Child Safety Tips from St. Petersburg Police Dept.

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22 May

Officer Donald Herring – St. Petersburg Police Department Sharing child safety tips for National Missing Children’s Day

Every year in the U.S., 465,000 children are reported missing. National Missing Children's Day, which is May 25, was created to encourage parents, guardians, caregivers, and others concerned with the well-being of children to make child safety a priority. To commemorate this day, we wanted to share the following safety tips with you:

• Teach children their contact information. Make sure your child knows his or her full name, home address and telephone number. Include this contact information in their backpack, coat, etc. Teach your child not to share this information with anyone he or she does not know without your permission.

• Practice safe social media.Talk to your children about the risks of sharing too much information on social media. Explain how "checking in" on social networks and sharing location information or routines can have negative consequences.

• Listen and ask questions. Listen if your child says someone makes him or her feel uncomfortable. Ask questions to better understand why. It is important for children to learn to trust their instincts.

• Use Nextdoor's urgent alert tool if your child goes missing or wanders away. After contacting authorities, use Nextdoor to alert your neighbors. The first few hours after a child goes missing are the most critical. Since there's typically a window of time before emergency responders can arrive, alerting your neighbors can be an essential step.