TikTok Is A Pedophile Magnet And Unsafe For Kids, Warns Cyber Security Expert:

"TikTok also received the biggest fine in US history for gathering data on kids and selling it," revealed Susan McLean, former Victorian police cyber safety specialist.

By Shilpa Das Gupta

If your child is using Tiktok, one of the most popular video-sharing apps, they might not be safe as many have regarded it as a pedophile magnet. The Chinese application, which allows users to create and share short videos, came to limelight in early 2018 after achieving approximately 45.8 million users. Due to its video-only interface, unlike Facebook and Twitter, it gained popularity amongst children, especially those under the age of 16. The app, which has surpassed the popularity of Snapchat, requires a person to only be 13 years of age or above to sign up for an account. This exposes young and impressible kids to predators who can view their pictures and contact them unless the account is private.

Addressing the growing fears surrounding its privacy, Susan McLean, former Victorian police cyber safety specialist, said, "TikTok is not a safe app and there are many concerns, not the least bullying and grooming by predators." Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, she further warned, "Any app that allows communication can be used by predators." A recent investigation conducted by BBC News found that TikTok failed to remove the accounts of people sending sexual messages to teenagers and children.

Through this three month probe, the outlet was able to gather hundreds of sexual comments posted on videos uploaded by teens and kids. Although the company was successful in deleting most of these unsavory comments, they failed to suspend the accounts of users who posted them in the first place, thus going directly against TikTok's own rules of sexual content directed at children. "TikTok does not have the same safety sessions as some of the more well-known apps and routinely do not remove accounts that have been flagged as potentially a predator," explained McLean.

"Paedophiles like to watch kids sing and dance so they can take the videos and share them," she continued. "The data gathering is a huge concern and if the government is worried then it is not a place for kids." While TikTok's website explains how parents have the option to set their kid's profile to private, it also admits that "even with a private account, profile information – including profile photo, username, and bio – will be visible to all users." It also urged parents to 'counsel' their children not to disclose sensitive information like age, address, or phone number on the website.

The application is also feared to increase the scope of bullying through its platform and Kids Helpline revealed that they had received reports from its concerned counselors about the same. In one such occurrence, a child came across a video posted by a girl at school, where she was heard saying that she should "die in a hole." Additionally, there are many concerns about the privacy and data that are used by the company. "Both the US and Australian governments have told serving soldiers that they are not to use it because of security fears," revealed Ms. McLean. "TikTok also received the biggest fine in US history for gathering data on kids and selling it."

TikTok's in-app parental control feature is the combination of Screen Time Management and Restricted Mode, which is called Digital Wellbeing. This feature enables parents to set up a password when they turn on the digital well-being feature on their kid's phone and allows them to set a limit to the time their kid spends on the app per day watching only filtered content.
#TikTokSafetyAcademy

Defending its privacy policy, a spokesperson for TikTok said, "TikTok is an app for users age 13 and over, and we’ve given the app a 12 App Store rating so parents can simply block it from their child’s phone using device-based controls. In our Safety Centre we offer a library of educational resources for teens and their families, including safety educational videos and a safety blog series. As one of many apps with teenage users, we encourage parents to monitor their teenager’s account, review and adjust their privacy settings, help them report any inappropriate behavior, and have an open dialogue with their teenagers about how to be responsible and safe in all online activity."

FBI: Vigilant parents can help stop national child porn epidemic

BY NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP

PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Eighty percent of all sexually inappropriate images of minors in the U.S. today are being produced by the children themselves, according to the FBI.

It’s not always their fault; often there’s an adult or another minor coercing the child into “sexting” — the practice taking a sexually explicit photo and sharing it as a telephone text or private message on social media. But whether it’s bad judgment or sexual exploitation, parents should be aware of their children’s use of digital devices and social media, federal officials say.

“Go ahead and review digital devices that your children own; look to see what apps they’re using, what inappropriate images or videos are being housed in that device,” said Alex Bustillos, special agent in the El Paso field office of the FBI.

The number of child porn videos or photos circulating on the internet has reached epidemic proportions, with 18.4 million reports made by parents, community members and electronic service providers last year to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a nonprofit that works closely with law enforcement.

