How to Get Your Children Summer Ready to Avoid Sex Offenders

 Is it summer again already?

This time of year concerns me.

I can tell you from personal experience that predators who prey on children love this time of year. 

Everyone is looking for new arrangements for children who used to be in school all day. 
Single moms, grandparents, athletic groups, camps, faith group activities, babysitters, -predators are hiding in plain sight. I know.  This time of year the kids are here, there, and everywhere.
Mama can we go…..?
Dad can we go……?
Grandma can I go play with…..?

Here are the bigger questions?

“Mama can I go  play with Jane?”  Jane is visiting for the summer. Guess what? Jane lives with a sex offender. The horror is, you don’t know that.  

“Dad, can I go play with Mark?”  Guess what Mark may look like a normal teenager but Mark is also a sex offender.  Is your child being befriended by a juvenile sex offender during the summer months? 

“Grandma can I go…..”
Grandma put her grandchild in the local recreational program for the summer.  It sounded like a way to keep the beloved child occupied. 

Besides, she trusted the fellow who ran the program. He was from the neighborhood and went to her church. 

He was one of the good ones. 

Is he, though?

 He would be, if only he wasn’t a sex offender preying on vulnerable children and their trusting families. 

Summer Reminder

Is your child being watched by a sex offender this summer while they are visiting other relatives?

When I talk to parents and ask them about looking up sex offenders, oh they are on it.  They do this on a regular basis.  

In their area.  Where they reside.

Please remember to look up registered sex offenders in all areas where your children will be going.

Do You Remember?

1.Friends: 

Yes, even for short visits, spontaneous visits, sleepovers. If they leave your house and go somewhere else, it is a visit. Visits require thorough checks and conversations.

Remember when we were kids. We twisted our parents in knots with requests to go anywhere during summer break.

Q: Can we go to Jocelyn’s, step father’s, sister’s house? Just to play with her little niece because she has an Atari.

Translation: I’m trying to go play for awhile and I don’t want you to know where I am.  I’m trying to avoid seeing my two siblings walk up saying, “Mama said come home. Now!”  

2. Relatives: Joint/Shared custody, grandparents, extended family…..

 Remember, adults who don’t normally have children with visiting all year round may not notice certain things that an adult who has children most of the year does.  

Are the grandparents your child may visit aware of the sex offender registry in their area?  What about the parent with joint or shared custody?

  Other very important places:

3.  Organized Extra-Curricular Activities:  Summer camp, band camp, cheerleading camp, religious/faith activities.  These are new people that you as a parent/caretaker do not know. Schools, houses of faith, and camp give us the false feeling that everything inside is safe-including the people.

This could not be more false.  Schools may be where we go for weather emergencies. Houses of faith may be where we go for life emergencies. That does not mean that the people inside of the buildings are safe.

Every person that spends time with your children should be background checked and constantly monitored!

4. Popular Hang outs:  Please don’t forget the places that children frequent.  The playgrounds, the lake, the basketball court, swimming pools, etc.

I am telling you, where there are children the predators will be lurking.  
They know where your children are.  

100% Moneyback Guarantee?
Is looking up this information a failsafe measure? No.  Will my child be protected from all sex offenders? 

No, I can’t guarantee that.

However, I still can’t get the image of Megan Kanka’s mother out of my mind.  She had no idea that her family was residing near a home shared by 3 sex offenders. Megan never got to turn 8.

One of those offenders raped and killed her.

The vast majority of child sexual abuse crimes occur at the hands of someone that the victim knows.  Familiarity is subjective, especially to children.  If they meet you once or twice they consider that “knowing” a person.

(Some adults do too but that’s another lesson entirely.)

All these folks need to do is get to “know” your child and the trap is set.

One of the best things that you can do is to try to find out as much information as you possibly can about registered child sex offenders everywhere that your children are.

Please, before you do anything else to prepare for the summer, prepare every child that you know, to avoid sex offenders!

 WESurviveAbuse included sex offender registries in our Sexual Violence Resource List. It is included on our FREE Resources page

WE Survive Abuse FREE Resources

 Q: When raising any child, boy or girl, do you want them to learn how to be compliant or how to bravely and loudly say “no” when they mean it?~Tonya GJ Prince