Our First Tip

Teach your children to trust their instincts.  If they feel threatened by a situation or the behavior of an adult, they should immediately run to a safe place and/or tell a trusted adult.  Reinforce that no one will be upset with them for protecting themselves when they are frightened.  Check back regularly for more tips or go to www.PreventAbduction.net/TipstoPreventAbduction.html.

Our New Site for Parents

Approximately 2 ½ years ago, a little girl in our community went missing one afternoon when she was walking home from school.  Her body was found several days later in a landfill.  She was abducted by a man who lived in a house that she walked past every day on her way home from school.  It was heartbreaking to witness her mother’s pain and follow the news reports on the authorities’ efforts to find this little girl before she was harmed. 

As a child, my parents would always talk to me about the importance of not talking to strangers, not answering the telephone or opening the front door if I was home alone.  I will never forget when my parents made me watch the Adam Walsh movie to further educate me on the importance of not wandering off from them when we were out in public.  I think the Adam Walsh story really “hit home” for my parents since I was approximately the same age as Adam Walsh when he went missing.

As an adult, the news reports of the missing girl really “hit home” for me.  The story was local, and I was now a mother.  While my husband and I tearfully watched the news reports,  we discussed how unthinkable it would be to lose a child.  For a parent, there is no greater fear than losing a child, especially in such a senseless and disturbing way.

My husband and I started looking online for products and information available to protect and educate children on the threats posed by predators.  We found a wealth of tools and information previously unknown to us.  Unfortunately, we also discovered that locating these resources was like a lengthy research project.  The information was fragmented and scattered over various sites. There was no single destination where a parent could readily connect with tips to prevent abduction, educational materials and safety programs offered by non-profits, child safety books and DVD's, internet safety products, or child safety products like digital ID kits and locator devices.

We launched PreventAbduction.net and this companion blog to solve that problem and assist parents with developing a child abduction safety program specific to the needs of their children. In the coming weeks, we will begin to feature common tips for safeguarding children against predators and the threat of abduction. We will also begin posting reviews of child safety books and DVD's that you can share with your children, as well as information about products such as digital child identification kits and child locator devices.

We hope you will follow us on this journey, and we look forward to your comments and insight.

Thank you.