Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the only thing that telephones did was allow people to speak to one another. Those times are far past. Nowadays, cell-phones take pictures, read email, surf the web, play songs, offer games, GPS, a calculator...about the only thing it can't do is cook your dinner-yet. But all that technology requires computing power, and with computing power comes the ability for people to do not so nice things with it.
One of those sinister things is to use stalking software to track your every move. A teenage girl and her family were surprised when they started to receive threats and intimidating phone calls by an unknown person. "I know what you're doing," he said. "I know where you are." And somehow, he always did. It turns out this girls' stalker knew about all the conversations she was having, and all the places she had been.
So the family went to the police with their complaint. The police told them it was impossible for anyone to do what they were describing. Unfortunately, the police were wrong. Not only is it possible, but it's surprisingly easy. Anyone with $400 to burn and moderate IT skills can download software that will allow them to tap into any modern cell-phone, effectively hijacking your phone-and everything you do with it. They can read your email, listen in on your conversations, and track your web surfing. If your phone has GPS, they can even use it to know exactly where you are at any given time. A bit of information no professional hit man or neighborhood stalker should go without.
It's therefore our recommendation that you stop using your cell phone immediately. Yeah right. We thought you'd get a good chuckle out of that one. To be honest, there's not a whole lot you can do about it right now, nor are we an organization that goes around trying to scare people about the thousand different things that could go wrong. We just wanted to make sure parents are aware of the danger. Anyone can tap into your phone and track everything you do with it. So it's best to keep those deep-dark intimate secrets (which you happen to be sharing among friends) to land lines. That way, the only person listening in will be some bored technician from the National Security Administration.
Visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org for more safety information.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Why do children need a booster seat?
Children do not have the same pelvic anatomy as adults, so regular seatbelts tend to ride up into their stomach area. Their hips are more rounded and less boxy. They also have a tendency to scoot forward in the seat so that their legs hang comfortably over the edge, which further causes the seatbe1t to ride up into their stomach area. This puts all their vital organs in that area at risk.
Children ages 4 to 8 who no longer ride in a booster seat are 25 times more likely than younger children to sustain serious abdominal injuries. Such injuries have become one of the most common injuries, and serious injuries can occur even in slow crashes. Internal bleeding can occur and vital organs can rupture. Booster seats prevent this by sitting a child higher up in the car and guiding the seatbe1t so that it rests near the child's hip area where it should be, and not on their stomach.
Visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org for more safety tips.
Children ages 4 to 8 who no longer ride in a booster seat are 25 times more likely than younger children to sustain serious abdominal injuries. Such injuries have become one of the most common injuries, and serious injuries can occur even in slow crashes. Internal bleeding can occur and vital organs can rupture. Booster seats prevent this by sitting a child higher up in the car and guiding the seatbe1t so that it rests near the child's hip area where it should be, and not on their stomach.
Visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org for more safety tips.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Is It Safe to Show Family Pride?
There has been a heated debate over the use of personalized family bumper stickers, window decals, and other personalized merchandise. In many areas, it's become all the rage to get a personalized window sticker for the car that lists all the members of ones family alongside little stick figures, including the names of the kids. Some even list the children's ages. Other parents use personalized return address labels that list the members of the family. Such displays are done as a way to show family pride. But wait...many safety advocates have come out against such things, saying that advertising your family or your children's names in such a manner is like putting a target on their backs. You might as well advertise them to kidnappers and molesters with a sign that says "come get me," or so they say. Are they right?
We hate to go against our brethren in arms and contradict the advocacy trends, but we must cry foul on this one. It's one of those areas where an overactive imagination and hyper inflated fears lead to bogus conclusions. The reason for advocating against personalization on things such as a child's backpack or clothing or lunchbox is because some abductions are crimes of opportunity. A potential abductor targets a lone child walking home from school, and in such cases, knowing their name can be an advantage. The chances of this ever mattering are remote, but why take the risk if it isn't necessary, right?
Here's an area where a different situation renders this common advice completely irrelevant. Unless you're going to be leaving your child alone in the car while you shop, (in which case they have much bigger safety issues to worry about) the crime of opportunity setting doesn't apply. Unlike a backpack, a car is something that the family drives around in together, and something that would be tethered to the child's parents or other caretakers. The lone-child element and crime of opportunity is removed. As far as the likelihood of someone stalking your family or targeting your children because of names on a bumper sticker or address label, this is an imaginary fear. It's not at all hard to get a child's name in about a thousand other methods. I could walk around the grocery store and get you the names of just about every child in there. Just wait for the first "Jessie, put that back" or listen for siblings talking amongst one another. Or heck, just smile big and ask the child's name in front of their parents while in line at the checkout counter. The bottom line: it's not as though your child's name or identity is some guarded secret that nobody can find out unless you advertise it. The only time it will ever play a role in abduction is if a stranger happens upon your child alone in the right place and time, and can befriend them easier because of the big name tag. This is why it's not a good idea for your child's name to be engraved across the back of their backpack or on the front of their shirt. In all other situations, it matters not in the least, and a bumper sticker depicting your family doesn't make it any easier to snatch a child.
