Threats to our Kids: Building a Child Safety Kit (2023 Edition)
Most people agree that keeping our children safe should always be a top priority.
As such, this topic routinely receives more than its fair share of lip service from people in front of microphones or television cameras. Whether leaders are actually doing enough to combat the situation remains a matter of opinion, however.
Either way, the social landscape that our children live in is changing radically. Because these changes include child mortality rates that are plummeting all around the world, it's easy to assume that our children are safer than we were growing up.
The new technological paradigm of the modern era presents its own unique problems, however. That is why the shrewd parent takes this evolving threat profile seriously, and prepares a child safety kit accordingly. That way, if—God forbid—one's child goes missing, one will be adequately prepared.
In this spirit, we will walk you through various modern threats to our children, explaining as we go how MIRA Safety can help mitigate those threats. Finally, we will provide some advice and basic training to empower your children in these challenging times.
Table of Contents
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01
The Importance of a Child Safety Kit
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02
Breakdown of Other Threats to Children
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03
Drug Abuse
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04
Online Threats
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05
Chemical Contamination
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06
School Shootings
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07
Nuclear War
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08
Making Your Own Child Safety Kit
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09
Talk to your Kids About Threats and How to Handle Them
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10
Drills for Responding to Emergency with Children
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11
Final Thoughts
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12
Frequently Asked Questions
The Importance of a Child Safety Kit
Picture it: the worst case scenario is taking shape right in front of your eyes.
Your child left the house on their bike, and they were supposed to be home in thirty minutes. However, it's been over an hour, and no one has seen them.
Now, you are on the phone with the authorities. What do you tell them? What do you give the police when they show up?
This is where the Child Safety Kit comes into play. For help with this, one can turn to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, which is a nonprofit that works with the police. (Download their Child ID Kit here.) The local PD also have special days to create child safety kits in the neighborhood.
In accordance with the Child ID Kit linked above, officers will ask you for information like your child's height, weight, and eye color. In fact, some may even want a DNA sample.
While that might sound extreme, this information can make all the difference when detectives are on the trail of a missing child. A single hair, after all, could one day prove life-saving, due to the genetic information it houses.
Breakdown of Other Threats to Children
From cyberbullying to drug abuse, children are increasingly vulnerable to a wide range of modern day threats. As such, the conscientious parent endeavors to play a critical role in protecting their children from these dangers—but first, one must understand the risks involved.
Let's begin with one of the most significant threats facing children in the modern day: cyberbullying. With the advent of social media platforms and instant messaging, bullies have more avenues than ever to harass and intimidate their victims. Accordingly, a survey conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center found that 34% of students have experienced cyberbullying at some point.
In order to diminish these numbers, parents can take tangible steps towards their children's safety by monitoring their online activity, adjusting privacy settings on social media accounts, and encouraging them to speak out if they feel threatened. This means that you have to have an open dialogue with your children about their online life, and, above all, you gotta pay attention.
Drug Abuse
Our nation is suffering from an epidemic of drug use. On one hand, it is clear that the War on Drugs did not work out, but on the other, we ought not dismiss drugs as a form a harmless recreation.
After all, we lost nearly 100,000 Americans to opioid overdoses in 2021. And with the fentanyl crisis looming large over American classrooms and homes, officials are sounding the alarm that very young children are at risk of exposure.
Teens are vulnerable, too, with 7.2% of twelfth graders reportedly using illicit drugs in the past year in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Parents can prevent their children from becoming a part of this statistic by educating them on the dangers of drug abuse, monitoring their behavior for signs of drug use and addiction, and seeking professional help if necessary.
Online Threats
Online predators are also a significant concern for children. A far more serious threat than cyberbullies, these individuals use social media and other online platforms to gain the trust of children and then exploit them.
Alongside this, children are all too often exposed to inappropriate content online, which they might find whilst browsing the internet or watching videos on YouTube and TikTok. As a parent, you can help your child by setting parental controls on their devices, monitoring their online activity, and discussing appropriate online behavior.
Chemical Contamination
Three decades ago, in February of 1993, Darin Detwiler’s 16-month-old son Riley died of E. coli poisoning during a multi-state outbreak.
Today, Detwiler is a staunch advocate for food safety.
"What happened to my son thirty years ago still happens today," he warns. "I talk with families who buried children from E. coli, salmonella, or listeria all the time."
Here at MIRA Safety, we have heeded the words of parents like Detwiler, and consider E. coli to be a serious threat to children. As such, we have introduced the DTX-1 Detoxifier, designed to remove pesticides and contaminants from our foods. This includes dangerous bacteria like E. coli.
