Parents need to learn to trust their children's instincts about their own safety, a leading Australian Federal Police officer has said, on the day dedicated to remembering Daniel Morcombe.
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Mother Teresa Primary School in Harrison was the final stop on the Daniel Morcombe Foundation and the AFP's joint schools safety tour last week, which coincided with A Day For Daniel.
More than 4000 students from 30 primary schools learnt how to recognise, react to and report danger over the past two weeks.
But Australian Federal Police's acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Sheehan said it was also up to mums and dads to recognise if something isn't right.
"We've got to be honest and say the reason why we have to run these types of programs is unfortunately because there are some members of our community who are predators and who do prey on young children, both in public places and online," acting Assistant Commissioner Sheehan said.
As a society we kind of train ourselves to not trust our instincts, to question whether we feel safe or not – 99.9 per cent of the time if your instincts are telling you it's not right, it's probably not right and you should do something about it.
"Mums and dads have really busy schedules and not a lot of spare time but if you notice changes in [your kids] behaviour, if they try to pull you aside to have a conversation about these types of things, it pays to listen. What we don't want happening is tragedies like Daniel Morcombe ever occurring again."
Leader of AFP's cyber and child safety team, Rosie Garland said part of their presentation taught children how to recognise their "body clues" that tells them they're in danger.
As a result, Mother Teresa Primary School assistant principal Craig Hart said students now felt "empowered".
"I think it's really important that children understand that when they do have those instincts, whether it's the butterflies in the stomach, the sweaty palms or just a feeling that things aren't right, that they're able to utilise those skills that we learnt today to get themselves out of that tricky situation," Mr Hart said.
Eleven-year-old Brodi McCullough said he would "scream and run" if he felt he was in danger.
Stefani Ujdur, 11, agreed.
"It's one of the most vital things kids should learn in their lives," Stefani said.
Friday October 28 was the 12th annual Day For Daniel, a national day of action to raise awareness of child safety, protection and harm prevention.
