A lot of parents are unaware or feel powerless about how they can educate their child about a crime such as child abuse. They do not have the right words or the right strategy to educate their child and that results in the child being quiet when they become the target of abuse.
Although it is tough for parents to educate their child about such a sensitive matter, the child victims act help can provide ways to overcome this problem. If you’re unsure how to protect your child, here are some practical things to do.
Educate Your Kid About Safety Plan
Come up with a safety plan that will help your child think about their actions in advance. This plan can include safety measures for school and online bullying as well as sexual assault.
Help your child think about life aspects such as being safe at home, while traveling, browsing the internet, or at school. The plan should be easy for them to understand and apply when they face such difficulties in life.
Help Your Child Develop Coping Skills
Being a victim of a crime such as child abuse can be tough. Every child is a different individual with different traits and feelings and they are affected by crime in their own way. In other words, different crimes affect children in a different way, so it is important to let your child know that whatever they are feeling is alright and that things will get better for them.
When children get consistent support from their parents, they find it easy to cope with such problems. Here are a few points you can consider when helping your child develop a coping strategy.
- Talk to them about their day. Try to talk to your child about their entire day before they go to bed. This session should be done in a relaxed manner and at a time when your child is not busy with something else.
- Monitor the use of computers. A lot of child abusers are on the internet and they use fake IDs to trap kids. Make sure to monitor the computer usage of your child especially if they are very active on chat forums or on apps that allow them to befriend and talk to strangers.
- Keep a check on who they are talking to. Your child will likely have a lot of friends and it is important to know who they are. They could be talking to the wrong person. Try your best to find out who your kids go out with or who they usually talk to.
- Support them as much as you can. A child usually keeps things secret out of fear. Often times when they are targetted for bullying or child abuse, they are threatened not to tell anyone. Educate your child that it is important for them to tell you if anything of such nature has happened to them or is about to happen.
These are just some of the important tactics that you must use to make sure that your child remains safe from crimes.
