Never before have the newspapers, magazines, radio, television, movies, and other resources divulged more frequent and gruesome happenings than in our present times. Incidents of kidnappings, ambushes, rapes, fires, bombings, etc. have become daily news…one would almost say “daily food for thought and consumption.” What is really happening to our country and its people? Have our law-abiding citizens of yesteryears succumbed to the forces of evil? Our values as a people have drastically deteriorated, leading u to this situation. A serious and great challenge is set before us to reinvigorate our fellow citizens for a much-needed values recovery. All sectors of society are responsible for effecting the needed change.

In the meantime, the urgent call is to check and thwart the onslaught of the crimes but to tackle them simultaneously is an impossible proposition. Dealing with kidnapping, for a start, parents could be in the best position to provide deterrents for it.

Out of solicitude for families, especially the parents, and to circumvent the tricks of kidnappers, here are 10 worthwhile tips developed for kids teaching them on how to avoid and escape kidnappers:

1. If you are grabbed in a public place, scream, shout, and make noise….anything, to attract attention. Abductors don’t want witnesses. Even if the criminal threatens you with “Stay there, do not make noise or I will shoot you,” try to escape and make noise anyway. Chances are he will not shoot you because there are too many witnesses. There will be a bigger chance that you will be shot when the two of you are alone than when you are in a public place. The best time to get away is right away.
2. If you are grabbed in a supermarket, knock down groceries from shelves to attract other people’s attention.
3. If you are chased in a street, run into any open door.
4. If you are in a parking lot, trigger off the alarm of parked vehicles.
5. If you are locked in a car’s trunk, rip out the electric wires inside and kick out the taillights to attract attention. If you in the front seat, cause an accident by grabbing the wheel and pressing on the horn. Rip out the wires under the dashboard to disable the car. Slide into the back seat and get out the back door.
6. Don’t bike in a street where you can be grabbed. Walk farthest away from the street so that anybody in a passing car cannot grab you.
7. If a car stops beside you, run in the opposite direction. You cannot outrun a car but the time it would take for the car to turn around and chase you, will give you enough time to escape.
8. Don’t go into anybody’s car.
9. Don’t talk to strangers.
10. If you are kept prisoner in a house:

a. Signal by turning the lights on and off in your room. If you are in a multi-story unit, clog the sink and toilet and turn on the faucets to flood the bathroom so that the water drips to the floor below and attract attention. Try to open every window you can reach.
b. Hide in closets, cupboards, cabinets, trash cans, under piles of laundry, etc., so that the abductor will think you have escaped and will look for you. Once he leaves the house, you can escape.

Here are some tricks which abductors commonly use to lure their victims to get them within arm’s reach:

1. A common trick is to ask for directions.
2. Another is to ask a kid to drop some letters in a nearby mailbox. As the child leans into the car window to reach for the letters, he is pulled inside and the car speeds away.

3. As the abductor walks beside an intended victim, he spills a bag of groceries and asks the child to help in picking them up. As he stoops down to pick them up, he is grabbed.
4. The intended victim will be offered a gift such as candy or flowers, and when he is within arm’s reach; he is grabbed and sped away in a car.

Even homes are no longer safe. The police have pointed out that many children have been taken away from their beds while their parents are in an adjoining room. Their advice is: Be security-conscious, even in your own home.

The tips enumerated can be of greater help but there are other difficulties encountered in present local conditions. Even if a child can use the telephone to ask for help, often the telephone lines are busy and chances are that no one will answer even if the child gets connected. The abductors also could have taken the child to another place before the police can come. Sometimes, children have no choice but walk in the streets because sidewalks are full of parked vehicles or sidewalk vendors. Problems met in the streets have worsened.

Whatever the case, it is very necessary to teach survival strategies to the young (of course adults need these, too!) to develop quick wits so as to escape from abductors and molester. One would really wonder where the latter imbibe their tricks. Do they learn them from what they view on television or from the movies, as well as what they read from the magazines and newspaper? If so, it is the grave responsibility of film producers and publishers to eradicate any vestige of fostering the commission of crimes through such media, which has become very influential in the formation of attitudes. Instead, could there be a reinculcation of values to offset a growing criminal obsession?

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