Missing Children’s Network delivers tips to help keep children safe

Monday marks the beginning of the third week in the search of missing 10-year-old Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou.

Kouakou was last seen by his family in Cartierville before leaving his home to visit a friend nearby.

READ MORE: Montreal police continue search in park for boy, missing for over 48 hours

Pina Arcamone from the Missing Children’s Network joined Global’s Andrea Howick to talk about the stress the family is undergoing and delivered safety guidelines to keep children safe.

“They are trying to be strong. Two full weeks have passed. They never thought they would be waiting so long,” Arcamone said about the Kouakou family.

“They are tired, they’re emotionally and physically exhausted. They’re fighting for their son as well.”

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Arcamone commended the Montreal police for not giving up the search and said that the police will be re-evaluating search efforts in the coming days.

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“The Missing Children’s Network developed guidelines to promote safety for various age groups,” Arcamone explained.

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Some of the points recapped by Arcamone when teaching safety to children:

• Ensure your child can verbally identify your full name, and not just refer to you as ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy.’
• Teach them early on some safe people and safe places.
• Play a lot of what-if scenarios with your child, a good way to instill knowledge without necessarily scaring them.
• For older children, it’s important that parents know where they are, who they are with and when they should be expected back.
• Teach your children to say ‘no’ and follow their gut instincts.

“Kids need to know from early on that they have the right to say ‘no,'” explained Arcamone.

“They can say no, and then they should tell a trustworthy adult about what just happened.”

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For more information, Arcamone invites readers to visit the Missing Children’s Network website.