But the number of people prosecuted for commercial sexual exploitation of children is tiny by comparison. A recent report by The New York Times put the number of arrests for child exploitation offenses at around 10,000 in both 2017 and 2018. The FBI says there are more than 800,000 registered sex offenders in the United States.

Bustillos said online child predators are using encryption and other technology such as virtual private networks to hide their activities … and so are the children.

“(Kids) know how to circumvent what their parents are looking for, so if there’s not good communication between parent and child, you’re really at a disadvantage,” he said. “The main thing is an open-door policy so your child knows the (he or she) can come tell you if there’s something going on and you’ll listen and not judge.”

On Tuesday, as part of its Cyber Awareness Month, the FBI held a demonstration on how computer and telephone applications easily accessible to children can be used to produce and store pornographic images. One of them looks like a calculator but can take, store and share photographs that can only be seen later with the use of a password. Well-known apps such as Messenger are also being used to share child porn. According to The Times’ Sept. 30 story, 12 million of the 18.4 million reports fielded by NCMEC involved Messenger.

“The best way to stop this is for parents to be very involved in their children’s lives, especially when it comes to social media,” said Minerva Shelton, an FBI special agent whose units investigate sexual exploitation of children.

That might be difficult when it comes to teenagers who are trying to assert their independence at a time they’re also discovering their sexuality. Still, talking to them and making sure they don’t access the internet unsupervised can keep them from becoming victims of sexual coercion or exploitation, she said.

“Sometimes the kids are being directed by another subject to self-produce child pornography. A lot of times these kids are tricked because they think they’re talking to a 14-year-old boy or girl and in reality it’s (an adult) portraying himself as a younger kid; a lot of times they’re just being threatened through ‘sextortion,’” Shelton said.

Sextortion consists of someone else gaining possession of a nude photo of his or her target, then demanding more and more explicit images under the threat of sharing the first image on social media publicly. The more “hardcore” images may end up in peer-to-peer online forums or pay sites based in the United States, Europe, Russia or Latin America catering to pedophiles. In 2016, a single website on a TOR (The Onion Router) server that hosted thousands of child porn images had more than 200,000 registered users worldwide, according to the FBI.

If your child has been the victim of ‘sextortion,’ contact your local police department. If you run across a website that you believe has child porn images, contact your internet service provider, the police or NCMEC at http://www.missingkids.org.

Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the United States-Mexico border.

What To Do When Your Child Goes Missing

Colette Buck | KHQ Local News Producer 

SPOKANE, Wash. - There were over 424,066 entries for missing children in the FBI's National Crime Information Center database in 2018.

While it may be scary to think about, children go missing from their homes, classrooms and neighborhoods everyday across the United States.

According to law enforcement, the best way to make sure your child returns home safety is to be prepared and know what you need to do if your child goes missing.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children lists several steps you can take to ensure your child returns home safely.

The steps you should follow include:

Call law enforcement immediately. You are advised to call the police immediately before starting to search for your child yourself. Police are required to enter a missing child's name and information into the FBI's National Crime Information Center Missing Person File right away. There is no waiting period for minors under the age of 18.

Prepare to release vital information about your child, including photos. That includes their full name, their height and weight, their age, date of birth, what they were last seen wearing and any identifying features. Police advise you also include the names of their friends, locations of any frequently visited spots, any health issues they many have or any other relevant details.

Look in your immediate area. Police advise you start looking where you last saw your child. If it was inside your home, check all the beds, couches, piles of laundry, vehicles and inside your washer and dryer. If your child is older, make sure to ask police to investigate their social media for clues and remember to call the parents of your child's friends.

Make yourself available. The first 48 hours after your child goes missing are critical. While you may be inclined to help physically search for your child, your time is better served gathering and providing information to investigators. Check your home for any personal items that may be missing, and make sure to keep your phone handy in case police need to get in touch.

Inform the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. After you've contacted the police, contact the NCMEC by calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-(800)-843-5678). They can help you by putting you in touch with national non-profits that can help with the search.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, kidnapping cases are rare, but they do happen. Being prepared and knowing what to do when your child goes missing can help increase the changes that they are found safe, regardless of how they went missing.

