The rising awareness of crimes against children, and of missing children in particular, has left many families feeling vulnerable. As a society, our efforts to prevent crimes against children have not kept pace with the increasing vulnerability of our youngest citizens.

Children and teenagers get a lot of benefit from being online on the internet, but they can also be targets of crime and exploitation. Children and teenagers need parental supervision and common sense advice on how to be sure that their experiences in cyberspace are happy, healthy, and productive.

It's painful to watch the mistreatment of a child in public. It makes one wonder what may be happening to a child in the privacy of the family's home.

Witnessing domestic violence can be very traumatic for a child. Children that witness or are victims of abuse are more likely to have abusive relationships when they grow up.

Drowning is one of the most prominent causes of accidental death for children under the age of four in the united states. You can lower the risk of childhood drowning by taking these preventive measures.

The emotional abuse of a child can result in impaired psychological growth and development. Forms of emotional abuse include verbal abuse or excessive demands on a child's performance and usually results in a negative self-image on the part of the child and disturbed child behavior.

Exposure to guns and access to a loaded firearm increase the risk of unintentional firearm-related death and injury to children. It's important to store your firearms safely in the home.

Children who witness violence in the home are more likely to become victims of abuse themselves. Many children will try to protect the parent, and may become a victim of violence themselves.

Neglect is a chronic or repeated failure to act in certain ways. Harm wrought by neglect is rarely traceable to a single specific moment. Instead, the harm resulting from neglect is an accumulated effect.

Many child kidnappings that take place in the united states are committed by a parent or other family member. When a non-custodial parent has taken a child, it's referred to as 'parental kidnapping.

In some states, if you have reason to suspect that a child may be the victim of neglect, physical or sexual abuse or threatened harm, you're legally obligated to report the case for further investigation to the state child abuse hotline.

Shaken baby syndrome occurs when a young child's head is snapped back and forth during shaking. It occurs most frequently in infants younger than six months of age, yet can occur up to the age of two.

Non-accidental and inflicted injury to a child may include severe beatings, burns, bone fractures, strangulation or human bites. These injuries may be unexplained or the explanation offered is inconsistent with the injury.