Like Detwiler, our mission is "to prevent another family from living with a chair forever empty at the family table," which is why we recommend taking the proper precautions to safeguard your child's health from foodborne pathogens. This includes investing in a quality detoxifier.
School Shootings
Last year, the United States witnessed a record high number of school shootings: 273. Now, in 2023, experts project that this number could rise even higher, with one predictive model forecasting 400 shootings.
If true, this would mean that there would be, on average, more than one school shooting per day.
With this increasing threat of mass murder in the classroom, you may well wonder: what can parents do to prepare?
In the first place, you can teach them about Run. Hide. Fight., which is standard FBI training for dealing with active shooter situations. The process entails the following:
Run: If there is an opportunity to escape from an active shooter station, it is in your best interest—as well as those around you—to run away and call for help.
Hide: If you cannot run to safety, the next best option is to find a good hiding place and stay put. Because shooters have a limited time to cause chaos, they generally do not fumble with locked doors and closets. Hiding, therefore, can be a life-saving option.
Fight: In the absence of an escape route or hiding place, your last option is to fight. This means looking around for solid, easy-to-handle items and sharp or pointed objects, which one can use as improvised weapons. Note that if the active shooter is coming your way, try to stay out of sight until the last possible moment. Then, strike with all the force you have. If you can get your hands on the gun, it is best, at minimum, to ensure it is not pointed at you (or any other victim).
There are other precautions you can take, too.
At MIRA Safety, we sell tactical level IV body armor plates that weigh just under six pounds each. Able to be slipped into a laptop pocket in a backpack, these plates protect from some of the biggest calibers an active shooter can carry. In this way, a simple backpack can become a bulletproof shield, or even a weapon if need be.
Here, it must be acknowledge that, as a parent, it is sickening to have to contemplate such measures. Nevertheless, we would like to do our best to equip our readers with the best information available.
MIRA Tactical Level 4 Body Armor Plate
Nuclear War
From baby boomers to zoomers, we have all grown up with the looming threat of nuclear war. While it may seem unthinkable that yet another generation must face this grave danger, that is the situation we are in—and it must be faced with clear eyes.
So, have you talked to your children about nuclear readiness? Do you have a plan for such a situation? If bombs start going off right now, what is your next course of action?
If you do not know, then tonight, you need to sit down and contemplate what you would do if your nearest city were to be nuked.
In this regard, MIRA Safety is one step ahead of you, with a Children’s Nuclear & Pandemic Protection Kit that takes the guesswork out of nuclear preparedness.
Combining our new MD-1 Children's Gas Mask with an NBC-77 SOF gas mask filter and a lightweight hose-and-pouch system, our Children's Nuclear & Pandemic Protection Kit offers all-in-one protection from a myriad of chemical, biological, and nuclear threats. Plus, the included Thyrosafe tablets provide crucial frontline protection against potential radiation exposure.
Self-contained and designed to hold up even after spending a decade on the shelf, this kit is a perfect solution for those worried about the very real threat of nuclear war.
Once again, it is terrible that considerations such as this must appear in an article about threats to children. This, however, is our reality, so we must ready ourselves for it accordingly.
Making Your Own Child Safety Kit
In 2020, 365,348 missing person records were filed for minors between the ages of zero and seventeen. (Note that this statistic includes children who went missing more than once.)
If you ever find yourself in this terrible situation, having a child safety kit will immediately equip police and investigators with the information most valuable in identifying your child.
So, what should you have on hand whilst compiling your child's safety kit? In this regard, we recommend printing the following information on a half sheet of paper and laminating it:
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First, middle, and last name
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Nicknames
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Birth date
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Age
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Height
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Weight
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Sex
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Ethnicity
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Hair Color
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Eye Color
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Unique features (like glasses, birthmarks, braces, piercings, tattoos, etc.)
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Medical Conditions
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Blood Type
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Doctor contact information
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Emergency contacts
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Fingerprints (Note: you need one print from each of your child's fingers.)
Don't worry about having enough space. If you use a half sheet of paper for each child, you can use a stamp pad and capture each finger's prints on the opposite side of the paper.
To go above and beyond for your child's safety, print out extra information cards (without the fingerprints). That way, if a search party is gathered, you can give your child's details to each person.
Maintaining the Child Safety Kit
Children grow up so fast!
With this in mind, a child's safety kit must be updated regularly. After all, kids can make rapid changes over the course of months, let alone years.
This means that you will have to regularly refer to your kit, taking care to reflect changes accordingly when your son's height shoots up by a foot, or your daughter dyes her blonde hair red with Kool-Aid.
Remember: these details can prove crucial during an emergency. So update your child's information at regular intervals, including any new medical diagnoses. Attach a recent photo, too.