Social Media Can Lure Kids To Sex Trafficking

Prevention training for parents

By Craig Smith

TUCSON, Ariz. - Parents know social media as something that can pull their kids into their own world -- Far removed from the family.

But Tucson Police know social media and smartphones can pull kids into a dangerous world so they're helping parents learn how to defend against it.

Through a Saturday morning class at the Tucson Police west side substation parents learned more about what a lot of them knew already; that kids can sink into a swamp of social media that could pull them into a world of drugs and sex trafficking.

Lieutenant Frank Hand commands TPD’s Special Investigations Section. He says, “This is a constantly changing environment. And these predators online, are like on the cutting edge as far as they look for the new thing. Or they even develop their own apps that they'll have people download so they can communicate with them."

There are apps that may look like an innocent calculator that are really ways to hide secret files like nude pictures.

Parents may not see through emojis that turn sexy talk into pictures.

Police say use sources like the Urban Dictionary to understand that texts like CU46 translate into "see you for sex." Or LMIRL means lets meet in real life.

To shake parents who think their children would never take that risk, Tucson Police show a video by Coby Persin. He normally puts entertainment on YouTube . But to make a serious point he posed as a fifteen year old and convinced girls to meet him in person --while their parents were nearby.

Here’s how it went when the girl, named Michaela came to a park.

Persin: "Michaela?”

Michaela: “Who are you?”

Persin: “From Facebook. Remember?”

Michaela’s father runs out and yells: “Michaela! Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?”

Michaela: “Sorry.”

Father: “He could have been a rapist! He could have been a pedophile! How could you do this?!"

Damon Jackson says he does check his daughter's phone looking for signs she's texting her way to a dangerous meeting.

"Let your kid be mad at you; and take their phone and check it. Better to have a little bit of anger now than I never see you again."

PARENT RESOURCES:

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: Online enticement

AZ TRUST: Raising awareness

U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Indicators of Human Trafficking 

Opinion: What the Data Says About Child Welfare in New York City

David Hansell was appointed commissioner of the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) in 2017.

By David Hansell

When I became Commissioner of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) two years ago, I vowed to ensure that we’re protecting children and supporting families and I committed to use data to measure whether we’re reaching the right outcomes.

New data from 2018 shows that we’re moving in the right direction – and that we must continue investing in work that is helping our city’s most vulnerable children and families.

In 2018, the number of children in foster care in New York City fell another 6 percent, while nationally the number of young people in foster care has steadily increased over the last few years. Today, there are fewer than 8,500 children in foster care in New York City – down from nearly 50,000 in the 1990s and more than 16,000 just a decade ago.

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ACS investigates about 60,000 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect every year. We don’t choose which cases to investigate; we’re required to investigate every report that’s forwarded to us by the State hotline, which fields calls from teachers, doctors, neighbors, and members of the public.

When we start an investigation into alleged abuse or neglect, our first priority is making sure that the child is safe. More children are now able to stay safely at home with their families, thanks in part to evidence-based prevention services we’ve expanded in New York City. On any given day, families with 25,000 children are receiving these services, which include a wide range of services such as intensive family therapy, drug treatment, domestic violence advocacy, assistance with housing, benefits and child care, and coaching for parents. These services are helping parents provide the safe, healthy, happy homes that children need in order to thrive.

However, if we find a child in imminent danger of serious harm, and there is no alternative that will keep that child safe, we must remove the child for his or her own safety. In 2018, removals happened in 2,060 investigations. We carefully balance the need to ensure the child’s safety with the parent’s rights to due process.

In the vast majority of cases, children remain at home while parents take part in prevention services. Most often, parents participate in these services voluntarily. Sometimes, we need to obtain a court order to ensure that they participate, or that an abusive parent or relative is excluded from the home in a domestic violence situation, because that’s how we are able to ensure that a child remains safe. We aim to use court orders only when necessary, and in 2018 the number of children in cases in which ACS filed for and received court-ordered supervision decreased by 20 percent from 2017. Every removal must be reviewed in family court before a child is remanded to foster care. In some cases, we remove a child on an emergency basis and then seek a court order the next business day.

