Make child safety a priority
During the festive season, children are sometimes exposed to dangers.
It is therefore important for parents to ensure that they keep their children safe at all times.
Police spokesman Capt Thabo Sibuyi says parents should encourage their children to be vigilant at all times.
“It is important for parents to constantly talk to their children and to make them aware of possible dangers.
“Parents should also closely monitor their children’s Internet access and cellphones and educate them on sites to avoid and the danger of speaking to strangers,” he says.
Here are some tips to help keep your children safe:
• Find an adult you trust to supervise your children when you are not around.
• Parents should have details of where their children are at all times and also have the contact details for their children’s friends’ parents.
• Advise children to avoid bushes, construction or empty areas, passages and parks where there aren’t a lot of people or adequate lighting.
• Teach them to follow traffic signals and rules when walking.
• Stress the importance of them crossing the street at places where there are scholar patrols, robots or stop signs.
• Encourage children to walk and play with siblings and friends.
• Tell them to avoid talking on their cellphones when walking in the streets or other public areas.
• Teach them not to talk to strangers.
• Teach them about danger signs and what they should do when they feel they are in trouble.
• Help them memorise their names, parents’ names and their home address.
Sibuyi says it is also important for parents to write down other important details, such as their work and cellphone numbers, on a card for the child to carry with them.
