As a parent, you’ll want to ensure that your child is always safe. It’s especially important to teach pre-teens about multiple types of safety issues because they’re still in development and not yet fully wise to the ways of the world.
So, check out the following six important safety tips to teach your pre-teen kids.
1. For Your Own Peace of Mind, Check Sex Offender Registers in Your Area
Before looking at the tips to teach your child, here’s a quick lesson for you.
Sadly, sex offenders are becoming an increasing problem. But thankfully, there are acts in place to ensure offenders have no chance of committing crimes again.
For instance, in Oklahoma, the Sex Offender Registration Act came into effect in 1989. The registry contains details of all the sex offenders in the state and is updated in real-time. So, residents of Oklahoma can access accurate information about local sex offenders and ensure their children do not come into contact.
Check out this helpful article to find out more about consulting Oklahoma registered sex offenders lists.
2. Teach Your Child About Stranger Danger
Strangers can pose risks to your pre-teen in various ways, so it’s vital you teach your child about the dangers of speaking to strangers and taking gifts from people they don’t know. People like kidnappers and sex offenders can then be avoided.
You won’t be able to be with your child 24/7, especially after he or she starts school, so making sure your pre-teen understands the risk of stranger danger is of the utmost importance.
3. Help Your Pre-teen to Memorize Emergency Contact Details
Teaching your pre-teen emergency contact numbers not only ensures your child’s safety. It also ensures the safety of the entire family.
You could potentially face an emergency situation one day where your child needs to call for help. So, get your pre-teen to memorize emergency contacts.
4. Teach Your Pre-teen About Online Risks and Take Action to Prevent Threats
In today’s modern world, many threats to children come from online. Therefore, you need to monitor the sites your pre-teen visits, use parental locks to prevent your child from accessing certain sites, and teach your child about things like cyberbullying.
You also need to make sure your child does not give out any personal information to any individual online.
5. Teach Your Child to Stay Away from Potentially Dangerous Products
Pre-teens may not be old enough to distinguish between dangerous products and non-threatening products. Therefore, it’s pivotal that you teach your kid about which items could be dangerous.
For instance, make sure your child knows not to take medicine from the medicine cabinet or stick their fingers into electrical sockets. And keep dangerous items like sharp kitchen knives out of reach.
You should carefully consider all of the items in your home and determine which ones could cause harm. You can then take the appropriate steps to ensure your pre-teen doesn’t have an accident.
6. Teach Your Child to Not Play on the Road
Of course, it’s also important that your child isn’t in potentially harmful situations outside of your home.
For instance, you should teach your pre-teen to not play on the road. Motor vehicle accidents happen far too often, so even if you think the quiet roads in your neighborhood are safe, you should always err on the side of caution and never let your kid play on the road.
Instead, ensure your pre-teen stays in a designated play area, such as your backyard.