Any scary kids club experiences??

[CGYCruisingFamily]

We have never had issues on ships.

 

Let me tell you one funny story though. On our last HAL cruise we had bought our kid new Crocs. Midway through the cruise the kids were in kids club and they got playing a game of find the shoe. Anyhow the kids had to hide a shoe somewhere in kids club and then find them. You would think this would be fine. Well the kid who hid my youngest sons croc couldn't remember where he hid it. They searched everywhere. Anyhow, they ended up calling in the security team (ironically headed by someone I knew vaguely from our home town) who ended up reviewing security cameras (which apparently are plentiful) and they found the kid had hid it on a bookshelf which actually had a empty space behind it where it fell. They found the croc after an exhausted search because security was called in.

 

Yes it was just a croc but what this showed me is that everything is monitored and with that knowledge I feel very safe and sure about entrusting the care if my kids to kids club.

 

 

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[Irish13]

Because I am the paranoid mom that I am I asked so many questions on all the cruises we have ever left our kids and I was told that there are more cameras in the kids areas than there are in the casinos ... Also I wouldn't leave my kid if they couldn't communicate with me because I want to be able to ask if they had fun ect... We are going on a cruise in Nov and it will be my 3yr olds first time time in the kids club and I know he is just gonna love it but I will be randomly just dropping by to check as I always do.

And yes it is a fact that kids are more likely to be molested, abused by someone they know my husband and I both work in the law enforcement field which is why I am am so paranoid because I know what can happen.

 

 

 

We have never had issues on ships.

 

Let me tell you one funny story though. On our last HAL cruise we had bought our kid new Crocs. Midway through the cruise the kids were in kids club and they got playing a game of find the shoe. Anyhow the kids had to hide a shoe somewhere in kids club and then find them. You would think this would be fine. Well the kid who hid my youngest sons croc couldn't remember where he hid it. They searched everywhere. Anyhow, they ended up calling in the security team (ironically headed by someone I knew vaguely from our home town) who ended up reviewing security cameras (which apparently are plentiful) and they found the kid had hid it on a bookshelf which actually had a empty space behind it where it fell. They found the croc after an exhausted search because security was called in.

 

Yes it was just a croc but what this showed me is that everything is monitored and with that knowledge I feel very safe and sure about entrusting the care if my kids to kids club.

 

 

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[ducklite]

This is an excellent point! I've told my daughter (she's 5) to look for a police officer or even another mommy if she's ever lost. On a cruise ship, I'll tell her to look for a crew member.

 

 

I would probably point out the uniforms of specific crew members to seek help from, and perhaps stress that she not go anywhere unless it's with a "lady" crew member or they are wearing a white uniform (officer). My personal opinion is that it sends mixed messages to children to tell them not to go anyplace with a stranger, but then to say it's OK to go with a random crew member.

 

I worked in a mall store a decade ago, and we had a child who was hanging around the store, and finally took a nap in a corner. We had all thought she belonged to a couple of women who had been shopping for over an hour, but they had left the store when we found her asleep. The mall security guy (who was creepy) came and tried to take the little girl out of the store by the hand, saying, "come on, we'll find your mommy." Wow, total Fail. We stopped him and wouldn't allow him to take her, instead telling him he needed to leave her where she was safe with four female "babysitters" and try to locate the mother otherwise. As that conversation was ensuing, the mother showed up. She had indeed dropped the five year old off to "play" while she shopped. I wanted police called, but it was creepy dudes call to make, and he declined. Yet another fail.

 

I think it's crucial to give clear messages that can't be confused to children when it comes to safeguarding them from predators. One thing I think the ships should do is adapt the "Safe Haven" principles. Have certain crew members who are specially screened, trained, and background checked have an easily recognizable emblem on their name tag or a separate tag to wear on their uniform. Children could be told not to go with anyone who isn't wearing the blue dog (or whatever) pin on their uniform, even if they get lost. Crew who weren't part if the "rescue" group finding a lost child could call for "blue dog assistance, deck three, starboard aft" or wherever, and a team member could respond and assist the child. Just a thought.

[dsrdsrdsr]

I think it's crucial to give clear messages that can't be confused to children when it comes to safeguarding them from predators. One thing I think the ships should do is adapt the "Safe Haven" principles. Have certain crew members who are specially screened, trained, and background checked have an easily recognizable emblem on their name tag or a separate tag to wear on their uniform.

You think they don't do background checks already? I should be surprised if they don't. It's not much of a selling point for a cruise line to say that they keep convicted child molesters away from the children's club - they're much more likely to check everyone and not let the convicted child molesters on board at all.

 

Don't place too much reliance on background checks. Every single child molester in history would have passed those tests. (Until they got caught.)

 

If you tell a child to find a group of two or more people,l they'll be safe. I know there are a lot of special interest cruises, but "child molester specials" aren't among them. The chances of finding a team of two or more child molesters on holiday anywhere in the world is negligible.

 

PS - while your mall guy may have been creepy, he wasn't a child molester. I don't work in law enforcement, but I'm sure thoise that do will confirm that people who abduct children don't do it while wearing uniform and a name badge in front of several witnesses.

Edited May 17, 2014 by dsrdsrdsr

[ducklite]

You think they don't do background checks already? I should be surprised if they don't. It's not much of a selling point for a cruise line to say that they keep convicted child molesters away from the children's club - they're much more likely to check everyone and not let the convicted child molesters on board at all.

 

 

 

Don't place too much reliance on background checks. Every single child molester in history would have passed those tests. (Until they got caught.)