So go ahead, show your family pride. It doesn't jeopardize your children's safety in the least.
Visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org for more safety information.
We hate to go against our brethren in arms and contradict the advocacy trends, but we must cry foul on this one. It's one of those areas where an overactive imagination and hyper inflated fears lead to bogus conclusions. The reason for advocating against personalization on things such as a child's backpack or clothing or lunchbox is because some abductions are crimes of opportunity. A potential abductor targets a lone child walking home from school, and in such cases, knowing their name can be an advantage. The chances of this ever mattering are remote, but why take the risk if it isn't necessary, right?
Here's an area where a different situation renders this common advice completely irrelevant. Unless you're going to be leaving your child alone in the car while you shop, (in which case they have much bigger safety issues to worry about) the crime of opportunity setting doesn't apply. Unlike a backpack, a car is something that the family drives around in together, and something that would be tethered to the child's parents or other caretakers. The lone-child element and crime of opportunity is removed. As far as the likelihood of someone stalking your family or targeting your children because of names on a bumper sticker or address label, this is an imaginary fear. It's not at all hard to get a child's name in about a thousand other methods. I could walk around the grocery store and get you the names of just about every child in there. Just wait for the first "Jessie, put that back" or listen for siblings talking amongst one another. Or heck, just smile big and ask the child's name in front of their parents while in line at the checkout counter. The bottom line: it's not as though your child's name or identity is some guarded secret that nobody can find out unless you advertise it. The only time it will ever play a role in abduction is if a stranger happens upon your child alone in the right place and time, and can befriend them easier because of the big name tag. This is why it's not a good idea for your child's name to be engraved across the back of their backpack or on the front of their shirt. In all other situations, it matters not in the least, and a bumper sticker depicting your family doesn't make it any easier to snatch a child.
So go ahead, show your family pride. It doesn't jeopardize your children's safety in the least.
Visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org for more safety information.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Taking the kids to the playground? Bring a rake.
As we point out in our publication 'Community Risks & Those Menaces to Society,' although people spend a lot of time worrying that a sex-offender might be lurking around their parks, waiting to snatch their child away forever, few recognize that the playground itself is actually a much bigger threat; killing around 30 times the number of kids on an annual basis that registered sex-offenders do. Kids need play spaces, and this should not discourage parents from using them, but it IS meant to drive home the point that a little effort redirected towards playground safety would be time well spent; and is far more likely to save a child's life than worrying about any sex-offenders that may be living nearby.
"The top three things to pay attention to at a playground are surfacing, surfacing, and surfacing," says Gary Smith, a pediatric emergency physician with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "It's everything." *1 The reason for this is that most serious playground injuries and deaths occur from falls from the equipment. Much like a helmet can save a child's life in a bike crash; proper playground surfacing could save a child's life or prevent serious injury during a fall.
But who is paying attention to this life-saving surface? The answer, quite often, is nobody, especially when it comes to public parks. Once a public playground is built, its maintenance is left to the parks and recreations department. While they will usually fix something obvious when it breaks or may replace the surfacing once every couple of years, on a day-to-day basis the upkeep is often left to its own devices. The current recession has likely only made things worse, with communities everywhere slashing their budgets on basic state maintenance.
Those who use these play spaces can take it upon themselves to do some basic maintenance of their own. One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce the risk of playground injury is to pay attention to the raking of the surface. As kids use the play space, natural bare spots form amongst high-traffic areas, often displacing the surface down to bare earth. Unfortunately, these high-traffic spots also tend to be the areas that pose the greatest danger for falls; such as below the slides or the areas underneath the swings. As children drag their feet underneath to stop themselves, the surface is worn bare. We say one playground at a child care center which had large exposed rocks and compacted dirt underneath their swings. It's precisely in this area that a protective barrier is most needed.
So the next time you take your kids to the park, try to remember to bring a rake. Rake some of the wood chips or other surface material that builds up in the lesser used areas back towards those spots that really need it. You're trying to create an even surfacing cushion all around. Even using your feet to kick wood chips or other surface material from one spot to where it’s needed can help. Try to make this a regular habit. Every time your child gets on the swing, or as you are swinging them, kick the material that builds up around the edges back underneath the swing. The same goes for other climbing equipment. You want to try to keep the surface as uniform as possible, so that a child has cushioning to land on wherever it is they may fall.
Children can be killed by falling from a bike, being thrown from a horse, or by taking a tumble off a swing or a slide. While most falls DO NOT end up so serious, all it takes is the wrong landing on the wrong surface. One of these scenarios can be easily prevented by ensuring kids have the right surface to land upon. ~o~ every death or injury can be eliminated. But if we all do our part, we might be able to knock these serious accidents down quite a bit further.
