FBI App: www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/protecting-your-kids/child-id-app

The Child ID app provides a convenient place to electronically store photos and other vital information about your children so that it’s literally right at hand if you need it. You can show the pictures and provide physical identifiers such as height and weight to security or police officers ON THE SPOT. Using a special tab on the app, you can also quickly and easily email the information to authorities with a few clicks.

Common Sense Media: www.commonsencemedia.org

Common Sense Media helps families make smart media choices. We offer the largest, most trusted library of independent age-based and educational ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites, books, and music. Our Parent Concerns and Parent Blog help families understand and navigate the problems and possibilities of raising children in the digital age.

The Mama Bear Effect: www.themamabeareffect.org

The Mama Bear Effect seeks to empower adults to actively protect children from sexual abuse by raising awareness, and promoting conversations and behaviors that can prevent abuse.

Protect Young Minds: www.themamabeareffect.org

Protect Young Minds seeks to help parents “porn-proof” their kids before they come across highly addictive and easily accessible internet pornography. Additionally, PYM offers guidance for families whose children have already been hurt by pornography.

Sex Trafficking: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/get-help

If you think your child is involved in sex for money (or for something else of value such as drugs or a place to stay), or someone is trying get them involved in sex for money:

Call 911 and contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline where support is provided in more than 200 languages.

• Call toll-free, 24/7: 1-888-373-7888 or TTY: 711
• Text: 233733
• Live chat: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/chat
• Email: [email protected]

Illegal Pop-Ups & Online Predators: www.report.cybertip.org

NCMEC’s (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children and youth. The public and electronic service providers can make reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, child pornography, child sex trafficking, and unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child. NCMEC staff review each tip and work to find a potential location for the incident reported so that it may be made available to the appropriate law-enforcement agency for possible investigation. Report it and get it stopped!

Online Bullying: www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/how-to-report/index.html

If your child is being harassed, threatened or ridiculed online, don’t allow them to respond to or forward those messages. Instead, have them:

• Block the person who is cyberbullying
• Save and print screenshots, emails, and text messages of the cyberbullying
• Provide this information to law enforcement and to web and cell phone service providers

Too many teens lives are being destroyed by cyberbullying that can be stopped if we care enough to speak up.

Sextortion: Text “THORN” to 741741 or go to www.stopsextortion.com

Threating to reveal intimate images (like sexts) to get someone to do something they don’t want to do is an illegal form of blackmail called sextortion. Sextortion among teens is becoming epidemic, resulting in ruined lives and suicide. If someone is threatening to expose your child, call law enforcement. Document and report the threats. If threats aren’t reported they may go on for months. Once reported, the abuser knows they can be arrested if they post or forward those images. Note: most children are very reluctant to let their parents know they have sent sexts of themselves—which is one reason sextortion is exploding among youth and young adults.

Sexual Abuse & Assault: www.rainn.org

Sexual abuse is very difficult to talk about, but it does not stop unless you get help. If your child has been sexually assaulted or is being abused, call 911. To talk anonymously with a trained person:

• Call the National Child Abuse Hotline at 800.4.A.CHILD (422-4453), 24/7
• Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673)
• Chat online at rainn.org
• Learn more about being an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse

There is hope, and there is healing—if you get help.

Sexual Abuse & Assault Specifically for MALES: malesurvivor.org

MenHealing provides healing resources for males age 18 and older who have experienced sexual trauma during childhood or as adults:  referrals to licensed therapists in your community, connecting with other survivors in their peer-moderated discussion forums and chat room, attending MaleSurvivor sponsored events.

Depression/Suicide: Call 911 if your child is threatening suicide.

• teenlineonline.org
• Call 310-855-HOPE (855-4673), or toll-free at 800-TLC-TEEN
• Text TEEN to 839863

TEEN LINE is a teen-to-teen hotline developed by mental health professionals.

Gaming Abuse: report.cybertip.org/index.htm

You child can be gang raped on Minecraft – Invited to exchange nudes for Fortnite battle passes – Earn money for killing a prostitute on GTA5. These online predators are making bank recording images and videos of guys and girls, then selling them as child porn. Protect your children by reporting online gaming abuse.

Pornography & Porn Addiction:

joinfortify.com – Tens of thousands of Fortify users in over 155 countries have experienced an 85% decrease in depression and 88% reduction in porn use

xxxchurch.com – Online software, videos, workshops and small groups have helped hundreds of thousands of people.

fightthenewdrug.org – Fight the New Drug is a non-religious and non-legislative organization that exists to provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts, and personal accounts.

protectyoungminds.org – Protect Young Minds seeks to help parents “porn-proof” their kids before they come across highly addictive and easily accessible internet pornography. Additionally, PYM offers guidance for families whose children have already been hurt by pornography.

