On Monday 27th February, we were privileged to have Holly-Ann Martin from Safe4Kids present to staff and parents on Protective Behaviours at the first ‘Connect Learn Engage’ seminar of the year.
Holly shared the following confronting statistic:
- 1/3 of all children experience some form of sexual abuse by the age of 18
- Children with disabilities are up to seven times more likely to be sexually abused
- 1 in 7 victims are children under the age of 6
She also shared with us some ways that we could protect our children.
Here are some of her Parent Tips:
- Always listen to your child. If you can’t speak right at that moment, tell your child when you will be able to give him or her your full attention. If your child needs to speak with you urgently, stop what you are doing and listen.
- Tell your child that he or she can tell you anything. Demonstrate this by putting it into practice and listen without over-reacting.
- Reinforce to your child the belief that he or she has the right to feel safe all of the time, and they also have a responsibility to respect other people’s right to feel safe.
- Use the language of child prevention education to help your child understand the reasons for your decisions. Avoid saying ‘because I said so’ as this does not explain why.
- Model speaking about your feelings. This includes unhappy as well as happy feelings. Everyone has the right to their own feelings.
- Explain the difference between dobbing and telling. Dobbing is to get someone in trouble – telling is because you feel unsafe.
- Praise your child appropriately. People who bully or prey on children choose those whom they perceive as having low self-esteem.
- Have a secret family code in case of an emergency. It might be a word, a phrase or something of significance in the family. You can use it when you need to send someone the child does not know to pick them up from school, or for occasions when you need your child to stop what they are doing and listen to you.
- Keep computers in a public place in your home. Use applications that help you monitor what websites your child is visiting.
- Help your child make a Safety Team of five people they trust and feel safe with, and who will listen to your child. These people should be known to you. There needs to be a dialogue with these people so they are aware of what is required of them as a Safety Team member.
For more parent tips please visit the Safe4Kids website www.safe4kids.com.au.
Holly-Ann also explained the role of the Kids Helpline. She even suggested phoning them with your child so that they could ask them questions. Their number is 1800 55 1800. The Kids Helpline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 5 to 25 year olds. There are both male and female counsellors available and the service is free.
For children 12 – 25 years old they also have the option of calling Headspace on 1800 650 890.
As part of our Health Education Area we are focusing on Child Abuse Prevention education concepts such as: Yes/Safe feelings and Touches, and No/Unsafe feelings and Touches; the Safety Continuum; Early Warning Signs; Safety Teams; Private and Public; Ok to say NO!; Three Safety Questions; Secrets and Secret Enablers and Cyber Safety.
We believe that Child Protection needs to be a priority for everyone. Please view the P&F Parent Library for more information on Child Protection, visit www.safe4kids.com.au or speak with someone who attended our seminar.
Cyber Safety
Holly-Ann also shared with us some Apps that all parents should be warned about:
1. Musical.ly
Users upload live videos of themselves lip-syncing and or dancing to music with the objective of gaining likes & followers. With 252k daily active users in Australia, this app is incredibly popular with young people. But there are underlying risks including grooming and cyberbullying, as well as inappropriate sexualised or self-harm content. Children often upload videos in their school uniforms, providing an easy means for predators to locate them.
2. Meetme
Users create an account to communicate with other random users anywhere in the world. The app currently has 129k daily active users. Young people are at risk of being contacted by predators, being bullied by other users and are also incentivised to make in-app purchases in order to boost their popularity on the app.
3. Yellow
Often dubbed "Tinder for teens", users swipe left or right on profiles. Yellow has exacerbated the risks on Snapchat (where teens are sharing sexting images thinking they will disappear when they are actually being screenshotted and shared). Matches are automatically provided with a platform to chat and link to each other's Snapchat accounts, to increase their Snapchat followers. With 84k daily active users in Australia, this app is rapidly gaining popularity.
4. Live.ly
Users upload live videos of themselves doing anything and everything with the objective of gaining likes & followers. The freedom users have to upload anything they want results in a huge risk of young children viewing highly inappropriate content such as nudity and self-harm. This app has 80k daily active users within Australia, so it's not as popular as Musical.ly; however, there is a greater risk of inappropriate content given the theme of posts is 'anything goes'.
5. Twitch
Users broadcast themselves playing video games for other users to watch. Users can also chat with each other. Twitch's online community promotes a pack mentality among users who are predominantly young males. Users who don't align with this attitude are ridiculed heavily. Currently the app has 69k daily active users.
The potential dangers posed by these apps are alarming. It can be easy as a parent to think that your child will exercise common sense when using apps, but the reality is that it is too easy for even sensible kids to stumble upon adult content or inadvertently place themselves at risk.