I’ve been looking for a good book or video on safety because my son will just open the front door without asking and thinks that it would be okay to go with a stranger if they had a toy for him (I know, because I asked him).
We talk about stranger danger issues but Cedar just wasn’t getting it. I was curious if a video or book might help. Cedar saw the commercials for the video The Safe Side and kept asking for it.

We ordered it and watched it and I’ll be back with a review. But first I thought I’d offer some facts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The majority of parents worry about their children and stranger danger issues and that’s good because statistics are alarming.

• 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually assaulted before they reach adulthood.
• There are 600,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S and another 100,000 (at least) lost to the system.
• By the end of 2006 NCMEC had received more than 441,900 reports of child pornography.
• 1 in 7 youth report receiving sexual solicitations online.
• Most youth report chatting online with adults they don’t know.
• An alarming 1 in 3 youth report that they’ve actually met someone in person they’ve only known from the internet.

Current statistics from The U.S. Department of Justice.

• 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
• 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
• 58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
• 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical??? kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

The numbers can be tricky when it comes to missing and abducted youth. Here’s a good article that can help you sort out the figures. No matter how skewed the numbers, it’s a fact that kids are harmed and go missing every day.
To learn more visit:

The Office for Victims of Crime

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

In my next post I’ll cover what we thought of the video and other ways you can help keep your kids smarter and safer.  

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Child Safety, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.