How do you protect your children from child sex offenders?
You and your children should know the basics about strangers and personal safety.
Teach your kids to never talk to strangers.
Be wary of older children or adults who want to spend a lot of time alone with your child. Most children are sexually abused by someone they are related to or know very well like relatives, neighbors, teachers, coaches or family friends.
Teach your kids about personal safety. There are many websites that you can check out with your children to learn about safety rules. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has a game to teach teenagers how to identify the “creeps” at IdTheCreep.com. They also have a cute robot that sings catchy songs to help kids memorize safety rules at NetSmartz.org. WiredKids.com has superheroes and cartoons that offer information to keep children safe from online sexual exploitation.
How do you protect your trick-or-treating children from child sex offenders?
Younger kids should never trick or treat without an adult.
Only visit houses with the lights on.
No children should go inside a home to retrieve candy.
You can keep track of your older kids’ activities by installing a monitoring app on their devices. You can track their interactions and their location.
Know who is living in the neighborhood. You can check your child’s trick-or-treating route against lists of registered sex offenders. Here is the Louisiana State Police Sex Offender Registry.
Restrictions for sex offenders
Registered sex offenders must abide by special rules on Halloween. Louisiana state law prohibits them from distributing candy or gifts to anyone under the age of 18 or from wearing hoods or masks in public places.
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office has teamed up with OffenderWatch and recently spoke to WGNO TV about keeping children safe at Halloween: STPSO is helping parents protect their children from predators.
