What is personal safety?
Personal safety means protecting yourself from harm: from people who want to hurt or use you, from accidents, and from big dangers like fires, floods or war.
- Risk = how likely harm is × how bad it would be.
- Most harm can be avoided by noticing early signs and having a plan.
- Your circle of trust: parents, a teacher, a school counsellor, a relative, a doctor. Choose 3–5 people.
Modern dangers include online scams, cyberbullying, fake news, terror attacks and armed conflict. The state keeps the country safe (national security); you keep yourself and others safe with simple habits.
Abuse, grooming, coercion and exploitation
Abuse is when someone hurts a person on purpose: physically, emotionally, sexually, or by neglect.
Grooming means slowly building trust to abuse or use a young person later. Warning signs:
- gifts, money or game credits for no reason;
- 'you are special, only I understand you';
- asking for photos or to move to a private app;
- 'keep it secret'.
Coercion = pressure or threats to make you do something. Exploitation = using someone for money, sex, crime or work. Consent means a free, clear 'yes' that can be taken back any time; no consent if there is pressure, fear or the person is too young.
Seeking help
Use NO – GO – TELL. Keep evidence (screenshots). Tell a trusted adult, a child helpline (for example 1098 in India, 116 111 in Europe) or the police. It is never the child's fault.
Emergencies: calling for help and first steps
In most of Europe and many countries the emergency number is 112 (India also uses 112). When you call:
- Where – address or landmark.
- What – fire, accident, someone not breathing.
- How many people hurt.
- Stay on the line until told to hang up.
First check the scene is safe for you. Then help: recovery position for an unconscious person who breathes, press on heavy bleeding, cool a burn under running water for 20 minutes. Fire: crawl low under smoke, never use a lift. Lost in a crowd: stay in one place and ask staff in uniform.
Danger in wartime and disasters
- Air alert or shelling: go to the nearest shelter or basement. If caught outside, drop flat in a ditch or behind a strong object, cover your head. Indoors, use the 'two walls rule': stay where two walls separate you from the street, away from windows.
- Chemical danger: go inside and up high, close windows, wet cloth over nose and mouth. Radiation: go inside, close windows, follow official alerts; less time, more distance, more shielding.
- Explosive objects: mines and unexploded shells can look like toys, cans or pens. Do not touch, step back along your own path, warn others, report.
- Trapped under rubble: cover mouth from dust, do not shout all the time (save air), knock on a pipe or wall, use a phone light.
Key formulas and definitions
- NO – GO – TELL: say no, get away, tell a trusted adult
- Grooming signs: gifts + flattery + secrets + moving to private chat
- Call 112: Where? What? How many? Stay on the line
- Two walls rule: two walls between you and the street during shelling
- Unknown object: don't touch → step back → warn → report
- Consent: free, clear, can be taken back any time
Worked examples
1. A 19-year-old you met in a game sends you game credits and then asks you to move to a private app and send a photo. What is happening and what do you do?
These are grooming signs: gifts, secrecy, moving to private chat, asking for photos. Do not send anything. Screenshot the chat, block and report the account, and tell a trusted adult.
2. You smell smoke at night and the corridor is full of smoke. List your steps.
Shout to wake others, feel the door (hot = do not open), crawl low under the smoke, use the stairs not the lift, go to the meeting point outside, then call 112 and say where, what and how many.
3. During an air alert you are on the street and there is no shelter nearby. What should you do?
Drop flat in a ditch, kerb or behind a strong wall, lie face down, cover your head with your hands, keep your mouth slightly open, and move to a shelter when it is quiet.
Common mistakes
- Thinking abuse only comes from strangers. Most abusers are people the child knows.
- Keeping a 'secret' that makes you feel bad. Unsafe secrets must always be told.
- Hanging up the emergency call too early. Stay on the line until the operator says so.
- Picking up a strange metal object to show an adult. Never touch it; tell the adult where it is.