Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Protecting Your Children from Predators; CM 107 Comp I Fall 2016

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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