Safety for Children

The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children has opened it’s fourth regional center in Austin, Texas to focus on child safety. Texas has the second highest population of sex offenders, over 50,000, prompting the center to focus on the state as the perfect place to open a new center.

The office, the first in Texas and the fourth in the nation, will provide training for law enforcement officials and prosecutors that will emphasize Internet-related crimes against children.

The other regional offices of the center, a private nonprofit child advocacy group, are in New York, Florida and California. The center is based in Alexandria, Va.

Private donations are being used to pay for the center’s operating expenses and the center itself will pay for two case managers on staff.

This week marks Child Safety Week across the nation with a focus on child restraint seats. Many child safety seats are not properly installed in automobiles leaving children vulnerable should an accident happen.

In 2006, among children under 5, an estimated 425 lives were saved by child restraint use. Research shows that child restraints provide the best protection for all children up to age 8; after that, seat belts provide the best protection.

Each state has different regulations regarding the use of child restraint seats. Be sure and check with your state’s government to see what those are.

The term Amber Alert has become widely known in the last few years for being the system that helps alert the public to a missing child. But were you aware of the origins of the alert? The St. Petersburg Times answers just that question.

Where did the term "Amber Alert" originate?

Amber Hagerman, 9, was riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, in January 1996 when she was kidnapped. A witness saw it and called 911, but she was gone by the time police arrived. Her body was found four days later. Her mother, Donna Whitson, began a campaign for tougher penalties against child molesters. And one Dallas man wondered why we could have alerts about severe weather, but not for a missing child when every minute mattered. Especially in a country where 100 children are abducted every year by strangers, and 75 percent of them are murdered in the first three hours. That question morphed into the formation of the "Amber Alert," a child abduction alert in the United States and Canada that is distributed by radio, TV, e-mail, electronic road signs and text messages with whatever is known about the crime — usually information about the victim, a description or name of the suspect and any information about the vehicle used.

The rest of the very informative piece can be read on

TampaBay.com

.

State Farm Insurance is holding it’s Eighth Annual Child Safety Day at their offices all across the country this September. With their handy state by state guide, you can check and see which offices are holding the events and on what date and time. The child safety days are a great way to ensure that your child’s safety seats are properly installed.

You can learn how to correctly use car seats, booster seats, and seat belts for your children at the eighth annual State Farm Child Safety Day. Events are scheduled in May and September throughout the country. This "car seat inspection day" will be held at hundreds of locations across the United States, with many sites including other safety-related activities for parents and children.

The state of Kentucky has declared September Child Passenger Safety Month, lengthening the National Child Passenger Safety Week which runs from September 21-27. Kentucky governor Steve Beshear along with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet realized the need for awareness in the state regarding child safety in automobiles.

Three out of four child safety seats are improperly installed in vehicles, according to research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That’s why state officials are driving home the importance of child passenger safety with a month-long campaign to emphasize proper child safety seat usage.

“It’s the responsibility of every parent and caregiver to make sure their children are safely restrained – every trip, every time,” said Gov. Beshear. “We are urging everyone to get their child safety seats inspected. When it comes to the safety of a child, there is no room for mistakes.”

More than 90 percent of child safety seats in the United States are installed incorrectly, according to the safety administration. When correctly installed, safety seats are 71 percent effective in reducing infant fatalities, 67 percent effective in reducing the need for hospitalization and 54 percent effective in reducing fatalities of children 1 to 4. A properly installed, belt-positioning booster seat lowers the risk of injury to children by nearly 60 percent, compared with seat belts alone.