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Laws Protecting Our Children --

Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006

Six year old Adam Walsh wa abducted from a Hollywood, Flordia shopping mall and was found murdered 16 days after his abduction. To date noone has been charged with Adam's murder. Adam was the son of John and Reve Walsh, who are te co-founders of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

This legislation, H.R. 4472, named after Adam, was signed into law on the 25th anniversary of Adam' abduction. The law creates a national sex offender database or registry. It implements measures that were designed to help improve the tracking of sex offenders. This legislation also was written to help protect children against other crimes and sexual explotation.

The following are the main points of this important legislation:

A. If the sex offender does not comply with the registration requirements this law mandates that non-compliance is a felony offense.

B. A creation of a national public sex offender registry.

C. Sex offenders are required to confirm or verify their registration in person, not by mail, to law enforcement. In this way law enforcement can track when an offender moves more easily.

D. Law enforment must now handle reports of missing children in a different way. Reports must be entered within 2 hours in the FBI's National Crime Information Center. The report can not be removed even if the child turns 18 if the child has not be recovered.

E. Sex offenders are required to register before they are released from jail or three days after a sentence of probation.

F. Sex offenders can not take advantage of the registration requirements of different states, the legislation provided a consistency for these requirements.

G. Since child pornography and online exploitation of children is an ever growing problem, the law permits an increase in the number of Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces across the country.

*Megan's Law*

On May 17, 1996, President Clinton signed Megan's Law. Megan's Law requires the following two components: A. Notification of the Community -- Megan's Law permits discretion amongst states to set guidelines for disclosure of sex offenders. It requires the states to make personal and private information on registered sex offenders available to the general public. B. Sex Offender Registration -- The Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994 requires the states to register individuals who are convicted of sex crimes against children. In 1994 the public demanded community notification of sex offenders, after the rape and murder of seven year old Megan Kanka. AMBER Alert (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response)
AMBER Alert was created as a legacy to Amber Hagerman. Amber, a 9 year old girl, was abducted while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered. The AMBER Alert System was implemented by broadcasters and local police in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 1996. They developed an early warning system to help find abducted children. Between 1996 and 2010... AMBER Alert is a proven success and has helped rescue more than 532 children nationwide. More than 90 percent of those recoveries have occurred since AMBER Alert became a nationally coordinated effort in 2002. *COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998)*

The act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jurisdiction from children under 13 years of age. It details what a website operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardia n, and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy and safety online including restrictions on the marketing to those under 13. While children under 13 can legally give out personal information with their parents' permission, many websites altogether disallow underage children from using their services due to the amount of paperwork involved.

This is why Facebook, Myspace and other information gathering site do not allow any child under the age of 13 on their sites.