Safety Tips
Parents Safety Rules
- Teach your children to trust their feelings, and that they have the right to say "NO", even to an adult.
- Keep your child's fingerprints, a current physical description and a full face photograph (like their school photograph) in a safe, accessible place.
- Teach your children their last name, phone number, address, and where you work.
- Teach your children how to dial the Operator "O" or 911 and what to say.
- Never leave children under the age of 12 unattended at home.
- Know where your child is, and let them know where you are, so they learn by example.
- Have a list of the first and last names, phone numbers and addresses of your children's friends. Get to know their friends and be part of their activities.
- Don't put your child's first name on clothing, knapsacks, bicycles or toys.
- Teach your children to avoid talking to strangers and to trust their instincts.
- Listen when your children tell you that they don't want to be with someone, and find out why.
- Be alert to an adult or teenager paying too much attention to your child.
- Tell your children that if anything ever happens to them or you, you will look for them until you find them, no matter what.
- Identify safe houses in the neighbourhood (friends, neighbours) where they may go in an emergency or if they're frightened.
- Practice safe walking routes to school, to the park, to friends' homes.
- Do not leave your children wandering in a mall, or in the toy section of a store. Teach them to ask a cashier or security guard for help if they are lost – and never to leave the store.
- You should have a secret code word with your children that only you and they know. If someone tells your children that they were asked by you to pick up the children, explain they are not to go unless the person gives them the correct code word.