A Warning About Child Safety Kits
There are a handful of companies out there that offer children's safety kits as a part of their services. Naturally, this requires all the information that you typically use to make your own kit.
Here, we must advise our readers to exercise a great deal of caution when sharing information about your children with unfamiliar companies.
Remember that data is worth a lot of money in this age. If a company wants your child's information, even if they are willing to make you a high-quality child safety kit for free, you better be sure they are not planning on selling that information (or your own) as part of the service agreement.
On this basis, we recommend sticking with the local police, as that is a good relationship to build, or just creating the kit yourself.
Talk to your Kids About Threats and How to Handle Them
As parents, we walk a fine line when discussing threats.
On one hand, you don't want to insulate your kids from reality. By tell them, "Don't worry, I will handle it," your child may conclude that they are helpless.
And if you go too far in the other direction, your youngster may feel overwhelmed and alone.
Nevertheless, we must find a way to strike the appropriate balance, since the price of not having these conversations is so high.
Without our words to guide them, children will invariably create a narrative, or assume an established internet narrative. Right now, that narrative is one of hopelessness. It holds that, for a multitude of reasons, the future seems doomed, and humans must simply resign themselves to as much.
This brings us to the final threat to our children, and that is suicide. Unfortunately, this cause of death is on the rise, especially among teenagers and young adults. On this basis, we recommend showing sensitivity to your children as you broach these difficult subjects. The threat of school shootings and nuclear war, after all, is not an easy pill to swallow.
By showing compassion, your children will know that you are a safe resource for them. That means that if they make the wrong decision, they will feel comfortable opening up to you, and not fear that they will be met with reprisals. Remember: if your kids cannot lean on you, they will inevitably turn to someone else, and that person may not be reliable or safe.
So, if you feel like you are losing that connection with your child, and they are headed in the wrong direction, the best thing you can do is seek help. That might look like therapy, spiritual counseling, or something else altogether. Whatever you do, recruit the big guns.
Drills for Responding to Emergency with Children
Though the stats on drug use and suicide are alarming, your kids are much more likely to face Mother Nature's wrath—or, failing that, the chaos caused by human error. Indeed, natural and manmade disasters are a mainstay of everyday life, all around the world.
As such, your children are likely to hear words like "floods," "tornados," and "wildfires" on the news. When this happens, they can get scared, looking to you for safety and comfort.
But what if, God forbid, something were to happen to you during an emergency? Would they be able to see themselves to safety?
Questions like this are the reason that we need to build confidence in our children. That way, they will be capable of dealing with a catastrophe as best they can.
To prepare your kids for life in an unpredictable natural world, there are many different drills that you can run in your home. Note that these drills are easy, especially with adequate explanations.
Most importantly, these exercises will make your children feel much more powerful and prepared to deal with the threats at hand.
Shelter-in-Place Drill
Whether your area is prone to tornadoes or hurricanes, running a shelter-in-place drill will help to prepare you for come what may. To conduct this drill, you must first identify your shelter-in-place location: a basement or a room in the center of the house.
Once you have done this, take your entire family to that location and ensure it has everything you need to keep you comfortable for several hours. Explain to your littles that this place is safe and where we go during these threats.
Fire Drill
Though fire drills are quite straightforward, too few families practice them.
For a wealth of information about both house fires and wildfires, consult our previous articles. In particular, we recommend preparing a go bag, as this will stand you and your family in good stead when a wildfire encroaches on your property.
Home Invasion Drill
Most people do not run drills for home invasions, as they assume that, in that scenario, Mom or Dad would head down the steps and "take care of business." If you are one of those people, you might find yourself unprepared if you are confronted with a robbery.
Simply put, a home invasion drill drives everyone into the parents' bedroom should something bump in the night. Once there, the family can shelter-in-place and call the police.
Any home defense action should be executed from that room, too. In other words, don't keep your guns and gun safety in another room.
Evacuation
Conducting an evacuation drill in your home is one of the most basic preparedness steps you can take. To do this, tell your kids they have ten minutes to pack a bag with clothes, essentials, and their most valuable keepsakes.
After that, pile all your people and pets into a reliable vehicle and head to a safe location. Though your drill should at least extend to getting into the car, actually driving to your evacuation point can teach you many valuable lessons, too.
Final Thoughts
To be sure, the threats to our children are changing and—in some respects—growing. Amid the fentanyl crisis and cyberbullying epidemic, the very society around us is undergoing a tumultuous revolution.
Like it or not, our children will eventually inherit that flawed, dangerous world. That is why, as parents, we must prepare them for that world as best we can.
This includes compiling a child safety kit, using the steps outlined above.
By taking this extra precaution, you can rest assured that your child is protected, from the digital playground to the schoolyard blacktop.
