Learn to say 'no'

Today, the authorities have been trying to make every parent aware of the dangers of the internet and the social media.

They warn people to take care that their kids don't put pictures (especially nude ones) on the net. Because if you do, you don't have any control over that picture anymore. It can come back years later to haunt you and perhaps prevent you of getting a job.

It is important that kids are being taught about the dangers that lurk about. We don't live in a safe world - never have.

Also when I was young, there were dangers. Perhaps not the same dangers as there are nowadays, but still... As soon as we were able to understand, both parents and grandparents warned us never to accept candy (or anything else) from people we did not know. We were taught a natural distrust of anything that was out of order. We also got to know how to react if anything should happen. It has saved me from a pretty unsavoury situation when I was about 19. A man on the train (we were quite alone in the carriage) tried to rape me. If I had not known what to do and how to react, I would have been a victim. My dad had always told me to go and sit where the alarm button was. So when this man tried to put his hands on me, I got up and reached for that alarm. I told him to go, or I would pull it. He saw that I meant what I said, and went.

So you see, it's very important to learn how to say 'no'!