Safety rules for kids work best when they are short, calm and practised often: hold hands on the road, stay away from fire, and "my body belongs to me". This page gives your child 17 picture cards in Hindi and English to sort into safe and not safe, and gives you clear, age-right words for road, home, fire, water and body safety. It is for children of about 3 to 6, with a grown-up sitting beside them.
Nothing on this page is meant to frighten. There are no villains and no scary pictures. Every card ends with the safe action and a warm grown-up who helps.
The safety rules in this game
Here is what your child sees and hears. These 12 simple safety rules make a good first list:
- Hold a grown-up's hand on the road. सड़क पर किसी बड़े का हाथ पकड़ो।
- Cross at the zebra crossing with a grown-up.
- Stay away from fire. आग से दूर रहो।
- Keep fingers away from sockets.
- Wear your seat belt in the car.
- Wear a helmet on a scooter or bike.
- Don't go anywhere with someone you don't know without your trusted grown-up.
- My body belongs to me. Say no, and tell a trusted grown-up. मेरा शरीर मेरा है। 'ना' बोलो और भरोसेमंद बड़े को बताओ।
- If something feels wrong, tell a trusted grown-up.
- If you get lost, stay where you are and ask a police officer or shopkeeper for help.
- Take medicine only from a grown-up.
- Ask a grown-up for scissors and knives.
The five "not safe" cards are running onto the road, playing with matches or candles, poking things into a socket, climbing on windows or balcony railings, and keeping a secret that makes you feel yucky. After each one, Golu says what to do instead.
How to play the safety game
- Good or not? Your child hears a card and taps 👍 or 👎. If they tap the other button, the game says "Let us think again" and explains, gently. It never says "wrong".
- Listen: shows only the safe rules. Tap each to hear it. Start here with 3 year olds.
Each round ends with a marble in the Goli Jar. Use 🔊 to hear a card again, and the अ+A button to choose Hindi, English or both, so you can practise safety rules for kids in Hindi and English. Please play this one together; your voice and your calm matter more than the game.
Body safety: "my body belongs to me"
Many parents search for "good touch bad touch". Child-protection programmes now often prefer the words safe touch and unsafe touch (or "OK and not-OK touch"), because a touch that is wrong can sometimes feel nice or confusing, and children should not have to decide if it is "bad". What matters is the rule, and who they tell.
What to teach, in words a 4 to 6 year old understands
- My body belongs to me. I can say no to a hug or a kiss, even from someone I love, and that's okay.
- Private parts are the parts covered by underwear or a swimsuit. No one should touch them or ask to see them, except a parent helping you wash or a doctor with your grown-up there.
- Surprises are fine; secrets about touching are not. A birthday surprise gets told soon. A secret that makes you feel yucky or confused must be told.
- Tell a trusted grown-up, and keep telling until someone helps.
- It is never your fault.
Help your child name three trusted grown-ups, for example Mummy, Papa and Nani, or a teacher. Trace their hand on paper and write one name on three of the fingers. Whether you use the correct names for body parts or your family's own words is your choice; many experts recommend correct names because they help children tell clearly. Our body parts names page is a gentle way to start.
Avoid "stranger danger". Most harm to children comes from people they know, and a lost child may need to ask a stranger for help. Teach instead: never go anywhere with anyone, known or unknown, without checking with your trusted grown-up first, and if you are lost, ask a mother with children, a shopkeeper at the counter or a police officer.
Good touch bad touch for girls and for boys is exactly the same lesson: every child, of any gender, owns their body.
The difference between good touch and bad touch, with examples
| Safe touch (good touch) | Unsafe touch (bad touch) |
|---|---|
| A hug from Nani that your child wants | Anyone touching the private parts covered by underwear |
| A high five with a friend | A touch that comes with "don't tell anyone" |
| A parent helping with a bath | A touch that makes your child feel scared, yucky or confused |
| A doctor's check, with a parent in the room | Being asked to look at or touch someone else's private parts |
For kids in Hindi-speaking homes, good touch and bad touch can be taught as "सुरक्षित छूना" (safe touch) and "असुरक्षित छूना" (unsafe touch), and the key sentence is "मेरा शरीर मेरा है". The same good touch bad touch lesson in English works well for students in nursery, kindergarten and class 1. How do children learn it? The same way they learn road rules: short, calm, and repeated many times.
Good touch bad touch activities for kids at home and in school
A simple good touch bad touch activity for kids: draw an outline of a child, colour the swimsuit area, and talk about why that part is private. For a good touch bad touch chart for school, a poster drawing of a hand with three trusted names on it is an easy drawing for small children to make. Read a good touch bad touch book together, pause, and ask, "What should she do? Who can she tell?" A short good touch bad touch song, such as "My body is mine, from my head to my toes", helps the words stick. Teachers can turn a good touch bad touch activity in school into worksheets for kindergarten or a board decoration. Keep all good touch and bad touch images calm, with no scary pictures.