Law enforcement typically will not follow up on a runaway until they’ve been missing for 48 hours.

1. Immediately call local police and report your child as missing. Keep records of your phone calls and all information. Ask for name and badge number of officer you report to and request a copy of the report.

2. Report your missing child on your FBI App
   

3. If you don’t have the FBI App, have your child’s name and description entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center Computer (NCIC) at 304-625-2000.
   

4. Register your child as missing/runaway

• Call Child Find at 1-800-I-AM-LOST (1-800-426-5678)
• Contact the National Runaway Safeline 24/7 to develop a plan and leave a message for your child
  • 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929)
  • Live chat or email: 1800runaway.org
• Contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
  • missingkids.com/home
  • 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678)

5. Start a social media frenzy.

               Post pictures and a video of yourself petitioning for help especially from their friends.

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, by Nancy Jo Sales

Award-winning Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales crisscrossed the country talking to more than two hundred girls between the ages of thirteen and nineteen about their experiences online and off. They are coming of age online in a hypersexualized culture that has normalized extreme behavior, from pornography to the casual exchange of nude photographs; a culture rife with a virulent new strain of sexism; a culture in which teenagers are spending so much time on technology and social media that they are not developing basic communication skills. A must for those wanting to understand why our children are now so vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation. (Hint: they are abusing and exploiting each other.)

The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect on Our Children, by James P. Steyer

There’s a stranger in your house.
Every day your children are bombarded by images of sex, commercialism, and violence — right in your own home. Kids spend more time each week with media than they do with their parents or teachers, and they learn about the adult world — through the influence of TV, the movies, music, computer games, and the Internet — long before they’re adults.

Your Teenager Is Not Crazy: Understanding Your Teen’s Brain Can Make You a Better Parent, by Dr. Jeramy Clark & Jerusha Clark

As God allows us to understand the mystery and marvel of brain science, we have the exciting opportunity to reexamine our assumptions about children–especially teenagers. Where parents often see a sweet boy or girl who has morphed into an incomprehensible bundle of hormones and angst, what we really ought to be seeing is an amazing young adult whose brain is under heavy construction. And changing the way we see our teens will revolutionize our relationships with them.
Dr. Jeramy and Jerusha Clark show that they can be an amazing season of cultivating creativity, self-awareness, and passion for the things that really matter.

SEDUCED: THE GROOMING OF AMERICA’S TEENAGERS, by Opal Singleton

Opal Singleton is President and CEO of Million Kids and Training and Outreach Coordinator for Riverside County Anti Human Trafficking Task Force. Opal trains thousands of government agencies, school administrators, corporations, civic groups and

faith-based organizations about how to prevent human trafficking. She sits with parents of missing kids and talks with teens who are being “Sextorted” with a naked photo.

Parents give kids devices that open the door to over a million predators that can influence a child’s thinking on morality, spirituality and sexuality while they are competing for approval in a fantasy world. Apps, social media and online gaming allow ACCESS, GROOMING, RECRUITMENT AND EXPLOITATION of our young people by total strangers.

Mending the Soul: Understanding and Healing Abuse, by Steven R. Tracy

This book provides a well-researched biblical and scientific overview of abuse. A broad overview, it deals with the various types of abuse, the various effects of abuse, and the means of healing.

Just as surely as abusive relationships have tremendous power to wound the soul, so healthy relationships have tremendous power to nurture and heal the soul.  Questions answered in the book include: – Why would someone abuse a child? – How can parents and childrens’ workers identify abusers? – How can abuse victims heal? – What does genuine healing look like? – Is anger appropriate or hurtful for abuse victims? – Where does forgiveness fit in?

Mending the Soul: Understanding and Healing Abuse: Student Edition, by Steven R. Tracy

For teenagers who have experienced any kind of abuse or abandonment, it can often feel like hope is lost and they’re doomed to stay stuck in unhealthy habits and patterns. This teenage edition of Mending the Soul was written to show teens that by following a path of restoration and allowing God’s grace to touch their heart’s deepest wounds, they will find hope and healing as they work through their pain. It will help them navigate the emotional trauma of abuse and abandonment, as well as recognize signs of unhealthy families and dating relationships. Teens will be encouraged to face their brokenness, to heal and forgive and to look toward their hope-filled future.