Tip of the Week: Protecting Your Child from Sexual Predators

Tip of the Week: Protecting Your Child from Sexual Predators

3 Important Tips to help protect your child

The tragic Washington State murder of a young woman by a sexual predator, followed by tremendous public outrage, resulted in a Governor’s Taskforce on Community Protection and the Washington Community Protection Act of 1990. The task force recognized that sex offenders are often times repeat offenders who must be supervised after release. Two important components of the resulting law included: 1) the required mandatory registration of sex offenders, and 2) granted police agencies the authority to notify the public when a sex offender is present in their neighborhood.

Today, most law enforcement agencies provide an online registry of sex offenders and their addresses through a service provided by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. The online registry enables members of the community to search the area around their home address to determine if sex offenders live in the area. So, today we ask: “Have you considered checking the sex offender registry for the area around your home?”

A key component of effective family security is identification and recognition of risk. If you have young children you must seriously consider the risk presented to them by sexual predators, and then take the necessary precautions to mitigate that risk.

Following are 3 important tips to protect your child from sexual predators:

1. Talk to your child – Teach your children what is acceptable behavior by adults and what is not acceptable. Teach them how to tell an adult to stop unacceptable behavior, and also how and to whom to report such behavior.

2. Listen to your child – When you communicate with your children, listen carefully when they tell you about their day. Be attuned to any mention of inappropriate behavior, and take immediate action to remove your child from suspected risky environments if necessary.

3. Always be vigilant – Know when sex offenders live in your child’s orbit. That orbit includes home, school, the homes of friends and relatives, and other after school venues. Check the sex offender registry for the areas near each of those key addresses, and place yourself on the auto-notification list to learn when new offenders move into the orbit.

At Rampart Group, we believe risk that is predictable is preventable. The online sex offender registry can be an early warning indicator of potential risk to your child. Don’t miss the warning!