Have your child fingerprinted, and keep the card in a safe place along with pictures updated every 6 months and an accurate description, including scars. Click here for a Child ID Kit.
- Teach your children their telephone number, area code and address.
- Show your children how to dial the operator and what to say (Tell them to say on the line, if possible.) Practice this.
- Know where your child is at all times.
- Don't let your child go to a public restroom alone.
- Don't leave your child alone in the car.
- Don't put your child's name - first or last - on hats, caps, jackets, bikes, wagons, etc. Remember, a child responds to a first name. A person using that name will automatically not be thought of as a stranger.
- Teach your children to avoid strangers. A stranger is someone they don't know very well.
- Don't leave your children in the toy section of a store or wandering in a mall. If they do get lost or bothered, tell them to go to the cashier for help.
- Know your child's friends.
- According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the hours from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. are the time that juvenile crime jumps 300%. So, encourage kids to have after school activities.
- Be involved in your child's activities.
- Practice with your child ways he/she may walk to and from friends' homes or school.
- Make it clear to your child to whose home he/she may go to play or visit.
- Teach your child which homes are "safe" to go into near your home when you are not around.
- Listen when your child tells you that he/she doesn't want to be with someone. Find out the reason.
- Notice if someone pays undue attention to your child.
- Encourage parent-child communication.
- Never belittle any fear of concern your child has - real or imaginary.
- Tell your children that if anything happens, you will look for them no matter how long it takes to find them.
- Organize safe houses in your neighborhood with signs in the windows. Teach the children to go there if they are frightened.
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