If your child tells you something worrying
Stay calm and listen. Let your child tell it in their own words, and believe them. Say, "Thank you for telling me. It's not your fault. I will help keep you safe." Don't ask lots of questions, don't promise to keep it secret, and don't confront the person in front of your child. In India, call Childline 1098 (free, 24 hours) or 112 in an emergency, and talk to your child's doctor. Outside India, contact your local child-protection helpline.
Road safety rules for kids
For children under 6, road safety means one thing above all: a grown-up's hand. Young children cannot yet judge the speed of a car or bike, and they are hard for drivers to see.
- Stop, look, listen, hold hands before crossing, always with a grown-up.
- Cross at the zebra crossing. Learn the traffic-light colours: red means stop, green means go (with a grown-up).
- In the car, sit in a child seat or wear the seat belt, every trip, even short ones.
- On a scooter or bike, wear a helmet that fits.
- In the bus or auto, sit down, hold on, and keep hands and head inside.
- In the playground, wait your turn at the slide and don't climb where grown-ups can't reach.
The same safety rules apply in the car, in the bus, in the playground and while travelling: sit, strap in, hold on. These road safety rules also make a chart for the wall, or ten lines for class 1 and class 2 homework. Practise on real walks: at every kerb, stop and say the words together. Our vehicles name page helps children name what they see on the road.
Safety rules at home: fire, kitchen, water and medicine
| Where | Rule for your child | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | "Hot! Don't touch." Stay away from the stove, iron, pressure cooker and hot chai. | Turn pot handles inward; keep knives and matches up high |
| Fire | If there is fire or smoke, get out, don't hide, and tell a grown-up. | Practise the way out of your home together |
| Electricity | Fingers away from sockets; no switches with wet hands. | Use socket covers |
| Water | Never go near a pond, well, tank or bucket of water without a grown-up. | Empty buckets; stay within arm's reach at pools and beaches |
| Windows | No climbing on windows or balcony railings. | Move furniture away from windows |
| Medicine | Medicine is not a sweet; only a grown-up gives it. | Lock medicines and cleaning liquids away |
These 10 safety rules at home keep a child safe from the most common home accidents. At Diwali, keep children well back from diyas and crackers, let a grown-up light them, and dress children in cotton rather than loose synthetic clothes. Keep a bucket of water or sand nearby.
How to teach kids safety rules at each age
How do you explain safety to a child without making them anxious? Keep it practical, repeat it often, and practise it in play, like a fire drill with teddy.
- 2-3 years: you do the keeping safe. Teach "Hot!", "Stop!" and holding hands with songs and stop-go games. Medicines are not sweets.
- 3-4 years: stop, look, listen, hold hands; hot and sharp things; water only with a grown-up; stay close in crowds and markets; know my own name and my grown-up's name.
- 4-6 years: my body belongs to me; three trusted grown-ups; what to do if lost; learn a grown-up's phone number as a little song; fire: get out and tell.
What safety rules we should follow at home and in school
At home the safety rules are about hot, sharp, high and wet places, as in the table above. The rules at school add a few more: stay with your class, line up with the teacher, go to the toilet with a buddy or teacher, only leave school with a grown-up your family has named, and sit down in the school bus. Going back to school after the holidays is a good time to repeat these safety tips for kids. They also make a good project, or ten easy lines to write in class 1 or class 2.
Online safety rules for kids
Even preschoolers tap on phones. Three safety tips for kids online: ask a grown-up before tapping anything new; never tell anyone online your name, home or school; and if something on a screen feels scary or yucky, tell a grown-up. This site has no chat, no ads and no sign-up, so there is nothing for your child to share here.
Safety activities, charts and printing
There is no PDF or worksheet file, but you can print this page from your browser and use the lists above as a safety rules chart with pictures for your child's wall or a class project. Ideas for home or class 1 and class 2:
- Safe or not safe sorting: draw simple pictures (a hand holding a hand, a hot pan) and sort them into two boxes.
- Safety drawing and poster: ask your child to draw one safety rule, such as a family crossing at the zebra crossing, and make it into a poster for the door. Children remember rules they have drawn with their own images.
- Fun quiz and song: the game above is a safety tips game with no wrong answers; afterwards, ask your child to quiz you. Make up a safety rules song for the road: "Stop, look, listen, hold my hand."
- Online safety poster: draw a phone with three rules on it: ask first, keep your name private, tell a grown-up.
- "What would you do?" game: "You can't see Mummy in the shop. What do you do?" Let your child answer, then practise it.
- Trusted grown-ups hand: trace a hand and write names on the fingers, as described above.
- Phone number song: sing a grown-up's number to a tune your child knows. Keep it on paper, never type it into any app.
For children who are anxious, autistic or have speech delays, go slowly, use the same few words each time, and practise in calm moments, never right after a scare. Short sessions, with you beside them, work best; under-2s are better off with your hand and your voice than with a screen. For feelings words like "yucky" and "scared", try emotions for kids, and for everyday routines, good habits for kids. Our community helpers page shows police officers and doctors as people who help.
