Children are an integral part when planning for a home's security, especially when they are at home alone or during weekend or holiday periods.

Many home burglaries or hold-ups occur because children haven't been told not to allow unannounced visitors onto the property, or they haven't been taught how to use the panic button.

"These are two of the most common ways unwanted visitors gain access to a property," said Stefan Oberholtzer, group managing director of Chubb Security Southern Africa.

"With many dual-income households, children commonly spend more time on a property on their own without their parents, and yet often they are forgotten when home security planning is concerned."

"Children should be taught how to answer a telephone or gate intercom without betraying the fact that they are alone. Rather than acknowledging that their parents are away from the property, they should say that the required person is not available and ask the caller to leave a message. On no account should a visitor be allowed onto the property unannounced or without their parents' permission," says Oberholtzer.

Advise your children never to be cajoled into going to the property's gate to investigate an unannounced visitor.

Make sure your children know the location of your panic buttons, and more importantly, how to use them. If you have decided to invest in remote panic buttons, make sure your children have one at their disposal.

An easily accessible list of emergency contact numbers such as your and your spouse's work and cell phone numbers as well as those of the immediate neighbours, your security company, the police and other emergency services, such as the Fire Department, should be left near the home's main phone.

Most children have cell phones – put these numbers onto their phones and if they have the facility, show your children how to use the speed dial facility on their phone.

It is advisable and indeed necessary to frequently test any fixed or mobile panic buttons, but please advise your Monitoring Centre first. False alarms cost lives and to do this as a means of testing response times could cost a person their life.

However, remember when testing your alarm system or panic buttons to follow the following simple procedure:

- Contact your local Monitoring Centre and inform them that you are testing your alarm system
- Confirm with the Monitoring Centre that it has received your alarm signal
- Finally confirm with the Monitoring Centre that your alarm system is off testing mode
- It is preferable to test your alarm system between 09:00 and 15:00 on weekdays

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