Threats to our Kids: Building a Child Safety Kit
Keeping our children safe should always be a top priority. This topic always gets quite a bit of lip service from people in front of microphones or television cameras. Child mortality has indeed plummeted in the modern world, but the threat profile our children face is changing radically.
We are entering a new phase in technology and society. The threats to our children are genuine, and I wonder how many parents know that they should have a child safety kit should a child go missing.
We will walk through various modern threats to our children and how MIRA Safety can help mitigate those threats, along with some simple advice and basic training to empower your children in these 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
Conclusion
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12
Frequently Asked Questions
The Importance of a Child Safety Kit
The worst-case scenario is taking shape right before you. Your child left the house on their bike, and they were supposed to be home in 30 minutes. They were just cruising the neighborhood, and it's been over an hour, and no one had 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?
That is where the Child Safety Kit comes into play. A child safety kit can be created by the NCMEC, which is a nonprofit that works with the police. The police also have special days to create child safety kits in the neighborhood.
They will ask you for information like your child's height, weight, and eye color; some may even want a DNA sample. While that might sound extreme, this information can make all the difference when they are on the trail. A single hair could turn the tide if they have the child's DNA.
Breakdown of Other Threats to Children
Children are increasingly vulnerable to various modern-day threats, from cyberbullying to drug abuse. Parents play a critical role in protecting their children from these threats, but first, they must understand the risks involved.
Cyberbullying is one of the most significant threats facing children in the modern day. With the rise of social media platforms and instant messaging, bullies have more avenues to harass and intimidate their victims. A survey conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center found that 34% of students have experienced cyberbullying at some point.
Parents can help their children by monitoring their online activity, setting privacy settings on social media accounts, and encouraging them to speak out if they feel threatened. You have to have that open dialogue with your children about their online life, and you gotta pay attention.
Then you have to be the person that can provide a solution.
Drug Abuse
Our nation is suffering from an epidemic of drug use in the country. It is clear that the War on Drugs did not work out, but neither is the idea that drugs are recreation and nothing to worry about. We lost nearly 100,000 Americans to opioid overdose in 2021.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 7.2% of 12th graders reported using illicit drugs in the past month. Parents can prevent their children from becoming involved with drugs by educating them on the dangers of drug abuse, monitoring their behavior for signs of drug use, and seeking professional help if necessary.
Online Threats
Online predators are also a significant concern for children. These individuals use social media and other online platforms to gain the trust of children and then exploit them. This is a much more serious threat than cyberbullying. You have to know what your kids are up to.
We also have to consider the risks associated with exposure to inappropriate content online. Children may come across explicit material while browsing the internet or watching videos on YouTube. As a parent, you can help your child by setting parental controls on their devices and talking about why, monitoring their online activity, and discussing appropriate online behavior.
Chemical Contamination
Online predators are also a significant concern for children. These individuals use social media and other online platforms to gain children's trust and then exploit them. This is a much more severe threat than cyberbullying. You have to know what your kids are up to.
We also must consider the risks associated with exposure to inappropriate online content. Children may come across explicit material while browsing the internet or watching videos on YouTube. As a parent, you can help your child by setting parental controls on their devices, discussing why, monitoring their online activity, and discussing appropriate online behavior.
Here at MIRA Safety, we have introduced the DTX-1 Detoxifier, designed to remove pesticides and contaminants from our foods. This tool can be used in your kitchen daily to remove contaminants from your food and household items.
Check out the MIRA Safety DTX-1 Detoxifier
From frequent supermarket recalls to E. coli outbreaks, food contamination has increased by over 1,000% in the last 20 years. We've become accustomed to harmful substances making their way into our foods. And with a whole industry driven by factory farming, chemicals and pesticides on produce are something most Americans take for granted.
But not anymore.
The MIRA Safety DTX-1 Oxidizing Food Detoxifier Meat, Fruit, and Vegetable Wash Machine is a simple handheld unit that uses electricity to release and oxidize toxins that might otherwise make it into your dinner. Here's how it works…
The DTX-1 features durable, low-profile construction with a top-mounted touchscreen. Once you immerse the unit's fins in a water container, you activate it by selecting options on the touchscreen.
Then, the Detoxifier takes care of the rest—pulsing the container with ultrasonic waves and rapidly releasing active oxygen molecules to cleanse your produce from the inside out. The DTX-1 features multiple modes targeting threats, from antiparasitic to thermal treatments.