For example, our caseworkers might conduct an emergency removal if a child has serious bruises and cuts that were caused by a parent at home, but the report was received at night or during the weekend when the family court is closed. We will not send that child back into a dangerous home for the night and wait to go to court the next morning. Instead, we will remove the child on an emergency basis, and file with the court first thing the next morning.

In short, we conduct emergency removals only when there’s an imminent risk of harm and it’s impossible to get a court order first. And in 2018, the number of emergency removals declined 14 percent from 2017.

We will always need to seek court-ordered supervision in some cases, and we will always need to conduct some emergency removals. That’s the unfortunate reality of the extremely difficult and important work that ACS’ frontline staff does 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But we have strengthened our decision-making in these cases – making sure that we’re taking action when children’s safety is at stake, and that we’re supporting families appropriately – through a range of reforms we’ve put in place over the last two years, including enhanced training on safety and risk, expanded technology to give caseworkers fuller and faster access to information, and increased oversight and consultation from managers, law enforcement experts, and medical professionals.

Ultimately, the most important data we monitor is whether children are safer as the result of our protective and preventive work. In 2018, fewer than 1.5 percent of families that completed prevention services had a child who was later removed and placed in foster care. We also know that nearly 10 percent of families with an “indicated” case (an investigation that uncovered evidence of abuse or neglect) that were referred but didn’t take part in prevention programs ended up having a repeat indicated investigation of abuse or neglect within six months. That’s why we continue to seek court orders when participation in prevention services is needed.

We are continuing to examine our work critically, identify areas for improvement, and make reforms. The most recent data shows us that we’re on the track – and that we need to keep moving forward.

David A. Hansell is commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services.

Safety.Com - Keeping Your Child With Autism Safe

A recent study by the American Journal of Public Health examined national mortality data and found that individuals with a diagnosis of autism died on average 35.8 years younger than individuals in the general population. Their research also found that the difference in deaths caused by injury was almost as striking.

Most parents place their children’s safety as a top priority as a rule. But for parents of children with autism, the reality is that it can be even more difficult to keep your children safe from themselves and others simply because of the nature of their disorder. However, parents of children with autism should not live in constant fear: there are tips parents and caregivers of kids with autism can follow to make sure they stay safe.

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Characteristics of Autism

Image via Autism Society

People with ASDs (autism spectrum disorders) share some symptoms, such as difficulty with social interaction, and their brains process information differently than those of unaffected people. Children with ASDs may exhibit a common set of characteristics that naturally make them more susceptible to danger. For instance, people with ASDs commonly have no real fear of dangers and an apparent insensitivity to pain. An inappropriate response—or no response at all—to sound is another common characteristic that could open the door to danger.

Scientists do not yet know the cause of ASDs. According to the CDC, ASDs occur in people of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. While it is estimated that autism affects 1 in 88 children, boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to be affected by autism; in fact, the number of boys affected by autism is 1 in 54, compared to 1 in 252 girls. And, Autism Speaks points out that the prevalence of autism is not just growing: it is “the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the United States.”

Image via Autism Speaks

Keeping all children safe is important. But, keeping children with autism safe becomes even more of a priority because of their social, communication, and behavioral challenges.

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5 Tips for Creating a Safety Plan

Autism Speaks recommends that parents of children with autism create safety plans, and there are some basic tips to keep in mind when creating those plans for your child with autism.

1) Include family and community members who come into daily contact with your child with autism. Keep in mind school personnel, daycare providers, neighbors, extended family, etc. Make sure you have contacted each person and discussed your most pressing concerns about your child’s safety.

2) Think about all of the places in which your child needs to be protected. This probably includes home, school, friends’ homes, community centers, etc. Then, be sure to evaluate them for safety and to put preventative measures into place in each area. It is especially important to remember to include safety skills in your child’s Individual Education Program (IEP) in your school district.

3) Consider the top safety risks for individuals with autism: wandering, pica (the tendency to eat or crave substances other than normal food), drowning, and household toxins. Take the necessary precautions for safeguarding your child against these safety risks and practice safety skills with your child other family members.

4) Give your child a form of identification with contact names and numbers listed. Make sure your child always wears or carries this identification, especially because wandering could be a concern. Or, purchase a child locator and clip it to your child’s shoe, belt, etc.

