Kids Self-Defense: Safety in Public

Video Transcript

"Today, keeping your kids safe, we'd like to discuss being safe in public. For kids, it's really important to teach them how to maintain an air of confidence. And it's difficult for kids, because they're growing and they're developing and they're unsure of themselves and they can be a little embarrassed or intimidated easily by other people. But you can't start too young. Teach your children to stand up tall, keep their heads up, looking around as they're walking. And also, in this day and age of cell phones and iPods and MP3 players, and all those types of things, it's real important to teach them also to leave those things in their pockets, in their purse or in their backpacks while they're walking. Again, being aware is your first line of defense. And if you're too busy texting somebody, or you have your earphones on, you can't hear anything going on around you. And if you're not paying attention with your eyes -- you're looking around at the floor, you're listening to your music -- you're not paying attention to what's going on. It can extremely easy for your child to be a target for those people who are looking to harm others. So you want to make sure that you keep your head up. You want to look around without paranoia. You just want to pay attention to what's going on. You want to make sure that you actually make eye contact with the person that you greet or that you come across. Number one, it shows them that you notice that they're there. It takes away the element of surprise. It also allows you to see what's going on around you. Is it one person? Is it two people? Do they have friends? Those kinds of things you want to help your child learn and kind of practice, when you're with them, especially. They feel safer when you're with them. And they can practice being safe in public, and that will keep them safe overall."