School Shootings
The most abhorrent and alarming threats exist when our children are most vulnerable. When our kids are away from us and trapped in the school, a random psychotic shooter might choose this day to be the day to die, and that psycho may want to take a few faculty and children along with them.
How do you prepare your child for something like that? Well, you can teach them about Run. Hide. Fight. - which is standard training to deal with active shooter situations. Sometimes having a simple process in your head can put the anxiety at rest.
Run: if there is an opportunity to run away from an active shooter station, it is in your best interest and the interest of others, as you can call for help.
Hide: If you cannot run to safety and you are out in the hallway or in the bathroom when a shooting starts. Find a good hiding place and stay put. Shooters do not fumble with locked doors and closets and have limited time to cause chaos. They know the police are coming.
The lockdown procedure in school is their version of 'Hide.'
Fight: If you cannot find a classroom or a closet, your last option is to fight. Look around for solid, easy-to-handle items and sharp or pointed objects. These are improvised weapons. If the active shooter is coming your way, try to stay out of sight till the last possible moment and then strike with all the force you have. If you can get your hands on the gun, you can at least ensure it is not pointed at you. You might even be able to wrestle it from the hands of the killer.
At MIRA Safety, we sell tactical level IV body armor plates that weigh just under 6 lbs each. These plates protect from some of the biggest calibers an active shooter can carry. These plates can be slipped into a technology pocket or laptop pocket inside a backpack to protect those terrible moments in an active shooter situation. A simple backpack can become a bulletproof shield or even a weapon used in an attack when outfitted with an armor plate.
Writing these kinds of preparedness steps for parents to read is sickening, and it is awful that we must consider such things. The least we can do is give you the best information possible.
MIRA Tactical Level 4 Body Armor Plate
Tested to NIJ standards at a US laboratory, MIRA Tactical's Level IV Armor includes single curve, shooter's cut 10" x 12" ESAPI armor plates and side plates available in 6" x 6" and 6" x 8" sizes (depending on your armor carrier/cummerbund). Our hybrid armor offers an enhanced range of motion and protects the wearer from all types of small arms, including armor-piercing high-powered rifle rounds in 5.56, 7.62, .308, and .30-06 calibers.
Unlike typical ceramic plates, which can splinter and crack and only protect against single-shot threats, MIRA Tactical's Level IV plates combine the benefits of both ceramic and polyethylene. They are lightweight ballistic plates that are easy to deploy and provide outstanding life-saving protection.
Nuclear War
There is a chance you grew up dealing with the threat of nuclear war. It seems impossible for another generation to be facing this grave danger. Of course, that is the situation we are in. With super-nuclear powers at each other's throats, we just don't know what tomorrow will bring.
Have you talked to your children about nuclear readiness? Do you have a nuclear readiness plan? 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 Washington, DC, were to get nuked.
MIRA Safety is one step ahead of you regarding your child's safety. Regarding nuclear readiness, we have a complete kids' kit that combines two of our best products for ultimate protection.
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 wide range of chemical, biological, and nuclear threats. In addition, the included Thyrosafe tablets provide crucial frontline protection against potential radiation exposure.
Self-contained and designed for up to 10 years of shelf-stable storage, this kit is ideal for practical family protection from disasters and dangerous exposure.
After the exchange, the world would never be the same. It is terrible that this must appear in an article about threats to children, but this is our reality, so we must be ready for it.
Making Your Own Child Safety Kit
In 2020, nearly 400,000 children were abducted in the US. If you ever find yourself in this terrible situation, having a child safety kit is going to give police and investigators as much information on your child as possible, and they are going to get that information immediately!
https://safeatlast.co/blog/child-abduction-statistics/
So, what should you have on hand if you make your child's safety kit? The following information should be included. I recommend printing this formation 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 (You need one print from each of your child's fingers)
Don't get nervous about the fingerprints. 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 and then laminate the half sheet.
You could also print out extra without the fingerprints; if you have a search party situation where a large group of people needs this information, then each person could get a sheet with a picture of your child.
Maintaining the Child Safety Kit
Children grow up so fast. In that short period, they change so much! Knowing this should help you understand that if you make a child safety kit when they are 6, it will not be the same when they are 10.