Reference for quote:
1. Liz Szabo, "Playgrounds: they're safer but still can be dangerous," USA Today, p. 4D, 7-30-09
For more safety information visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org
"The top three things to pay attention to at a playground are surfacing, surfacing, and surfacing," says Gary Smith, a pediatric emergency physician with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "It's everything." *1 The reason for this is that most serious playground injuries and deaths occur from falls from the equipment. Much like a helmet can save a child's life in a bike crash; proper playground surfacing could save a child's life or prevent serious injury during a fall.
But who is paying attention to this life-saving surface? The answer, quite often, is nobody, especially when it comes to public parks. Once a public playground is built, its maintenance is left to the parks and recreations department. While they will usually fix something obvious when it breaks or may replace the surfacing once every couple of years, on a day-to-day basis the upkeep is often left to its own devices. The current recession has likely only made things worse, with communities everywhere slashing their budgets on basic state maintenance.
Those who use these play spaces can take it upon themselves to do some basic maintenance of their own. One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce the risk of playground injury is to pay attention to the raking of the surface. As kids use the play space, natural bare spots form amongst high-traffic areas, often displacing the surface down to bare earth. Unfortunately, these high-traffic spots also tend to be the areas that pose the greatest danger for falls; such as below the slides or the areas underneath the swings. As children drag their feet underneath to stop themselves, the surface is worn bare. We say one playground at a child care center which had large exposed rocks and compacted dirt underneath their swings. It's precisely in this area that a protective barrier is most needed.
So the next time you take your kids to the park, try to remember to bring a rake. Rake some of the wood chips or other surface material that builds up in the lesser used areas back towards those spots that really need it. You're trying to create an even surfacing cushion all around. Even using your feet to kick wood chips or other surface material from one spot to where it’s needed can help. Try to make this a regular habit. Every time your child gets on the swing, or as you are swinging them, kick the material that builds up around the edges back underneath the swing. The same goes for other climbing equipment. You want to try to keep the surface as uniform as possible, so that a child has cushioning to land on wherever it is they may fall.
Children can be killed by falling from a bike, being thrown from a horse, or by taking a tumble off a swing or a slide. While most falls DO NOT end up so serious, all it takes is the wrong landing on the wrong surface. One of these scenarios can be easily prevented by ensuring kids have the right surface to land upon. ~o~ every death or injury can be eliminated. But if we all do our part, we might be able to knock these serious accidents down quite a bit further.
Reference for quote:
1. Liz Szabo, "Playgrounds: they're safer but still can be dangerous," USA Today, p. 4D, 7-30-09
For more safety information visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org
Sunday, May 9, 2010
BPA Lurking Where You'd Never Think to Look
Many parents are taking steps to limit their family's exposure to BPA, worried by studies showing its potentially harmful effects. Since BPA is most commonly a plastic additive, that's where the focus has been, on plastics; particularly food containers and baby toys, where the chemical might leach out of plastics and be ingested. Yet it's important to note that the chemical can also be absorbed through the skin.
As such, there's a newly discovered and unlikely culprit in the battle against BPA: cash receipts. According to early data from the Warner Babcok Institute for Green Chemistry in Wilmington, Massachusetts, cash register and credit card receipts are one of the most toxic sources of BPA. Spot checks typically turn up between 60 and 100 milligrams of BPA per receipt--a level well above what has been found to leach from PCB plastic food ware. "The biggest (BPA) exposures, in my opinion, will be these cash register receipts," says the institute's co-founder John C. Warner.
What is this world coming to? You can't even choose between paper and plastic anymore. It's important to note that we still know little about which forms of exposure are the worst, so we don't know if touching higher amounts on paper might cause less of an exposure than ingesting lower amounts through our food. So it's probably not necessary as of yet to say you should bring gloves to the grocery store, although pregnant women should avoid contact as much as possible.
You can read more on this topic with our article: “The BPA Debate: Are Plastics Poisoning Your Children?” available on our website. www.keepyourchildsafe.org
Reference for quote:
1. Janet Raloff, "BPA in womb linked to childhood behavior," Science News, Vol. 176(10): 12, Nov. 7 2009
As such, there's a newly discovered and unlikely culprit in the battle against BPA: cash receipts. According to early data from the Warner Babcok Institute for Green Chemistry in Wilmington, Massachusetts, cash register and credit card receipts are one of the most toxic sources of BPA. Spot checks typically turn up between 60 and 100 milligrams of BPA per receipt--a level well above what has been found to leach from PCB plastic food ware. "The biggest (BPA) exposures, in my opinion, will be these cash register receipts," says the institute's co-founder John C. Warner.
What is this world coming to? You can't even choose between paper and plastic anymore. It's important to note that we still know little about which forms of exposure are the worst, so we don't know if touching higher amounts on paper might cause less of an exposure than ingesting lower amounts through our food. So it's probably not necessary as of yet to say you should bring gloves to the grocery store, although pregnant women should avoid contact as much as possible.
You can read more on this topic with our article: “The BPA Debate: Are Plastics Poisoning Your Children?” available on our website. www.keepyourchildsafe.org
Reference for quote:
1. Janet Raloff, "BPA in womb linked to childhood behavior," Science News, Vol. 176(10): 12, Nov. 7 2009
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