Keeping Them Safe

Send us Fan Mail This episode considers why "good" parents, grandparents, and guardians need to make the effort to find out more about predators and how they operate. Why do we need to practice to learn and why do we need to be on watch all the time?

Send us Fan Mail This episode explores the challenges faced by schools dealing with active shooter protocols while committing to create safe environments that thwart sexual predators. The challenges are identified and possible solutions offered that give parents and teachers a pathway to finding solutions that do both - or at least don't significantly compromise either. 

Send us Fan Mail This episode speaks about the core tenets of the programs of KEEPING THEM SAFE. We talk about what matters in the development of programs and why and what the program is intended to communicate and provoke. 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we look at some suggestions based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children to help school and organization staff and volunteers work with parents to establish the safest possible environment for children during the school year. The principles cited by the UN can help focus the efforts of concerned adults and guide the development of policies, proc...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we discover some very clear, very specific ways that these potentially risky behaviors show up in reality. We see, from the mouths of predators, how they use the activities that we view as simple and normal to develop trust with children, parents, and communities. 

Send us Fan Mail This episode reminds us that the effort to address child sexual abuse as a public problem or a public health problem is not new - even if it seems it might be so. How this became a public problem and when that happened can help us understand why it appears to be taking so long to stop it from happening. 

Send us Fan Mail There are a few behaviors that we know are part of the predators grooming process. These behaviors have been identified for us by those who use them to groom children. In this episode we reinforce three of the behaviors and remind ourselves that is takes time and practice to be able to fully recognize the behaviors and stop them when they show up in the environment. 

Send us Fan Mail Are you the chaperone for the school field trip or the sponsor that is traveling on the bus to music competition or the parent who volunteers to ride the bus with the football team or cheerleaders? This episode is an opportunity for you to consider what it takes to ensure that the environment on these occasions and others where you are responsible for young people are safe for all...

Send us Fan Mail This discussion reminds us of what it takes to shift a paradigm and how difficult it is to get anyone to listen to what we have to say until they can give up their conviction that what we promote can't be done. 

Send us Fan Mail This episode tells the story of a priest's seduction of young men in the parish where he served and how he was able to accomplish this under the watchful eye of parents and other adults. Sharon's family is a part of this story. She knows everyone involved and has had the opportunity to interview the principal complainant and others about what happened. It is a careful an...

Send us Fan Mail Most people assume that the majority of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are men and while that is accurate, at least 20% of all child sexual abuse is committed by women and almost 80% of the time it is a biological parent - a mother - who is the offender. This episode starts to deal with the unique issues of discovering abuse by a female parent or sibling and what we know and d...

Send us Fan Mail Many people think that Sex Offender registries and background checks can solve the problem of potentially risky adults. However, that is not the case. They do have their place in the entire process of creating safe environments and in this episode, we talk about what to do with the information from both sources in efforts to keep children safe from predators.

Send us Fan Mail As today's society seems to focus on everything happening quickly and being handled with velocity, there's a lot of frustration about why child sexual abuse still is not handled. Why are there still predators seducing our children? This podcast reminds us that some societally issues take a long time to accomplish and points us toward the need to keep going in the right d...

Send us Fan Mail This episode presents the results of an Australian study that demonstrates that predators the world over are using the same techniques and activities to gain access to our children, to groom them, the parents, and the community. Listen to what they say are the strategies they use to get their way. 

Send us Fan Mail This short conversation reminds us of the reasons for April being name Child Abuse Prevention Month and offers some ways we can call attention to the need for all of us to have our attention on what it takes to keep children safe. 

Send us Fan Mail This episode includes a discussion of where the "numbers" come from in the conversation for prevention of sexual abuse of children and how these numbers were determined. We also look at how these numbers launched the conversation that child sexual abuse is a societal epidemic and what that can mean for the issue. Listen to settle for yourself that this issue is worthy of...

Send us Fan Mail This episode reminds us that April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and Blue is the color of prevention. Listen for ideas that you can share with others to draw attention to prevention and ways you can call attention to the issue yourself. 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we begin to answer some questions that seem to be universal. They are often in the background of our thinking as we go through the training or listen to the podcasts. We begin by talking about the part/responsibility parents have in preventing child sexual abuse and what, if any, risks there are to children of good parents. 

Send us Fan Mail While we all want to think that children are safe the fact is that they are not. This episode looks at how we can take responsibility for making sure that there are safe environments for all children and that we create a world that works for eveyone. 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we being to investigate the world of online solicitation by considering that there are unique aspects of this world. For one, the only tool a predator has is language, so all the potentially risky behaviors are manifested in the way the predator speaks to the child. Recent research has provided us with some hints about what to look for in our children's onlin...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode there is a discussion of recent research that gives us some insight into the world of young people online. It considers that, although we know that in person social relationship are supportive and important, the fact is that adolescents, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ Community are convinced they are safer in online relationships. The conversation gives us some a...

Send us Fan Mail Challenging the potentially risky behavior of beloved members of the family is the most difficult aspect of Keeping Them Safe. We must be willing to speak up and speak out and model that behavior to our children if we are to expect them to be willing to do the same. In this episode we examine what that looks like in reality. 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we consider the labels that society places on all of us at times and how labeling others can impact how we see them, how they see themselves, and how the world relates to them. We consider that leaving off the labels and focusing on the behavior is the way to accomplish our mission. 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we identify some things to consider during this holiday season when children are excited to visit Santa. How do you make sure that the experience is one of joy and love and magic and protect your child from a potential predator at the same time. You can do that with a few simple steps. Preserve the magic - and enjoy the holiday. 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we continue to look at what child molesters can tell us about how they are able to gain access to our children, how they cultivate trusting relationships with us, and how they lure our children into situations and environments that place them at high risk. The practical aspects of what it looks like to keep children safe are a real value in this episode.