Missing Children South Africa reports that, in our country, a child is declared missing every five hours. Your child is here for a moment, then gone the next.
The alarming data should serve as a reminder to parents to take proactive steps to support and guarantee the safety of their children.
Advice on how to keep your kids safe from kidnapping:
1. Maintain communication with your children and make sure they know their home phone number, your cellphone number, and the address of where they are residing.
2. Never take something from a stranger. It’s better if your children don’t accept anything if a stranger gives them something; otherwise, they should check with you first.
3. If your child receives a job offer, you should consider it unusual because kids rarely get job offers. Tell them to always decline, regardless of if it’s just a request for help.
4. Let them know you’re trustworthy. The best parent-child relationships are those in which the child feels secure enough to confide in you about anything that makes them uneasy. Knowing whether your child is being bothered by anything or someone is important.
5. Teach kids not to approach strangers, that adults should not beg children for assistance, and that they must get permission from you before leaving the house.
6. Make sure they know you’re not overtly spying on them. If your child is still young and impressionable, it would be a good idea to keep an eye on their internet activity because that’s where predators typically hang out. Make it clear that this is not a justification for you to watch over their private conversations or messages.
7. If someone is following your child or attempting to force them into a car, the best course of action is to scream and run, assuming the perpetrator is not armed.
8. When your kids are home alone, constantly check on them by phone to see whether they’re okay and instruct them to hold off on opening the door to anyone, even if they know them.
“When it comes to kidnapping, the more knowledge both the parent and child have, the better their chances of identifying kidnappers and preventing the unthinkable from happening,” the EMPD media liaison officer concluded.
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