Categories
Parenting and Childcare

Safety Measures to Follow to Keep Your Child Safe from Abuse

Maximum parents fret about how to guard their children in a world that at times seems so risky. As with any other danger, guarding our kids against risk starts with knowing those risks. For example, parents frequently think that keeping a stranger away is sufficient to protect kids from sexual abuse, but most sexual abuse cases are carried out by someone the child trusts and knows such as a step-parent, parent, teacher, coach, sibling or older cousin, babysitter or religious leader.

Here are some simple safety measures to keep your child safe from abuse.

Ensure your kids are well managed.

You must know where your kids are and who is with them. It is best to have more than one child and a minimum of two adults present when you are not present to manage. One adult/child situations should be avoided unless the adult involved has shown to be very reliable.

Parents should be very cautious about leaving young children with teens. Stay away from settings for children such as day-care facilities that do not permit parents to stop by anytime. Also, one of the important safety measures is to keep any kind of internet facility in common spaces of the home so you can keep an eye on your kid’s web browsing. It is very simple to trip upon improper material online by chance.

Understand the warning signals

Adults who demonstrate a strong liking for being with kids over adults, particularly being unaccompanied with kids, should provoke some doubt. Be careful of adults who engage in any actions that look suspicious. In children, the below-mentioned behaviours are indicators of psychological suffering and can signal that a child is being abused:

  1. Sudden changes in temper
  2. Changes in a child’s eagerness to be around a particular adult
  3. Constant crying
  4. Trouble focusing
  5. A sudden commencement of toileting accidents after a history of continence
  6. Aggressive or cruel acts towards others that appear out of temperament for the kid
  7. Low confidence.

One strong pointer of child sexual abuse is strange sexual behaviour. If children are talking about or mimicking adult sexual acts, they have likely either seen or experienced something damaging.

Keep communication lines open between yourself and your kids

Find out what is happening in your kids’ lives and get to know their interests. Your kid is most likely to discuss with you about a serious issue, such as worries about an adult in her life, if you already have repeated, healthy conversations.

Spend some time with your children to find out about what is important to them. For instance, you can ask them about their wishes. Perpetrators often look for children who appear to have a fragile bond with their parents as they are less possibly to tell their guardians about abuse, and as they might be fascinated by an adult who shows them the attention they are missing at the house.

Have faith in your instincts

If there is a hesitation in your mind about the safety of your kid, do not go against your instincts. Even if it will harm anyone’s feelings, even if you cannot put a finger on why you feel insecure about someone, do what you need to keep your children safe. Your parental instincts, if you rely on them, can be a useful tool in protecting your child.

These are some of the simple ways to stay away from child sexual abuse.

Categories
Awareness Parenting and Childcare

Child Safety: Identifying the Common Signs of Sexual Abuse

Signs of child sexual abuse could be emotional and/or physical, with physical symptoms being less common. Emotional signs can vary from “too ideal” behaviour to depression, withdrawal, or unexplained anger. It is vital to remember that some children may show no signs at all. There are also red flag behaviours you can recognize if you know what to look for to assist intervene in the grooming process.

Emotional Signs

Emotional and behavioural changes or signs are more common than physical signs and can include:

  • Depression and anxiety
  • Change in eating habits
  • Sleep disturbances, including night terrors or nightmares
  • Unusual fear of certain places or people; unwillingness to be unaccompanied with a certain person
  • Withdrawal; runaway behaviour
  • Changes in mood include aggressiveness towards pets, parents, friends, siblings, and anger
  • Frequent unexplained or health problems such as stomach aches or headaches
  • Alteration in attitude towards academic or school performance; no interest in sports, friends or other activities
  • Poor confidence; avoidance of relations
  • Self-mutilation or change in body discernment, such as thinking of body or self as bad or dirty; suicidal thoughts
  • Unusual behaviours, for instance, thumb-sucking or bedwetting
  • Abnormal knowledge or sexual behaviours of advanced sexual behaviours and language
  • Too “ideal” behaviour or overly compliant behaviour
Physical Signs of Abuse

The physical signs of sexual abuse are not usual. But, when physical signs are present, they might include bumps, bleeding, bruising and redness, or scabs around the mouth, anus, or genital. Sexually transmitted diseases, urinary tract infections, and penile discharge or abnormal vaginal discharge are also warning signs.

Other indirect physical signs comprise:

  • Headaches
  • Wetting or soiling accidents unrelated to toilet training
  • Chronic stomach pain
  • Chronic or relentless pain during stool movements or while passing urine
  • Sexually transmitted diseases
Symptoms that a person may be harming a child

Keeping children safe can be as hard as numerous perpetrators who abuse children sexually are in positions of trust. Keeping a kid away from the perpetrator may indicate major changes in your own life.

Be cautious of an adult who spends time with kids and exhibits the following behaviours:

  • Does not admire boundaries or listen when anyone tells them “no”
  • Engages in touching a child inappropriately
  • Tries to be a kid’s buddy instead of filling an adult role in the child’s life
  • Does not seem to have age-appropriate relation
  • Discusses with children about their relationships or personal problems
  • Spends time alone with children outside of their role in the child’s life or makes up justifications to be alone with the kid
  • Expresses bizarre curiosity in the sexual development of the child, such as sexualizing normal behaviours or commenting on sexual uniqueness
  • Offers gifts to the kid without reason or occasion
  • Spends a lot of time with your kid
Taking action is not easy, but it is vital

It is not always easy to recognize child sexual abuse—and it can be even more demanding to step in if you believe something is not right. If a child informs you that a particular person makes them feel embarrassing, even if they cannot tell you everything, pay attention.

Consult with somebody who can assist you find out if this is something that must be reported, such as a staff member from your local sexual assault service provider.