Resources for parents on protecting children

The most important step parents can take to help prevent a child's abduction is to make safety a priority for the entire family. A great resource to help parents and guardians talk openly with their children about staying safer is StreetSentz.

StreetSentz is an online resource for child safety information and education. On the site at www.StreetSentz.com you will find tips, news, articles and community resources to help keep children safer from abduction, violence and exploitation. Families can request a free Child ID Kit. In the event that your child goes missing, it is important to provide law enforcement with an up-to-date photo and other pertinent information about your child right away.

Additionally, families can sign up for Wireless AMBER Alerts on their mobile phone. The Wireless Foundation introduced this industry-wide public service program in May 2005, enabling nearly all of the more than 200 million wireless phone users in the U. S. to opt in to receive free geographically specific AMBER Alerts as text messages on their wireless phones when an AMBER Alert has been issued for an abducted child in their area.

To learn how to sign up, visit www.wirelessamberalerts.org or stop by your neighborhood RadioShack.

Created in partnership with RadioShack and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, StreetSentz provides families with tools to help educate and empower their children on ways to respond to real-life situations to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation.

This story provided by North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.