One of the biggest concerns on a parent’s mind is their children’s safety. The safety risks our children face, depend on their age; personality; physical and mental health; neighborhood and school environment; family, friends, and community.
No matter the risk—crime, drugs, social media—the best tool a parent can have to increase the children’s safety is knowledge. The more we know about the risks, the better we can prepare our children to face them and stay safe.
There are two recent programs available to support parents with information on preventing substance abuse and social media and youth mental health.
The Substance Use Prevention Education (SUPE), a non-profit organization providing education and resources to prevent substance use, has developed resources to educate parents and guardians about Fentanyl:
- Parent's Guide to Fentanyl: a comprehensive guide to equip parents with valuable information, including tips, warning signs, and helpful videos/articles. It empowers parents to protect their children from the dangers of fentanyl and make informed decisions regarding substance use.
- Protecting Children From Online Drug Dealers: a resource that provides essential tools to safeguard children, including the "Emoji code" to identify online drug dealing, insights into the dark web, and other online safety measures.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has launched the Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health website. Along with other related topics, parents can learn:
- Age-appropriate strategies to help children develop healthy media habits (children ten and younger or teens).
- A Q&A portal to answer your social media and mental health questions.
Once you feel confident about the topic, set aside time to talk to your child about these risks. Ideally, parents must have short conversations multiple times, increasing the information provided to allow the child time to process the information and ask questions. Eventually, the topic will become natural to discuss, and your child will be comfortable asking and sharing thoughts about it.