VIDEO: Protecting Your Children

MANTACHIE, Miss. (WCBI)- Parents should always be hyper vigilant when out in public with their children.

It’s understandable for parents to become overwhelmed and distracted when they’re out in public with their children- but it’s always important to remain aware of your surroundings.

“Unattended child, for even one minute or 30 seconds you lose track of the child so then you wonder if the child has stepped out and just went into a different isle when you’re shopping or went around a clothes rack or something like that and you lose valuable time,” says Police Chief Mark Roberts.

Time that, in the event of a real abduction, is too valuable to lose.

“It’s a good rule to have a two step rule to where if you’re child is in the shopping cart, they’re harnessed but even if they’re harnessed in you still don’t get more than two steps away from them. I understand that there are some viral videos out there of this happening… statistics show it’s actually pretty rare. FBI statistics show that abductions normally if it’s a true abduction and not a runaway child, 75 percent of the time it’s from a family member,” says Roberts.

Roberts says these videos should make parents more aware and more on guard.

And in the event this does happen-

“They have every right to protect their child, of course scream for help, cause as big a scene as you possibly can but whatever means that you have to protect you and your family it’s at that time that you need to take that,” says Roberts.

He says parents are unaware that sharing their child’s accomplishments online can be a threat.

“By giving their childs names out, giving pictures of them, and in the event that there is someone that wants to do harm, by just going on Facebook, they have every bit of information that they need to lure a 3 year old away from their mother, just by calling their name. As a parent, I try to always remember they’re few and far in between but it’s hard to do when you think about your children… but the only thing we can really do is what parents have been doing since the dawn of time and that’s putting our children first,” says Roberts.

Roberts says the most important weapon parents have is their own parental instincts and to contact law enforcement immediately in the event they feel they or their child’s life is in danger.