Legal Law

Top 10 Kidnapping Prevention Tips

Friends, did you know? According to a recent report from the Department of Justice:

797,500 children under the age of 18 were reported missing in a one-year period, which included runaways, children who disappeared for a few hours or were late for custody delivery, etc.
203,900 of them were victims of family kidnappings;
58,200 of them were victims of non-family abductions by someone the child knew at least partially;
115 children were victims of “stereotyped” abductions by a complete stranger.

I quoted these numbers so as not to downplay the kidnappings in any way. My heart truly goes out to the victims and their families for having to live through a nightmare like this. However, these statistics helped clarify the reality of child abduction: “stereotypical” abductions do not happen as often as I feared.

In our house

Regardless of the often sensational reports in the media, child abduction remains a very legitimate and open concern in our home. Although we closely monitor our young children, my wife and I began to periodically address kidnapping with my son when he was 4 years old. Simply put, this is how we discussed the kidnapping with my son:

Remind her that although it happens rarely, sometimes children are taken away by strangers;
Review your basic safety rules and why they are so important;
Talk up and practice what to do if you ever feel threatened;
Ask him for his parents’ full names and full address;
Explain that we will never send a stranger to pick you up from preschool;
Assure him that it is our job as parents to protect him and his sister, and that he can tell us anything … we won’t get mad at him;
Encourage him to come to us with any questions or concerns, no matter what.

Top 10 Prevention Tips

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) provides excellent resources to help us prevent abductions and harm. Here’s a very general synopsis of his advice …

Take a friend when you go places and stay with the group;
Take appropriate action if they approach or follow you;
It is more important to escape a threat than to be courteous;
Talk openly with your children about safety and encourage communication;
Practice basic safety skills;
Get involved in your children’s activities;
Never leave children unattended in cars, running or not;
Know where your children are and with whom;
Get to know your child care providers, friends, neighbors, etc .;
Remember that you are your best resource;
For some suggestions on how to start the conversation with your kids, or how to create “teachable moments,” I highly recommend checking out NCMEC’s ​​Take 25 initiative.

OPSEC

Operational security, or “OPSEC,” was originally a military term that describes the process of protecting small pieces of data that could be grouped together to provide a bigger picture. OPSEC can also be applied to the safety of your children, because their names on backpacks, jackets or lunch boxes could easily become a talking point for anyone who may be pointing at them. The same goes for stick figure “families”, honor roll, school names, and car vacation destination stickers, as well as personalized license plates … all little bits of information that someone you could use to build a false familiarity with your child.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *