Category: Family

Sextortion 101: What you (and your kids) need to know--image of two teen boys on cell phones
Child Sexual Abuse

Sextortion 101: What you (and your kids) need to know

Did you know the FBI—in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children—recently issued a national public safety alert regarding sextortion schemes?  I had no idea all this was going down until I listened to this episode on my friend, Nicole Bromley’s, podcast last week. Wait, do you even know what

Read More »
A Family Code of Conduct: What is it and why do you need one? image of code of conduct document. A Family Code of Conduct is another way to protect the kids you're raising.
Family

A Family Code of Conduct: What is it and why do you need one?

I never heard of a Family Code of Conduct until recently. Then a few months back, I attended Darkness to Light’s virtual “Envision” conference where I heard the term mentioned more than once. As a strategy to protect kids. What exactly is a Family Code of Conduct? According to D2L.org, a Family Code of Conduct is,

Read More »
How to keep kids safe: image of four kids on cell phones ignoring each other
Family

How to Keep Kids Safe–in the Age of Dis-connect

Have you ever wondered how to keep kids safe? In today’s guest blog post, Angie Conn–one of the bravest and coolest women I know–offers up several great ideas. Angie believes it helps to know, Every person wants to belong.  As human beings, we want to have connection and family, and we want to know that

Read More »
Online Safety for Kids: Image of Safe Surfing Instagram feed
Child Sexual Abuse

Online Safety for Kids: 3 Tips to Protect Your Children

What do you know about online safety for kids? Guest Post by Moe McClanahan…Director of Training & Education at the Safe Surfin’ Foundation It’s important for parents to stay in control of their child’s Internet usage to prevent online victimization. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is reporting a 97.5% increase in online enticement

Read More »
Body Safety Education: Shield
Child Sexual Abuse

Body Safety Education using “The Brave Knight:” One teacher’s experience

Today a second-grade teacher in Monongalia County, West Virginia, messaged me about a body safety education presentation in her classroom. What a thrill to hear how my newly-published children’s book, The Brave Knight, “performed” in a class-room setting! Here’s her “book-report.” Each year in West Virginia schools, a body safety education lesson is presented in all

Read More »
Grooming 101: image of a male lion
Child Sexual Abuse

Child grooming by sexual predators|What you need to know

Do you know what grooming behavior is? In the skeevy, underbelly, predatory sense of the word? During body safety assemblies when I speak to school kids about grooming, I say, “I’m not talking about brushing your Golden Retriever’s fur.” To me, Grooming is the process a sexual predator uses to gain the trust of a potential

Read More »
Child Safety: Image of laptop computer with homepage of Darkness to Light organization.
Child Sexual Abuse

Child Safety: A quick overview of Darkness to Light’s “Stewards of Children” training

In my effort to gain more expertise in the area of child safety,  I recently went through two trainings from the national organization, Darkness to Light.  Darkness to Light is a non-profit committed to empowering adults to prevent child sexual abuse. The first training was the 30-minute program, “Protecting Children During a Crisis,” created with

Read More »
Image of the front cover of the children's book The Brave Knight.
Child Sexual Abuse

My first children’s book–“The Brave Knight”–is here!

My first book ever—a children’s book—is here! At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the founder of the nonprofit Shield Task Force asked a favor. “Will you please write a children’s book, that in a non-threatening way, shows kids what “grooming” is? “Grooming” is the process by which a sexual predator gains the trust of

Read More »
Image of the conversation question games Vertellis and Where Should We Begin? and a lit candle
Family

Conversation Questions to Boost Connection with Family and Friends

Do you long to experience deeper emotional intimacy with your loved ones? Try conversation questions! In recent years I’ve amped up the relational connection level with my friends and family by using a single resource: conversation questions. The first questions I tried were those found in Vertellis Card Games. To give you an idea of what

Read More »
Keeping Kids Safe: image of sad teenaged girl with cell phone
Child Sexual Abuse

Keep Kids Safe with 3 Simple Steps

As a body safety educator in the state of West Virginia, my job is keeping kids safe.  From situations like sexual abuse, bullying, neglect, and more. So far this year, I’ve taught 1,800 K-8th graders how to stop the bad guys (or gals) in their lives. The keeping kids safe process can be distilled down

Read More »