 

 

 

If you tell a child to find a group of two or more people,l they'll be safe. I know there are a lot of special interest cruises, but "child molester specials" aren't among them. The chances of finding a team of two or more child molesters on holiday anywhere in the world is negligible.

 

 

 

PS - while your mall guy may have been creepy, he wasn't a child molester. I don't work in law enforcement, but I'm sure thoise that do will confirm that people who abduct children don't do it while wearing uniform and a name badge in front of several witnesses.

 

 

In some of the countries they recruit crew from, there is no database with that type of information available. If you think every crew member in a ship is screened to the level of say someone who works in a school in the US, you are kidding yourself.

 

My point with the mall guard was that he was reinforcing that it was OK to leave with an unknown male to "find mommy."

[dsrdsrdsr]

In some of the countries they recruit crew from, there is no database with that type of information available. If you think every crew member in a ship is screened to the level of say someone who works in a school in the US, you are kidding yourself.

 

My point with the mall guard was that he was reinforcing that it was OK to leave with an unknown male to "find mommy."

Well, it's swings and roundabouts, isn't it? I think you were right to do what you did. But to play devil's advocate, you were reinforcing the idea that no strange man can be trusted - not even men in uniform. We're wrong either way.

 

I suppose if all children's staff are US citizens, that'll be safer than employing foreigners in the sense that you can use US screening. But still not foolproof - they could have committed offences abroad; they could be using false names; they could be child molesters who've never been caught; they could be about to commit their first offence. Screening is a thin reed to lean on.

[Geldhart]

My son (8 at the time, now 10) got lost on the Freedom of the Seas, and I told him he did everything right --- he went to the the Flowrider and alerted the crew there. I was searching for him, when I walked into his cabin just as the phone rang telling me where he was.

 

I had to show my SeaPass card to the crew member, and was asked a few questions to prove that he was my son. Scary moment, but he handled himself well in a crisis. Why? Because he had practiced that exact drill a few times.

 

Our procedure for "lost kid is this"

 

*The person who is lost "hugs a tree". In malls they do not enter a store or leave a store. They only leave the "Tree" for safety reasons (don't stay in the parking lot, move to the entrance of a store for example).

*They look for someone in uniform from their "tree" and ask for help. We don't care if that person is male or female, but they are not to move from their tree (very far, they can go to a nearby bench) and they are to STAY in a public area.

*Currently my daughter (13) has a cell phone, my son does not. She is to take out her cell phone and text me exactly ONCE, then keep calling me. She is to keep calling until I answer the phone. During this protocol I DO NOT call her back to avoid us calling each other at the same time.

*If there is no cell phone, then of course, the helper can call me (both kids have my and my wife's numbers memorized).

 

On cruise ships, the protocol is slightly different, but essentially the same.

*Hug a tree OR return to the cabin (the tree can be a ship phone near the closest elevators).

*Request assistance from a crew member, but again, stay in the public areas.

*After 30 minutes, OR your check-in time, return to the cabin. Which ever is earlier.

[ducklite]

Well, it's swings and roundabouts, isn't it? I think you were right to do what you did. But to play devil's advocate, you were reinforcing the idea that no strange man can be trusted - not even men in uniform. We're wrong either way.

 

I suppose if all children's staff are US citizens, that'll be safer than employing foreigners in the sense that you can use US screening. But still not foolproof - they could have committed offences abroad; they could be using false names; they could be child molesters who've never been caught; they could be about to commit their first offence. Screening is a thin reed to lean on.

 

 

I worry more about the porters, dishwashers, maintenance men, servers, etc. From any number of countries where there is no way to screen them. Every recent incident between crew and passenger on a ship (the server who hid in the woman's cabin and attempted to murder her, the crew member on DCL that molested the little girl are the two most recent I can think of) has been from a third world nation where even basic background checks are simply not available. Kids club employees are always US, Canadian, Brit, Irish, Aussie, or Kiwi, where complete and thorough background checks are available. Not possible in remote villages in India, Africa, Indonesia, etc. where there sometimes isn't even reliable electricity, let alone a public records database on computer.

[cadien]

I worry more about the porters, dishwashers, maintenance men, servers, etc. From any number of countries where there is no way to screen them. Every recent incident between crew and passenger on a ship (the server who hid in the woman's cabin and attempted to murder her, the crew member on DCL that molested the little girl are the two most recent I can think of) has been from a third world nation where even basic background checks are simply not available. Kids club employees are always US, Canadian, Brit, Irish, Aussie, or Kiwi, where complete and thorough background checks are available. Not possible in remote villages in India, Africa, Indonesia, etc. where there sometimes isn't even reliable electricity, let alone a public records database on computer.

 

I'm fine with my own kid in the club, but I wouldn't over-generalize about the European kids club staff being safe.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9217354/Cunard-cruise-ship-worker-abused-children-in-his-care.html

[ducklite]

I'm fine with my own kid in the club, but I wouldn't over-generalize about the European kids club staff being safe.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9217354/Cunard-cruise-ship-worker-abused-children-in-his-care.html

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it can't happen regardless of how good the screening is, rather taht some countries simply have no facility in place to conduct the level of background checks that others do.

[Irish13]

This is the reason that I randomly show up just to check on my kids because they never know when I will just pop in.

 

I'm fine with my own kid in the club, but I wouldn't over-generalize about the European kids club staff being safe.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9217354/Cunard-cruise-ship-worker-abused-children-in-his-care.html