MAINE, Maine — Halloween can be a lot of fun with costumes, decorations, trick-or-treating, and other spooky stuff, but it's important to consider how to keep children safe on the holiday.
Kimberly King is a children's book author, child abuse prevention advocate, and educator. She offered the following safety guidelines for parents and guardians ahead of Halloween:
- If you have little kids who can get scared, you might want to go out early to avoid the creepy costumes while trick-or-treating.
- If you think trick or treating will give your kids any fears or anxiety, find an alternative fall celebration like going pumpkin picking.
- Look online to see if there are any registered sex offenders in the area where your kids will be trick-or-treating so you can avoid those homes. Click here for a list from the Maine Department of Public Safety.
- Make sure kids are with an adult.
- Your child should know your cellphone number and home address in case they get lost and need help finding you. King said writing your phone number on their hand or on a plastic pumpkin is a good idea.
- Tell kids never to go inside someone's home for candy or anything else
- Have a "code word," so if your kid texts or calls you and says that word, you'll know they want to be picked up, feel uncomfortable, or are in danger
- Use technology to keep your kids safe by tracking them.
"It's entirely important to review not sharing your information, staying in touch with mom, and I know this may seem like a violation of privacy to some people, but I recommend putting on safety apps on your child's phone and tracking them, especially if they are under 13," King said. "You can put Find my Friends or Life 360, and then if they are a teenager and they want to go down the street by themselves, you can monitor them and see where they are."
"Another thing for the age group of under 10 is that I think it's essential that you review safety in regards to crossing the street, looking both ways, staying with your pack of friends, walking instead of running, and then [being] very careful when you go to the door to trick-or-treat. Because you never want your child to get so close that they might feel tempted to go to someone else's house," King added. "That's a giant no-no, and you have to talk about that beforehand because that's absolutely not safe."
King suggested if parents or caregivers are concerned about safety this year, having a kid-friendly Halloween party at their house with people they know.
Here is a list of tips from King. She offers workshops for parents on a wide variety of topics. To learn more or to contact her, click here.