PROTECTING YOURSELF AND YOUR KIDS

Following are a list of tips from various sources (SLED; Horry County Sheriff's Office; and NetSmartz.org, an educational resource from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) on protecting yourself and your children from sexual predators and potentially abusive situations:

TO PROTECT YOURSELF

• Be alert-walk with confidence and purpose, and be aware of your surroundings.
• Trust your instincts-if a situation or place makes you feel uncomfortable or uneasy, leave.
  Install a wide-angle peephole in your front door. Keep entrances well-lit.
• Never open your door to strangers.
• Be wary of isolated spots-apartment laundry rooms, underground garages, parking lots, offices after business hours. Walk with a friend, co-worker, or security guard, particularly at night.
• Make it a point to know your neighbors.
  
  Avoid walking or jogging alone, especially at night. Stay in well-traveled, well-lit areas.
• Have your key ready before you reach the door-home, car, or office.
• If you think you're being followed, change direction and head for open stores, restaurants, or a house with its lights on.
• Park in areas that will be well-lit and well-traveled when you return.
• Always lock your car.
• Look around and under your car and in the back seat before you get in.
• If your car breaks down, lift the hood, lock the doors, and turn on your flashers. Call police on a cell phone.
• Don't hitchhike, nor pick up a hitchhiker.

TO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN, ONLINE AND OFF

• Use language that is honest and age-appropriate with young people (e.g. "there are people who do bad things to children").
• If your children could possibly have contact with a registered sex offender, show your children the sex offender's photo. Instruct them to avoid contact with the offender. Instruct them to avoid being in the vicinity of the offender's residence or workplace. All sexual offenders are prohibited from contact with children, and any contact should be reported to the Sheriff's Office (in Horry County, call 915-5450).
• Encourage your children to tell you if a sex offender initiates contact with them.
• Encourage your children to tell you about any contact with any other person who makes them feel uncomfortable.
• Teach your children not to take rides from strangers; to tell a safe adult if anyone acts inappropriately toward them (e.g. creepily, too friendly, threatening, offering gifts in a secret way, or touching them), to run or scream or if someone is bothering them; and to not go anywhere alone.
• Listen to your children. If a child feels listened to and believed about small everyday things, they are more likely to share the big scary things with you.
• Take note if you see several of these signs in a child you know: Nightmares, trouble sleeping, fear of the dark, or other sleeping problems; extreme fear of "monsters," spacing out at times; loss of appetite; sudden mood swings; fear of certain people or places; chronic stomach illness; an older child behaving like a younger child (bed-wetting or thumb-sucking); sexual activities with toys or other children; new words for genitals; talking about a "new friend"; suddenly having money; and cutting or burning oneself.
• Take note if you see several of these signs in an adult you know: Refuses to let a child set any of his or her own limits; insists on hugging, touching, kissing, tickling, wrestling with a child even when the child does not want affection; is overly interested in the sexuality of a particular child or teen; has little interest in spending time with someone their own age; regularly offers to babysit many different children for free or takes children on overnight outings; buys children expensive gifts or gives them money for no apparent reason; allows children or teens to consistently get away with inappropriate behaviors; talks about the sexual activities of children or teens; asks adult partners to dress or act like a child or teen during sex.
• Post clear, simple, easy-to-read house rules on or near the house computer monitor.
• If you have children, look into safeguarding programs or options that your online service provider might offer.
• Web sites for children are not permitted to request personal information without a parent's permission. Talk to children about what personal information is and why you should never give it to people online. Internet accounts should be in the parent's name with parents having the primary screen name, and controlling passwords.
• If you allow children to use chat or e-mail, talk to them about never meeting in person with anyone they first met online.
• Instruct children not to respond to offensive or dangerous e-mails, chat, or texts. Report any such communication to local law enforcement. Do not delete the offensive or dangerous e-mail.
  Keep the computer in an open area of your home.
• Visit your children's favorite sites and familiarize yourself with them.
• Have children use child-friendly search engines, and limit chat rooms to kid-friendly, protected sites.
• Remind children to tell a trusted adult if they see something that bothers them online.

-Timothy C. Davis, Staff Writer