TALK Checklist by Internet Watch Foundation
The Internet Watch Foundation has released a checklist for parents concerned about the safety of their children online.
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Sharing – Red Flags of child sex abusers from an ex-child abuse detective
We’ve spent so much time looking at lists like this one, looking for the bad people, and that is absolutely part of abuse prevention. Still, we’ve missed the boat on what might be the most significant tool in our prevention toolkit, taking the target off kids by connecting with them as parents and with other trusted adults—helping them be less vulnerable.
Kids who don’t have secrets make terrible targets for abusers. Kids with support and secure relationships aren’t easily manipulated and aren’t too eager to please adults.
We need our kids to be more of that, starting with having close relationships with the safe adults in their lives.
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Information about Childhood Trauma
I stumbled upon this post from Psych Central today that I hadn’t seen before. As I read it, I considered sharing it and pulling out a quote to focus on, like I sometimes do, but I decided not to. I decided that because there are multiple things you should go read. The article talks about the signs of childhood trauma, the causes of trauma, and some suggestions for treatment.
Then the author, Melissa Gooden, suggests books for parents, caregivers, and kids, links to places where they can learn more or get help, etc.
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Sharing – The Problem of Male Grief
When my wife and I both lost our parents in a short period, I was thankful that there were people in our lives who gave us space to grieve and checked in on both of us. I’m also acutely aware of how different the reactions were as well. Part of that was the difference in relationships, my wife was much closer to her parents than I was to mine, but there was also an undertone where I was expected to be less emotional about it than she was. Again, plenty of people did better, but it was still there.
I also recognize that I was lucky to have people in my life who saw that. Many men do not have any space to grieve or process emotions other than anger. For those men, read the whole thing and learn how to create space.
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Sharing – Online business from hell: Child trafficking in video games.
Penelope gives a very detailed explanation of how trafficking starts online, in chat around popular online video games, and how it spreads. Most of all, however, she provides an incredibly important look into what a trafficker looks for in a kid playing video games:
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Sharing – Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent’s Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age
We would do well with more of this question and a deeper analysis of “says who” and less outrage. They won’t make it easy for us to do that, so we will have to do it for ourselves, and we’re going to have to teach the next generation.
Otherwise we will continue to see social media eat away at our mental health instead of being a tool that could help it by providing us with a community of people with shared interests.