You will have to check in with your kit every few years to ensure your little girl's hair is still brown and not purple or that your son's short black hair isn't down to his neck now. These details are crucial if you keep up a good kit. Of course, an updated picture will help a lot with that, too.
New medical conditions and updated doctors' information are vital, too. Just ensure that the person described in the kit is similar to the person you hope to find. As I said, they grow up fast, and the changes can be profound!
A Warning About Child Safety Kits
There are a handful of companies out there that will make a child safety kit for you. Of course, this requires all the information that you typically use to make your own kit. Be very careful about any company you share this information with.
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 even your information as part of the service agreement.
I 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 must walk a thin line when discussing threats. If you sugarcoat it all and tell your kids, "Don't worry, I will handle it," your child will think they are helpless. If you go too far in the other direction, the child will be overwhelmed and feel like they are alone.
When we do not talk to our kids about the changing world and the changing dynamics of threats in their world, they create a narrative or become part of a more robust internet narrative. Right now, that narrative is one of hopelessness. Their future seems doomed from at least one or more causes, and humans simply cannot prevent it.
This brings us to our final threat to our children, and that is suicide. Suicide is on the rise, especially among teenagers and young adults. I laid this article out to emphasize the threats our children face that affect them. As we work through some of the more severe threats above, and can seem a bit overwhelming. Just remember, you are an adult. I did not include many modern social pressures our children face too.
It is so vital that you take time to talk to your kids. Now, more than ever. They must know you are in their corner. The most important thing is that you have to be available to them. They have to know it is safe to come to you. If it's not safe to come to you and you lash out at them for making a wrong decision, then they will go to someone else or just push it deep down.
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 get help. It might be family, therapy, or something else altogether. Recruit the big guns.
Drills for Responding to Emergency with Children
Though the stats on drug use and suicide are alarming, your kid is much more likely to face Mother Nature's wrath or the wrath of mankind screwing things up. Natural and manmade disasters affect many more people all around the world.
Training, drills, and knowledge are how we deal with what makes us afraid. When children hear words like floods, tornados, and wildfires on the news, they get scared and worried about outcomes. It can be more overwhelming if they can only look to you for safety.
What if, God forbid, something were to happen to you during an emergency?
So, we need to build confidence in our children so they are capable of dealing with a catastrophe, at least to the best of their ability. This all comes from the training you give them at home.
There are many different drills that you can run in your home to help prepare your kids for the inevitable emergencies that come from mother nature. These drills are easy, and with explanation, the exercises will make your children feel much more powerful and prepared to deal with the threats at hand.
Shelter in Place Drill
Whether it is tornadoes or a dangerous hurricane, running a shelter-in-place drill will make you better prepared for this kind of emergency. To do this drill, you must first identify your shelter-in-place location: a basement or a room in the center of the house.
During a shelter-in-place drill, you take your entire family to that location and ensure it has everything you need to keep you comfortable for several hours. Explain to them that this place is safe and where we go during these threats.
Fire Drill
The fire drill is easy and a great place to start. It prepares your family to quickly leave home and sets the tone that you are a prepared family, and your children know the difference.
Home Invasion Drill
Most people do not drill home invasion. They assume Dad will head down the steps and "take care of business." You might have a bad plan if you are one of those people.
A simple home invasion drill drives everyone into the parent's bedroom should something bump in the night. The family can shelter in place and call the police. Any home defense action should be executed from that home, 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. Tell your kids they have 10 minutes to pack a bag with clothes and some essential items they would hate to lose.
Then all your people and pets must pile into a vehicle and head to a safe location. Your drill should at least extend to the car but driving to your evacuation point can teach you many things to improve.
This also shows the kids how the whole process will go down.
Conclusion
The threats to our children are changing and growing. The very society around them is going through a tumultuous revolution. Like it or not, they will eventually inherit that world. As parents, we must prepare them for that world as best we can.
The digital playground, the asphalt playground, friends, and enemies are all part of our children's experience, but if we take small steps, thriving in a world like this is very possible.
While they are in our care, we must use every advantage at our disposal. Should the worst-case scenario occur and you find that your child has wandered off, or worse, you need to have that child safety kit handy to get everyone looking for them up to speed.
Building your own child safety kit will take you about an hour. Get it done tonight. Why wait? Sit down and write these things down. Gather up some recent photos. That is fine if you must wait until the weekend to get the kit laminated.
Cross the child safety kit off your to-do list. Only end the weekend with this taken care of.
