Missing and Exploited Children Site
	Erika Lyn Smith BellaOnline's Missing and Exploited Children Editor

Active Listening
Hearing what your child says is vastly different than listening to them as you multitask. To be an active listener one must stop everything else and focus his or her full attention on the person who is speaking. Learn how to be an active listener.

Child Lures Predators Use
As soon as children are able to understand what a stranger is, parents need to begin educating children about strangers. The first most important idea to teach a child is to never go anywhere without first telling mom or dad.

Digitally Documenting Children´s Growth
Children grow quickly and change many times throughout the year, as the New Year approaches a good habit to start is to take pictures of your children. The best practice is to take pictures every three months, more often, if there are drastic changes to appearance.

Emergency Contact Information for Students
Having emergency contact names and numbers on file means a parent or other safe adult can be contacted should your child need to be picked up from school due to injury, illness, or does not show up for school.

Family Safety Guidelines
Summer is not a time to fear, but the time to review your family safety guidelines, and to make any necessary changes to accommodate a new season.

Keeping Children Safe at Home
Who has access to your home? How many people have a copy of your house key? Is your home secure? Are your children and family safe? All good questions any parent or home owner should be asking themselves, yet imperative questions for new homeowners and renters.

Lures Used to Kidnap Children
Strangers use lures or lies to distract a child and lure the child closer to the stranger. Teach children adults should never ask or approach a child for anything and what a child should do if appraoched by a stranger. Keeping children safe from stranger danger.

Name Alert
Personalized backpacks, book bags, shirts and jewelry are the rage, but can place your child in grave danger. Find out how to protect your children in public.

Online Safety for Children
Parents need to talk to children about safety while online. Set limits for where children can surf and what information he or she may release. Internet safety guidelines are important for children allowed to use the internet. What are your personal guidelines?

Parent Guide for Emergency Planning
Everyday on the news we hear about family emergencies happening. A family of five perishes in a house fire, a child disappears from a shopping mall...why? Has your family developed an emergency safety plan? Does everyone know what to do or where to meet? Learn how to stay safe as a family.

Protecting Children´s Identifying Information
Do you place your home address and phone number in the schoool´s student directory? Read the article to find out how to protect Children´s Identifying Information.

Protecting Personal Information
Unless we know for certain whom will have access to the information we are giving out, we may want to reconsider whom we allow access to our personal and private information, especially when it comes to our children.

Safety When Walking to a Friend´s House
Do you know what route your child takes when walking to the home of a friend?

School Activities and Responsible Parenting
Homecoming is this weekend. The Homecoming Dance always signals fall has arrived. This year my daughter is a freshman in high school and attending the dance. How do we allow children to fly, yet keep them safe. Read and find out what one mom handles this time.

School Bus Stop Safety
Children stand at school bus stops early in the morning often before some adults head to work. Do your children know what to do if approached by a stranger?

School Safety for Students
One of the most important safety tips a parent can implement to protect a child headed into a new school year is NEVER write a child’s name on the outside of a shirt, jacket, backpack, or lunch box. Keep your child safe from a child molester.

Staying Safe While Vacationing
Summer is a time of fun. A time when families plan to take vacation time together, usually away from home, and in unfamiliar territory. So how can families vacation safely? Read my article to find out.

Stranger Dangers
Children face many dangerous situations including strangers, which represent possible kidnappers, abductors, sex offenders, and present red flags in the world of keeping children safe. Here are some ideas to teach kids how to protect themselves from strangers.

Teach Children How to Say No
From an early age, parents teach children to respect authority, as well as their elders. Yet by teaching children to respect authority and elders, unequivocally, and without question, is in reality setting up a child for exploitation. Teach children to say "No!"

Travel Safely with Children
Keep in mind that when traveling safety must remain a top priority. Safety is the key for fun in the summer sun whether at home or abroad. Now is a good time to establish or review basic safety rules for the family.

Trick or Treating Safely
Halloween is a perfect time for a sex offender to try and lure a child or teenager away into the dark. New laws do not even allow convicted sex offenders pass out candy during the festivities. Find out how to keep children safe on Halloween from convicted and registered sex offenders.

What Age Can Children Stay Home Alone
The magic question many parents ponder, at what age is it ok to allow a child to stay-at-home alone for short periods.

What is in a Name
Everyone likes to have thier items identified by name but what about wearing personalized outsifts, backpacks or jewelry?

Would You Help a Missing Child?
A surprising study done by the channel six news team in Florida showed that perhaps people do look for and recognize missing, lost or abducted children, yet if they recognize a child they are unsure what to do next.