Tips to protect your child ahead of the school holidays

A child went missing every five hours in South Africa last year, according to police.

Through various crisis response and missing persons services, 77% of missing children are found. Unfortunately, we cannot ignore the 23% who are not found or found dead.

Kidnapping and child abduction is a reality. We need to increase vigilance by knowing the risks our children face; what to do to prevent it, or, worse case scenario, what to do if your child goes missing.

With the school holidays starting soon, parents will spend more time with their children in public spaces. Here are tips for parents to keep their children safe:

Monitor your child’s online activity

Traffickers often start by making contact online via social media platforms. If your child is active on social media, you need to exercise a degree of privacy but be vigilant about their social media habits. Monitor the amount of time your child spends on social media and have open and honest conversations about the risk.

If they encounter an unknown individual acting suspiciously online, advise them to avoid interaction.

Report individuals displaying suspicious behaviour — most of the popular social media sites have channels in place to report dubious characters and behaviour.

There is also a risk in putting too much information in the public domain, such as your photo and any other personal details, educate your children about this.

Understand your child’s environments

Whether it is at school, on a sports tour or at a friend’s house, understand who your children will be surrounded by. If it is within a public space, speak to the adult in charge to establish and confirm what the rules and boundaries will be.

Get to know your child’s friends, their names and their parents. Keep their contact details on hand. This creates a sense of community which is important if a crisis occurs.

Education and information

Educating your child can prepare them to respond appropriately in a distressed situation. Not speaking to or accepting gifts from strangers is as applicable as ever. Go a step further and provide them with the numbers of local emergency support services.

Teach your child their home address and to memorise your telephone number.

For a parent, always carry a recent photo of your child with you. If your child goes missing, a recent photo could be a crucial resource.

Invest in monitoring support

There will always be times where parents cannot be with their child, whether it is sports tours or school outings. CrisisOnCall has an identification wrist band that can monitor your child while away from home.

If they are travelling with friends, we [and other companies] have a trip monitoring service. This will monitor the car's movements while driving through high-risk areas. This is important as many kidnappings happen while on the road.

What to do if your child goes missing

If your child goes missing, immediately inform friends and family around you. If you are in an enclosed public space, ask the people with you to disperse to the exits and monitor the foot traffic going out.

If your child is not found within 30 minutes, go to the nearest police station and provide them with a recent photograph and a description of the clothes they were wearing. Complete a SAPS 55(A) form which gives the police permission to distribute the photos and information of the missing child.

Ruan Vermaak is communication manager at CrisisOnCall