What sort of activities will your child be participating in while they are abroad? Is it a working vacation or simply recreational? How skilled are they in the activities they’ll be doing? Is your child a first time skier going to a world class mountain? Are they a poor swimmer going on a scuba vacation? Are they completely inept with a hammer but going to build houses in Honduras? What is the legal drinking age where they are going? If they are of an age to drink there, what experience do they have with alcohol? Be sure to talk to them about date rape drugs, how they are used and how they can protect themselves. Date rape drugs have become very sophisticated, easy to acquire and even easier to use. Simply allowing another person to bring a drink from a bar to a table four steps away is enough time to drop a date rape drug into that drink and have it be undetectable by the time it arrives at the table. Leaving a drink unattended while going out on a dance floor to dance one dance is long enough for somebody to slip something into that drink and make it deadly. Explain to your child how important it is that they never take off on their own and always have a friend or chaperone with them (and by friends, we don’t mean newly made friends in the host country). Many foreign countries have less than honorable police, politicians and military. Attractive young Americans can literally be sold into slavery overnight. Children of wealthy Americans can easily be snatched for ransom by desperate foreigners anxious to make a large amount of money quickly. Young women and men can easily be snatched, raped and murdered before their parents even know they’ve gone missing. These are very real risks when traveling abroad. Ensure that you explain this to your child so that they understand the absolute necessity of always having a friend or chaperone with them.