Children’s safety

Children are the most easily vulnerable and the least protected category of the population. Therefore so much attention has to be paid to providing their safety.

Here we offer you some recommendations, which might help to protect the younger generation in today’s fast moving world. ABC of a child safety

Make sure your child knows one’s name, address, and home telephone number.
Using a toy phone teach your child when and how to call the rescue services; show your child how to use a phone-booth.
Explain to your child, that it is forbidden to accept gifts and thus become dependent on the strangers.
Teach your child in case of getting lost in a shopping mall or on the street to address a shop assistant, a security guard or a policeman.
Set an example for your child in matters of security: e.g., before you open the apartment door, make sure there is nobody outside.
Listen to your children, find out their fears and help them to understand the reasons for those fears; teach your children to trust their instincts.

If you consider your child to be mature and responsible enough to stay home unattended, then your child must know:

safe route from school home;
phone numbers and rules of procedure in emergency situations;
how to render first aid on the elementary level;
how to leave the house in case of fire.

If a child is home alone

Next to the home telephone apparatus always leave the phone number of the location, where your child can call you, as well as telephone numbers of your neighbors and rescue services.
If your child goes for a walk, always define the recurrence time.
If your child is playing in the yard, make sure he is well aware of the borders of the playground and knows the rules of behavior with strangers.
Let your child practice closing-opening the apartment door locks and window latches.
Explain to your child, why it is not allowed to let anybody into your house without your permission.
Teach your child, that it is not allowed to say on the phone or to anybody behind the front door, that the parents are not at home; instead, it is necessary to say, that the parents are busy and can not answer the phone or come up to the door at the moment.
Make sure, your child knows who is allowed to enter your house while you are not at home.
Together with your child practice how to leave the house in case of fire.
If children left at home alone are allowed to cook themselves, teach them to do that safely.

Protect your child from the risk of poisoning at home

Keep medicines and household utensils far from the reach of children.
Prefer medicines with lids, protecting them from children.
Install protective devices, which do not allow your child to open doors and drawers of the cabinets.
Keep dangerous goods in their original, respectively marked containers.
Place labels with “Poison” signs on dangerous objects and explain to your child, what those labels mean.
Do not give medicines to your child in the dark.
Never tell your child, that a medicine is as tasty as a sweet.
Get rid of the medicines with expired dates.
While working with any household chemical goods, follow the instructions.
Set an example for your child: use means of protection while working with dangerous goods, e.g. gloves or a mask.

ABC of a schoolboy safety

Ensure your child goes for a walk or plays in the play-ground with friends, but not alone.
Teach your child to recognize the dangerous places, e.g. non-residential houses and deserted streets, destroyed playgrounds and abandoned parks.
Explain to your child, that mockery and debates damage friendship; teach your child to solve quarrels with words and not with punches.
Together with your child stroll to school, go to the shop and friends’ places, - this way you can check the security of the selected route and show your child where to get help in emergency situation.
Teach your child to define criminal and suspicious behavior in your close environment and to report to the seniors on such observations.
Make sure, that the internal school regulations provide for informing parents by phone in case their child is absent at school during the lessons.
If your child attends the after-school studies or hobby-groups, check thoroughly their reliability, including licenses, staff qualifications and rules.

To school on foot

Together with your child stroll on the chosen routes and check how your child observes the road laws; explain to your child the importance of following these rules.
Select for your child the most secure way to school or a bus-stop.
Make sure that your child follows the selected safe route.
Remind your child that it is important to be a disciplined pedestrian.
Dress your child in light clothes or clothes with reflective elements, so that the drives could easily notice him/her.

To school by bus

Teach your child to not go out on the road and to not play active games while waiting for the bus.
Explain to your child, that while waiting for a bus on a bus-stop, it is necessary to stay in an assigned for waiting place and to not approach a bus until its full stop.
Explain to your child, that it is forbidden to cross the road in front of the bus and right behind it.

To school by car To provide safety for the children in a car, all the passengers under twelve years of age should occupy a rear seat of a car, and the kids less than 20-40 kg (usually, 4-8 years old) should travel in a car on a special, weight and height adjusted chair. Protectchild’sconsciousness Probably in the teen-age your child knows somebody, who takes drugs or alcohol, though might not see it personally. Tell the child about the signs indicating, that his friends or acquaintances may be using drugs:

talks about drugs;
presence of drug-related items;
a lot of cash or a constant need to loan money under various pretexts;
drastic weight loss;
incoherent or slurred speech, invariable behavior;
estrangement from other children, lies, depression and paranoia;
withdrawing from school life.

Do not allow your child to get into the bonds of addiction, teach your child to behave reasonably, as befits the conscious young people, in particular:

to abstain from parties, where alcohol or drugs may be offered;
to socialize with friends who do not need alcohol or drug to have a nice time;
to get interested in those activities, which have no place for drugs, and persuade the friends to do so;
to keep in mind, that the penalty for possession of drugs may be severe, right up to imprisonment;
to be aware, that drugs injections are hazardous with various diseases, including AIDS.

Protection of children in the Internet environment The reality is such, that not only baneful addictions can result in dependence. The Internet has an undeniable positive meaning, but today the uncontrolled use of it may present the real threat to the mental health of children and adolescents, as well as to their general security. How to familiarize a child with the Internet

Together with your child log on to the Internet.
Tell your child what worries you in the Internet, e.g. gamble, pornography, texts unleashing hatred, etc. Teach your child how to react, coming across such information in the Internet.
Explain to your child that, despite the fact that during the use of the Internet he is at home alone, strangers may penetrate your computer and install your identity and location, so precautions should be taken.

How to control access

Choose the network service that enables blocking each site, recognized as undesirable for a child: chats, bulletin boards, newsgroups, forums, or the Internet in general.
Buy software allowing creating personal methods of sites’ blocking and not allowing the child to receive undesirable information from the Internet.
From time to time look over the child’s shoulder not only to check what is there on the screen, but if you notice symptoms of anxiety and other indications of your child’s unwanted behavior.
Your child must immediately inform you what bothered him/her in the Internet.
Convince your child to never disclose the personal data.
Your child should never meet alone with the people he/she got acquainted in the Internet.
Personal or family photos may be sent via the Internet only with your consent.
It is necessary to avoid using the paid sites.
Make sure that access to the Internet at school is under the control and supervision of an adult.
Make sure that at your child’s school there exist established rules for the use of the Internet. Internet access should only be granted after the rules are signed both by child and parents.
If your child has got a friend having access to the Internet, ask the friend’s parents, whether sufficient protection methods are applied and whether they are controlling the use of the Internet.
Your child should never respond to messages containing swearing or strange phrases.
If your child receives insulting or threatening e-mail, save it as evidence and report to the militia.