Talking to kids about Cleo Smith

Much of Australia anxiously followed the news for updates about the disappearance of four-year-old Cleo Smith.

With the happy news this week that she had been located and quickly reunited with her family, and the subsequent media coverage, you may have found your children asking questions about Cleo.

As educator and parenting expert Maggie Dent explains in the video below, what happened to Cleo was extremely rare and statistically extremely unlikely, so it’s best not to scare children. Maggie points out that statistically, children are more likely to be harmed at the hands of someone they know. She discusses how you can talk about protective behaviours in the video.

We’ve compiled these resources to help you talk to children about Cleo.