SOCIAL workers interviewed have urged parents to build a strong bond with their children right from the start.

Take time to understand them and their emotional needs, they added. Only then will children open up and share what is really going on in their lives.

Mrs Wong Cher Meng, centre director of Students Care Service in Clementi, said: 'You check on your children only when you don't know them. Then, you have to ask yourself, what has gone wrong that my child is not sharing with me what's happening in his life.'

Besides, with all the anonymity on the Internet, checking on your children can be very tough, counsellors added.

Mr Alfred Tan, executive director of the Singapore Children's Society, urged parents to take sex education into their own hands, instead of waiting for schools to do the job.

'When children reach puberty, parents should really take some time to talk to them about friendship, sex and such issues, and to set boundaries on what they can and cannot do,' he said.

'Young children have no idea about consequences...They are also more willing to listen to you as a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old, rather than when they are 16 or 17.'

THERESA TAN

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 15 Dec, 2008.