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Take 25 campaign targets keeping children safe
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Don’t talk to strangers.
Look both ways before you cross the street.
We’ve all been taught the simple lessons that may have helped us reach adulthood.
But with a more complicated world, the list has grown.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office is releasing this month a list of 25 ways to keep children safe.
The safety campaign, called Take 25, is designed to call awareness to dangers common to children.
Taking 25 minutes to discuss 25 safety issues could make all the difference, officials said.
“What we are trying to do is just emphasize the 25 ways to make kids safer,’’ said Lt. Thomas Smith of the special crimes bureau of the Sheriff's Office.
The grassroots, preventive safety campaign aims to create a network of parents and educators who are committed to talking to their children about safety.
By combining forces with local law enforcement, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children hopes to reach millions of Americans with the message, program manager Amelia Vasquez said.
The campaign will culminate on May 25, the observance of National Missing Children’s Day.
“Any time is the perfect time to talk to your child,’’ Vasquez said.
But parents or guardians hold the keys to keeping children safe.
“The people that children listen to the best are the parents,” Smith said.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office reports 25 active missing person cases daily, a majority of which are juveniles.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported 4,058 missing children in January and 4,083 in February.
The focus of the Take 25 campaign is to build a dialogue with children to teach them real street smarts and reduce the number of situations in which they could be victimized.
A 2003 study conducted by RoperASW, a market research firm, surveyed a group of more than 1,000 parents and grandparents and reported the need for increased parental education. Half of those surveyed considered child abduction and sexual exploitation to be a “very big” problem.
When asked to grade themselves on how well they addressed the issues surrounding personal safety with their children, parents and grandparents collectively gave themselves a “B-minus,” conceding they need improvement.
In Collier County, a child safety coalition was created to make the county safer. The members come from public service agencies, schools and businesses and meet every three months. They discuss safety concerns, from online safety to how children are lured in, Smith said.
“Parents need to make sure to take time out of their day to teach their child about child safety,” Smith said.
In the observance of National Missing Children's Day, a child safety event is scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 25, at Coastland Center mall in Naples. About a dozen participating agencies will be on hand.
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