Safety Rules Every Child Should Know

A short list, with the age each rule can genuinely be understood rather than merely repeated. A rule a child can recite and cannot apply is not protection.

Getting lost

From about three: stay exactly where you are, or find a person who works here. The instruction to stay still is more useful than any description of who to approach, because a moving child and a searching adult can miss each other for a long time.

From about five: know their own full name, a parent's full name and a phone number. Practise it as a song or a rhythm; it survives panic better that way.

Who to approach: somebody in a uniform, somebody behind a till, or a woman with children. Not the first adult who offers. This is worth teaching as a preference order rather than a rule about strangers.

Roads

From three: hold a hand or the buggy near a road, every time, no negotiation.

From five: stop at the kerb, look and listen, cross with an adult. They can lead the routine while you stay with them.

From eight or nine: some children can cross quiet roads alone. Judging the speed of an approaching car is a skill that is genuinely not mature until around ten, which is the reason the age is later than it feels.

Water

Any age: never near water without an adult who is watching, not one who is nearby. Drowning is fast and almost silent, which is not intuitive.

From about four: swimming lessons, and the rule that they ask before going in.

People

From three: the body and secrets rules. Your body is yours, private parts are private, no adult asks a child to keep a secret from their parents, and you will never be in trouble for telling.

From five: the safe adults list, including one outside the household.

Note what is absent: stranger danger. Most harm comes from somebody known, and the stranger framing points a child's attention in the wrong direction while making the world frightening.

Home

From five: how to call emergency services, what to say, and the address. Practise it.

From six or seven: what to do if there is a fire. Get out, stay out, do not fetch anything.

Medicines and cleaning products: never taken or touched without an adult, whatever they look like.

How to teach any of it

Rehearse rather than lecture. Walk to the corner and practise the crossing routine. Ask what they would do if they turned round in the shop and you were gone. Do it calmly and repeatedly, in ordinary moments.

A rule that has been practised is available under stress. A rule that has only been explained usually is not.