Protecting your
Children from Predators
Unit 4 Assignment – Writing a Personal
Document
The article I chose was
from Parents Magazine,
and the author is Jessica Snyder Sachs, and the name of the article is "Protect your Child from a
Predators." Sachs goes into
detailed description on how to protect your child from being the victim of
child molestation, and goes into her own experience of being a victim of child
molestation. Sachs also references other authors and their views on the subject
matter. She references Robin Sax, author of “Predators and Child Molesters”,
who is a former prosecutor who specialized in sex crimes against children.
The article goes into
things all parents should know, like the prevention and warning signs that
something or someone may be wrong in your child’s life. She specifies the
importance of knowing who is in your child’s life, because the people closest
to you and your children are the most likely suspects in regard to child sex
crimes. People whom we likely don’t see as threatening are normally the
suspects in these types of situations. About
90 percent of suspects are relatives of their victim, or acquaintances such as
neighbors, family friends, teachers, and coaches. I know this can make for an
uneasy time when dropping the kids off in the morning for school, but there are
preventative measures that are available to be used to safeguard your children
from unnecessary dangers. One of the first things to do is to talk with your
children and ask them about what is going on in their lives. I know getting to
the point of asking your child about sexual molestation is not an easy subject,
but it is a necessary step when it comes to protecting them from unsavory
people. We want to take measures not to make the child think s/he did anything
wrong, and the author goes into how not to approach the subject. You should not
say, “You should have” to the child because it places blame on them and makes
them think they did something wrong, or that the responsibility is completely
theirs in protecting themselves. What you do instead is just ask open end
questions of what is going on with them, is there anything anyone has done to
you to make you feel confused or uncomfortable, and if so who are we talking
about and what happened to make you feel that way? Also, try to remember not to
blow up or attempt to shame your child by saying things like, “Your uncle
wouldn’t do that” or even, “I’ll kill him!” because it causes kids to feel
guilty and they will sometimes modify their story out of fear. It is our jobs
to reassure our children that it is not their fault.
Also as a parent, if
someone makes you feel uneasy or uncomfortable around your child. It is your
responsibility to keep that person away from your child. If this person is at
your child’s school, report it to the principal. It is their job to monitor
situations or staff members that may be questionable and they are there when
you aren’t. This is something necessary to do, if you someone has not met the points
of breaking the law, but you want to make the situation clear to administration
that you are uncomfortable with someone. Recognize red flags, because only one
in five children who are sexually molested will report it. If your child says
he doesn’t want to be around a certain person take him seriously. Other things
to look for are unexplained urinary tract infections, or redness in the genital
area.
With this article, I’ve found lots of useful information to
use going forward that I could not go into detail completely in this paper, but
is a great read for any parent who worries like we all do about our children
and their safety.
Reference Page
Sachs, J. Protect your Child
from a Predator: Retrieved from:
http://www.parents.com/kids/safety/other-safety-issues/protect-your-child-from-a-predator/
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