Home Security with Kids in Mind
What They Need to Know to Stay Safe
A big emphasis on home safety for kids is placed on education. But in many situations education alone doesn’t keep your kids secure and safe. They don’t have control over home invasion, weather hazards and in some cases even home safety hazards are out of their control. In situations like these it’s important you have safeguards in place, security devices and a warning system that can help kids get the help they need and fast.
Home security systems have become quite popular in recent years and for good reason—most let you subscribe to central alarm monitoring services that take the responsibility for notifying authorities out of your hands. Most basic systems at the very least include key anti-intrusion devices and detection systems, including window and door sensors, interior motion detectors and exterior signs warning of home security. But what further devices can help your children remain even safer from hazards beyond their control?
Home Security Devices that Help Protect Children
Since your home’s point of entries—doors and windows—pose the greatest threat to intrusion make sure you retrofit with tamperproof locking mechanisms. Some of the newest home security products let you keep kids safer:
- Video door phones are simple two-way devices that let your kids see who’s at the front or back door without the need to unlock it and open it.
- Your home’s security system may let you remotely monitor your family’s entries and exits and let you receive a text message via Internet connection when your kids arrive safely home from school if you’re not home yet.
- Video surveillance cameras can be used to monitor children’s play areas and nanny cams have become a popular tool for making sure domestic employees manage children appropriately.
- Have a gun or other firearms at home? Lock them up with a home gun safe. Don’t rely on education when it comes to gun safety.
Children and Home Security Systems
The advantage to a home security system is the available central monitoring that gives your family a reliable level of protection. But these systems require your children know how to use them in an emergency:
- Teach children how to manually activate fire, police and medical alerts on your security system main control panel or via remote keychains.
- Make sure they know the system password
- Teach them the panic password.
If you have a home security system and children are at home, the system can be useless unless children are acquainted with its devices and warning signals.