5) Contact your local communications center, police department, and/or 911 call center to communicate your concerns and safety plan with the appropriate officials. Remember, you are your child’s best safety advocate.

Image via GDS Infographics

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Safety at Home

The home can be a very dangerous place for any young child, but it can be even more dangerous for your child with autism. The difference is that the safety measures and precautions most parents implement for very young children may need to be in place for a much longer period of time for children with autism. Consider this checklist to keep your child with autism safe at home

• Furniture – Secure especially top-heavy furniture to the wall with furniture brackets or safety straps. Don’t forget that some electronics also may be heavy or easily pulled over by your child, so use items such as TV safety straps.
• Cleaning products – All cleaning products should be locked in a safe location. You may want to put them in a locked area in the garage or basement, so they are not in the main living space of your home.
• Freezers – If you own a chest-style freezer, keep it locked at all times. Storing the key in a safe place where your child cannot access it is a good idea.
• Doors – Key locks may be enough for some children affected by autism, but you may want to use door alarms to prevent your child from leaving your home without your knowledge. Again, remember to keep your keys in a place out of your child’s reach. If your child has been known to wander (see the section on wandering below), you should use a child locator. There are several types available, especially online, but any you choose would help ease your mind about your wandering child.
• Visitors – As with any child, you should teach your child with autism the safety rules about opening the door to visitors, especially if he is home alone. The old safety rule of not opening the door to anyone when home alone is especially important for an child with autism who has a severe language or speech delay or who is completely nonverbal. One way to communicate this rule to your child with autism is to create a social storybook with pictures to help explain the rules.
• Hot water – Sometimes children with autism struggle with sensory challenges, so they may be more at risk for getting burned by hot water simply because they cannot feel hot and cold. One simple solution is to turn down the temperature on your hot water heater. If you have an older child with autism, you may want to practice turning on the hot water with the cold water. You may even put stickers on the hot water knob to remind your child that it is a potential danger to him. Don’t forget to do this in the shower as well as on your sink faucets.

Original & Full Article:
https://www.safety.com/autism-safety

7 ways parents can protect kids from child sexual abuse

Source: TODAY

By Kavita Varma-White

It’s the elephant in the room of parenting topics: child sexual abuse.

And it’s no surprise parents have difficulty addressing it — especially with their children — because the statistics are so horrifying and sobering, you don’t want to believe them.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE STATISTICS:

1. Approximately 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
2. 90 percent of children who are victims of abuse know their abuser, according to government reports.
3. 60 percent of child victims are sexually abused by the people a family trusts.
4. Nearly 40 percent of child victims are abused by older or more powerful children.

So what exactly can parents do? TODAY Parents asked experts for guidance on how to confront a threat that is still something many people feel “could never happen” to their child.

“What the statistics really should be telling us is that… all of us who care about kids and mental health and communities ought to be doing something about it,” says Janet Rosenzweig, author of ‘The Sex-Wise Parent’ and executive director of The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.

Rosenzweig and Katelyn Brewer, CEO of the child sexual abuse prevention organization, Darkness to Light, offer this advice:

1. TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT SEX, EARLY AND OFTEN.

Rosenzweig says she’s always surprised at how parents find it difficult to talk about sex with their kids. “They can talk about poop and vomit… but for some reason, sex is more embarrassing than other bodily functions,” she says.

Start when kids are young enough to name their body parts and teach them proper anatomical terms. (Yes, call a penis a penis, a vagina a vagina, an elbow an elbow.)

Rosenzweig suggests making a “Family Values About Sex” checklist of questions and go through it with the family once a year. When kids are younger, start with questions like, “What terms are we going to use?” and “Who gets to see who in what stage of undress?” As kids age, the questions change accordingly.

Use as many teachable moments as you can find. If your child wants to be in a bedroom by themselves, explain it as a matter of privacy versus secrecy, saying: “Privacy means you get to do it by yourself but mommy and daddy know about it. Secrecy means that we don’t know about it, and our family doesn’t do secrecy."

