Internet Safety for Kids

Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer in today's fast-paced world. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges. NCMEC is the nation's resource center for protecting children. For decades, children were taught to stay away from "strangers." But this concept is difficult for children to grasp and the internet confuses the issue further. It is more beneficial to help build children's confidence and teach them to respond to a potentially dangerous situation, rather than teaching them to look out for a particular type of person. Encourage your child to visit NetSmartz.org where they can learn about internet safety in a fun way.
Parents and caregivers are encouraged to visit NetSmartz411.org to have your questions about internet dangers and safety answered.

National Playground Safety Week

This week is an opportunity for families, community parks, schools and child-care facilities to focus on preventing public playground-related injuries. More than 200,000 children (that's one child every 2 1/2 minutes) require emergency room treatment due to playground injuries every year.
Visit the Playground Safety website to learn more.

How to Protect Your Child Online

This book provides actual methods for real online safety for any child, any age. Not only does it provide tips, it also offers the "How To" and the "Why's" behind the information. The information is presented in an easy and simple, straight forward way that any busy parent can read or refer to. Don't Get PWNed! is full of common sense solutions that are effective.

Internet Safety Resource - Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative

Staying safe while online is something everyone needs to be aware of -- kids, parents, teachers, librarians -- everyone! Here's a website that can help: The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative -- CSEI. You'll find age-appropriate activities for kids and solid information for adults to help teach good online safety skills.

Friend of the Sun Program

Thursday, June 19th
at 2:00 pm



Play it safe this summer and still have some fun with some basic sun safety. The American Cancer Society will be presenting their "Slip, Slop, Slap," program to remind us of the importance of sun protection and we will finish up with a craft. Join us for this fun and informative program designed for kids!

National Bike Month Program

Join us to Celebrate National Bike Month!

On Saturday May 3rd at 2:00 p.m. at the Main Library in Children's Services.

We will be learning valuable safety information from "Parkview Bicycle Safety" and working on a craft which you can take home.
Children in grades k-5th

Help your kids learn safety skills during Spring Break

Back by popular demand! The RADKids Safety Program! The purpose of this program is to teach kids how to Resist Aggression Defensively. Topics discussed include:

* Home, school and vehicle safety
* Out and about safety
* Realistic defense against abduction
* Good, bad, and uncomfortable touch

This is a five day, cumulative program geared for ages 5 to 12. The program will be held in Children's Services each day from 2:30 until 4:00 during the week of Monday, March 31st through Friday, April 4th. Parents are welcome to stay and attend the program with their children. Advance registration is required; call Children's Services at 421-1220 to register your children.

Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program

Did you know that Federal officials estimate that there are over 200 million firearms in the United States? Studies suggest that guns are kept in approximately half of all U.S. households.

What should a child do if they see a gun? STOP! Don't Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult.

The Children's Services department will offer the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program tomorrow, January 3rd, at 2:30 pm. This program is designed for children in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 3 and their parents.

The Eddie Eagle Program has no agenda other than accident prevention -- ensuring that children stay safe should they encounter a gun. We hope you'll join us for this important safety program.

Stop Bullying Now!

What do you do if you're being bullied at school? What if you see someone else who's getting picked on? Here's a COOL site that may be able to help -- it's called STOP BULLYING NOW! Kids and grown-ups can find great tips and resources about bullying. Be sure to check out the Tips for Kids, Games, and the downloadable Webisodes , complete with a transcript and discussion questions.

For more great bullying resources, see Children's Services Personal Violence Booklist.

RadKIDS update

Last week our group of homeschoolers graduated from the 7 week RadKids program. Today, a proud mom sent me some more pictures from the final class. (Thanks, Janet!) These girls have certainly learned some safety moves!

This program was so very well-recieved, and the information the kids received was so valuable, that we hope to offer another session of RadKIDS during Spring Break in 2008.

Stay tuned for more details.

radKIDS Graduating Class

For the last 7 weeks, the Children's Services department has offered a radKIDS safety program. This program was taught by a trained instructor from the Fort Wayne Women's Bureau. The purpose of the program is to teach kids ages 5 through 12 how to Resist Aggression Defensively. Topics discussed included:

• Home, school and vehicle safety

• Out and about safety

• Realistic defense against abduction

• Good, bad and uncomfortable touch

Yesterday we celebrated the graduation of our entire radKIDS class.

We hope we will be able to offer this important safety class again.