Article: . You can use the US Department of Justice National Sex Offender Database (located at http://www.nsopw.gov/en-US) to determine whether any registered sex offenders live in your area. All you have to do is enter your zip code and do a search, and you'll be able to see where child molesters might live. You can also do a search for individual names to see if a specific person is a sex offender. It's good to be aware of potential predators, but realize that it is illegal to take any kind of action against registered sex offenders. Being as involved as possible in your child's life is the best way to guard against child molesters. They will look for a child who is vulnerable and who isn't getting a lot of attention from his or her parents or will convince parents they are of no danger to their child. Show up at games, practices and rehearsals, chaperone field trips and trips out, and spend time getting to know the adults in your child's life. Make it clear that you're an involved, present parent. If you can't be there for a trip or outing, make sure at least two adults you know well will be chaperoning a trip. Don't leave your child alone with adults you don't know well. Even relatives can pose a threat. The key is to be as present as possible. There are times when you won't be able to be present, so use other tools to make sure your child is safe. Set up a hidden camera in your home so that inappropriate activity will be detected. No matter how well you think you know someone, you need to take precautions for your child's safety. Make sure your child knows that predators often pose as children or teenagers in order to lure children in online. Monitor your child's use of the internet, keeping rules in place to limit his or her "chat" time. Have regular discussions with your child about whom he or she is communicating with online. Be sure your child knows never to send pictures to a person he or she met online, or meet someone he or she is communicating with online. Know that children are often secretive about online behaviour, especially when encouraged by others to keep secrets, so you'll need to be vigilant about staying involved in your child's online activity. Since children who don't get a lot of attention are especially vulnerable to predators, make sure you are spending a lot of time with your child and that he or she feels supported. Take the time to talk to your child every day and work toward building an open, trusting relationship. Child molesters will ask the children to keep it secret from their parents. Ensure your children understands that if someone has asked them to keep a secret from you that it isn't because the child will get into trouble but the person who has asked them to keep the secret knows what they are doing to them is wrong. Express interest in all of your child's activities, including schoolwork, extracurriculars, hobbies, and other interests. Let your child know that he or she can tell you anything, and that you're always willing to talk. Many parents use the "good touch, bad touch, secret touch" method. It involves teaching your child that there are some appropriate touches, like pats on the back or high fives; there are some unwelcome or "bad' touches, like hits or kicks; and there are also secret touches, which are touches that the child is told to keep a secret. Use this method or another one to teach your child that some touches aren't good, and when these happen, he or she should tell you immediately. Teach your child that no one is allowed to touch him or her in private areas. Many parents define private areas as those that would be covered by a bathing suit. Children also need to know an adult should not ask a child to touch anyone else's private areas or their own. Tell your child to say "no" and walk away if someone tries to touch him or her in a private area. Tell your child to come to you immediately if someone touches him or her the wrong way. If you notice your child is acting differently, pursue the issue to find out what is wrong. Regularly asking your child questions about his or her day, including asking whether any "good," "bad," or "secret" touches happened that day, will help open the lines of communication. Never dismiss it if your child tells you he or she was touched inappropriately or doesn't trust an adult. Trust your child first. Never dismiss a child's claims because the adult in question is a valued member of society or appears incapable of such things. That's exactly what a child molester wants. Remember that the most important thing you can do to protect your child is to pay attention to them. Assess their needs and desires, talk to them, and in essence, just be the best parent you possibly can. Bottom line to remember: If you don't pay attention to your child, someone else will. Remember that kids around 12, should already have gotten sex education, by their parents and told what everything means/is called. This will prevent a teacher/friend who is a child molester from taking the lead and teaching whole other aspects. Make sure your child already knows everything it needs to know, before it gets taught very different meanings of words or gets told that kissing/licking the teachers cheek is totally fine. If the child is very young or younger than 14, it might not recognize that there's a difference between a grumpy teacher giving extra homework, or a strange acting teacher that wants them to kiss the cheek before leaving the room. Both are to them 'annoying.' So make sure whenever your child tells you vague stories about the teacher making sex-jokes or touching them, or being 'annoying' and asking all kinds of 'private stuff' that there might be something going on. As soon as the child mentions the teacher is acting strange or is asking private info/pictures/things about siblings, you have to tell your child how to react to this. Be realistic in the approach! Telling your kids to scream loudly when the teacher touches their shoulder, or hit his hand and yell whenever he'd touch their back, won't help. They won't hit a teacher, especially not when they're being groomed and told he's only trying to help. Make sure they will tell him clearly that they have told their parents about what happened and they weren't happy with it. Or give the child an envelope, containing a letter that says; 'Stop touching my daughter/son' and your autograph. Make sure they give it to him when he is touching a bad part of their body and didn't stop when they said stop. (Make sure you think about this, it'll only have a positive effect if you're absolutely sure he'll be ignoring the boundaries and is actually going too far. One impulsive hand on the shoulder isn't.

What is a summary?
Find out whether sex offenders live in your neighborhood Supervise your child's extracurricular activities. Set up a nanny cam if you hire a babysitter. Teach your child about staying safe online. Make sure your child is feeling emotionally supported. Teach your child to recognize inappropriate touching. Recognize when something is out of sync with your child.