2. TEACH KIDS ABOUT AROUSAL (AS UNCOMFORTABLE AS THAT MAY BE).

Arousal might be one of the most important physiological responses related to sexual abuse that your kids need to know about. Explain why touching certain parts of their body makes them feel the way it does and who is allowed to do it to them. (The answer: No one but themselves can touch their mouth, their chest and their private parts.)

“Arousal is autonomic, a reflex that your body does in response to a stimuli,” explains Rosenzweig. “But one of the things that makes kids so vulnerable to being exploited is when you have a really skilled molester, they go out of their way to make sure their victims experience arousal, which feels good. And when kids equate arousal with love, they are sitting ducks for bad guys.”

Ultimately, kids need to know from an early age that they have agency over their own bodies.That means parents should never insist that kids kiss or hug people, whether it’s the grabby uncle at Thanksgiving or the cool babysitter.

3. YOUR KIDS ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO TALK ABOUT SEX AND SEXUAL ABUSE.

If you feel like you “missed the boat” continuing to talk to teens about sex, it's not too late.

Nearly 40 percent of kids are abused by older children, and child on child sexual abuse has grown from 40 to 50 percent in the last 10 years, according to research by Darkness to Light.(The younger child in this scenario is in the 10-year-old age range.)

Much of these incidents are related to pornographic content online. Brewer says kids are “going to get access to [online] content anyway. And they don’t know what to do with their hormones once they see that content. So they test it with a younger, accessible child. They don’t mean to traumatize this child — they aren’t pedophiles — but the child is traumatized because something is taken from them that they didn’t consent to.”

“As much as we’d like to put our kids in a bubble, it’s not possible,” she says. “Actually sitting down and having that uncomfortable conversation with your kid is going to help prevent things in the long run because… they are going to understand that you are a safe person to talk to and you aren’t going to freak out that they’ve said the word sex to you because you brought it to them first.”

Also, if you have teens that won’t entertain a conversation, Brewer suggests different ways to communicate.

“Send them a link via text to an article," she says. "That’s a great way to continue to have the conversation without even having it.”

4. PAY ATTENTION TO WHO YOUR KID IS SPENDING TIME WITH.

Kids are going to be in situations where they may have one-on-one time with individuals, whether it's friends, teachers, coaches or sitters.

So how do you not get paranoid with every person your child is with?

For starters, check in with your kid in detail after they’ve been alone with someone, says Rosenzweig. “Keep the line of communication open. It doesn’t have to be in a paranoid way. Just ask, ‘What did you do?’ ‘Did you have fun?’ ‘Who was there?’”

Having such routine conversations will make a child feel OK to tell you if there is ever an incident where they do feel uncomfortable.

Brewer adds that while it’s important to minimize opportunity of incidents of child sex abuse by avoiding isolated situations with adults or other youths, it’s best to take a rational approach and trust your gut.

“If someone is spending considerable one-on-one time with your child, redirect their energy. Make them get together in public places. A lot of sexual abuse happens in the car. Don’t let them be in the car together,” she says.

5. KNOW THAT 'STRANGER DANGER' IS A MYTH.

“We have grown up with ‘stranger danger’ being forced down our throats,” says Brewer, referring to the idea that kids should avoid strangers to be safe from predatory activity.

The reality: 90 percent of people who are abused are abused by people who they know and trust.

“If that doesn’t make you pay attention to what is happening in your own back yard, I don’t know what will,” says Brewer.

People who abuse children look and act just like everyone else. They go out of their way to appear trustworthy, and seek out settings where they can gain easy access to children.

6. EDUCATE YOURSELF ON THE SIGNS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE.

This is always the hardest with parents, says Brewer, because there aren’t always specific physical signs. “Trauma manifests itself differently" in everyone, Brewer says.

Focus on the extremes, she says. “If there is an extreme reaction to something, trust your gut and know something may be wrong.”

One example is the student who all of a sudden is growing their hair out, gaining weight, wearing baggy clothes, dabbling in substances. They are doing things that are going to hide the pain, hide themselves from what’s actually happening.

“They do that to try and look unattractive, so their abuser won’t want them anymore,” says Brewer.

7. KNOW THE THREE WORDS TO SAY IF A CHILD TELLS YOU OF ABUSE.

If your child, or any child you know, comes to you with a potential disclosure of being a sex abuse victim, there is only one thing to say: “I believe you.”

