Halloween Safety

To make sure you have a fun and safe Halloween, follow these safety tips:

Tips for Ensuring Your Children Are Safe While Trick or Treating:

Halloween offers children a chance to feel adventurous and scared at the same time. It also allows them to ask for and expect all manner of treats, such as toys and candy, simply by visiting people's homes or public spaces.

For every positive memory associated with modern trick-or-treating, negative stories are always lurking around the event each year. Its traditional nighttime nature can lead to accidental injuries and frantic parents searching for lost children. Some older teens and adults also use the event to harm children with or without malicious intent.

To ensure your children are safe while trick-or-treating, follow these guidelines:

• Never allow children of any age to trick-or-treat alone. Go trick-or-treating with your children to watch over them, or send them out in a group with people you trust.
• Take young children trick-or-treating during a daytime community or local mall event instead of at night. if you go at night, only approach homes that are well-lit both inside and outside.
• Make sure your children wear sneakers even if the footwear doesn't match their costumes. Instead of buying cheap, thin costumes, invest in ones made of thicker fabrics. Or, if it's particularly cold where you are, make your children wear thermal undergarments.
• Instead of using tie-on face or wraparound masks that can reduce or block vision or hearing, paint masks on your children's faces. If they are wearing facial masks, be sure that they fit properly so children are able to see and breathe easily
• Reduce the chance of falls or other accidents by making certain that costumes don't drag the ground, rise too high above heads or have loose pieces that can get caught on objects, such as bushes, tree branches, doors or fences.
• Make sure to wear reflective clothing or costumes, add reflective pieces or paint to your children's costumes so drivers can easily see them on dark streets. Additionally, give your children more than one flashlight, and back-up batteries, so they don't stumble around in the dark.
• Make certain your children have a cell phone with ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact numbers set up for speed dial.
• Decide your children's trick-or-treating route beforehand and make certain it is along streets and paths they already know so they won't get lost.
• If you're taking young children trick-or-treating, walk along a short path that won't tire them out. As you probably already well know, tired young children can become cranky or tire you out by asking you to carry them. Accidents can occur if you're distracted in either situation.
• Never let your children eat any edible treats until you've looked at them, yourself. When in doubt, throw it out.
• The Poison Control Center can be contacted at (800) 222-1222.

Keep in mind that in our modern high-speed Internet world the risks involved with Halloween trick-or-treating actually start online long before the event begins.

Your High-speed Internet service allows you and your children to share personal information, including event plans and locations, via social networks.

Whether the trick-or-treating is planned for daytime or nighttime, it is extremely important to never publicly share any information that could lead someone who might want to hurt your children, such as a stalker or kidnapper, to their whereabouts.

Additionally, it is important to turn off any social networking location tracking services you might be carrying. Although you want to have the ability to find your children via cell GPS, if necessary, you don't want everyone else to be able to do the same.