“Those three words alone start a conversation off the right way," says Brewer. "Don’t interrogate them. There are professionals who know how to do that. Making your child relive that trauma is not helpful to you, to the child, or to the professional. They are the ones that are going to ask the right question to get the information they need.”

Epidemic of missing Black girls continues to stump authorities, frustrate parents

by Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Lashaya Stine, 16

Lashaya Stine, 16, was walking down the street alone in Aurora, Colorado.

It doesn’t appear that the young African American female had any sort of trip planned, as she left her wallet and phone charger, and she didn’t take any clothes.

According to a television station in Denver, police released surveillance video of Stine taken on the morning of July 15 around 2:30 A.M. She is seen walking by herself in the area of East Montview and Peoria Street. The video was sent out to the public a little over two weeks after her disappearance in hopes of generating more leads.

Anya Washington, missing from Houston, Texas since Jan. 29.

The estimated 75,000 missing black women and girls continue to stump law enforcement while frustrating and devastating families. It forces the question: Does anyone care?

Since NNPA Newswire reported on the alarming lack of interest in the cases of missing black females, readers – including law enforcement – have responded by using social media to bring to light the host of African Americans and others of color who’ve gone missing.

The social media account for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children retweeted the NNPA Newswire story and then accumulated a long thread of missing girls – some as young as a few months old.

They began each tweet with: “Have you seen this child?”

Hazana Anderson, missing from College Station, Texas, since Oct. 28, 2018.

Among the missing are:

Tim’Monique Davis, missing from Moorhead, Minnesota since Jan. 20.

Anya Washington, missing from Houston, Texas since Jan. 29.

R’Mahnee Williams-Turner, missing from Palmdale, Calif., since Jan. 26.

Whitney Elliseau, missing from Lakewood, Calif., since Feb. 5.

Jada Cyrus, missing from Boston, Mass., since Jan. 29.

Myla Abanda, missing from Fairfax, Va., since Nov. 16.

Zakiah Abdul-Khaliq, missing from Austin, Texas, since Aug. 27, 2018.

Yasmin Acree, missing from Chicago, Ill., since Jan. 15, 2018.

Harmony Adams, missing from Columbus, Oh., since July 18, 2018.

Kelli Allen, missing from Atlanta, Ga., since Dec. 20, 2018.

Kelly Allen, Missing from Berkley, Miss., since March 13, 2007.

Kaaliyah Alston, missing from Hillsborough, NC., since Aug. 21, 2018.

Hazana Anderson, missing from College Station, Texas, since Oct. 28, 2018.

Karyn Anderson, missing from Walkersville, Md., since March 24, 2018.

Rae’vanna Anderson, missing from Duluth, Ga., since Nov. 3, 2018.

Rae’vanna Anderson, missing from Duluth, Ga., since Nov. 3, 2018.

A comprehensive list can be found on the website for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children(NCMEC).

For families with a missing or sexually exploited child, NCMEC provides crisis intervention and local counseling referrals to appropriate professionals.

The organization’s “Team HOPE” program connects families with peers who have had similar experiences and can offer coping skills and compassion. When a missing child is recovered, NCMEC helps the family with the reunification process, including mental health services and travel assistance.

Psychologist and Navy veteran Sheri Davis said it’s vital that the missing are given attention by the media and especially law enforcement.

Davis said she relates well with them on a couple of fronts: She once went missing and she’s also the victim of domestic violence, a trigger for some who’ve been made vulnerable to abductions, run away and become the eventual victim of sex trafficking.

“One thing I think for sure about the missing teens is that human trafficking is a hotbed in my city [and around the country],” said Davis, who lives in Madison, Alabama. “I think it’s very easy for the courts and police to turn their heads the other way and not deal with the problem at hand.”

Tim’Monique Davis, missing from Moorhead, Minnesota since Jan. 20.

Davis continued:

“I had to escape from my abuser in the middle of the night … naked and running down the road and praying that a good bystander helps me while I’m covered in blood. The families of these young ladies need to be in the face of [law enforcement officials] and let them see the pain they are in every day that those girls aren’t home or safe.”