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Call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)
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Enlist the help of family and friends
Keep records of all contacts
If you suspect a family member is involved in the
disappearance, get legal custody if you do not already have
it.
Please help us help them get home.
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This site is dedicated to all the innocents.
Some people may never realize what a precious gift our
children are. Others may never know the joy of watching a child
learn, grow and develop. Hopefully, few will know the pain of
loosing a child needlessly.
We want your help to keep all children safe and to guide home
the lost ones.
Please do what you can to further this cause.
Tell Show your children that you love them…
often!
Teach your children how to be safe from strangers.
Encourage your Civic Leaders to enact tougher laws.
Form a neighborhood watch group.
To find data on registered sex offenders on your area,
>>click here<<.
American Justice
U.S. Supreme Court rules against convicted sex
offenders.
Washington D.C. -- The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, March
5, 2003, that photos of convicted sex offenders may be posted on
the Internet, a victory for states that use the Web to warn
citizens about potential predators in their neighborhoods.
In a separate ruling, the court turned back a challenge from
sex offenders who argued they deserved a chance to prove they
aren't dangerous to avoid having their pictures and addresses
put on the Internet.
The decisions came in the Supreme Court's first review of
what are known as Megan's laws. They have far-reaching
implications because every state and the federal government have
sex-offender registry statutes.
The laws are named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey
girl kidnapped, raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex
criminal who lived in her neighborhood.
The Supreme Court cases, from Alaska and Connecticut,
required justices to balance the rights of offenders with the
public safety interest in keeping tabs on people who may commit
more sex crimes.
The court came down on the side of public safety in both
cases, but left the door open for future constitutional
challenges.
By a 6-3 vote, justices rejected arguments by two Alaska sex
offenders who contended they already served time for sex crimes
before the Alaska registration law was passed and were punished a
second time with the registry. The Alaska law requires convicts
to give police personal information four times a year or risk
more prison time.
The government had argued that it was not burdensome for
offenders to report to police every 90 days to provide
information, including their addresses, and to have their
pictures taken, because all people have to fill out paperwork in
government office to vote, register a car or get married.
Justice Anthony Kennedy agreed the law is not punitive.
"Our system does not treat dissemination of truthful
information in furtherance of a legitimate governmental objection
as punishment," he wrote for the majority. "The purpose
and the principal effect of notification are to inform the public
for its own safety, not to humiliate the offender."
In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that
"however plain it may be that a former sex offender
currently poses no threat of recidivism, he will remain subject
to long-term monitoring and inescapable humiliation." Also
opposing the court's ruling were Justices John Paul Stevens
and Stephen Breyer.
Information about sex offenders is available online in about
three dozen states.
The court also ruled 9-0 that Connecticut did not have to
hold separate hearings to determine the risk posed by sex
criminals who have completed their prison sentences before
putting them in a registry. But Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist, writing that decision, said the case did not give the
court the appropriate avenue to decide whether Connecticut's
law violates substantive due process rights.
"The court has made a very powerful and compelling
statement about the need for objective, accurate information
being as available as possible," Connecticut Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal said.
Justice David Souter noted in a separate opinion that the
court's decision does not affect future constitutional
challenges to Megan's laws.
Stevens said that in both rulings his colleagues "fail
to decide whether the statutes deprive the registrants of a
constitutionally protected interest in liberty."
The cases are Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. John
Doe, 01-1231, and Otte v. Doe, 01-729.
As a computer technician, I know what perils
the Internet can hold for a child, and as a soon-to-be-father I
am quite worried. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who
feels this way about the Internet and how it relates to children.
The Internet Content Rating Association has made a great open
source tool to help parents combat Internet nasties like
pornography and chat room pedophiles. The tool I am talking about
is ICRAfilter. This program will allow you to set up filtering
rules related to nudity, language, violence, and chat. There is
even a set of rules titled "Other" to deal with
alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and gambling. In the Services section,
you can block and allow specific services like newsgroups,
e-mail, and IRC. If you are afraid that you are missing harmful
Web sites in a specific area (e.g., tobacco) then try the
Templates tab where you can add content-specific filtering
templates. My only problem with this application is that for some
reason it thinks Lockergnome.com is a harmful Web site (as if!?)
and that brings me to the last feature I would like to highlight:
the Lists tab. In here, you can add specific Web sites to the
"Allow" and "Block" lists. This will ensure
that your child can check out Web sites (like Lockergnome) while
keeping them from viewing those Internet nasties. My child may
not be born yet, but I am prepared with ICRAfilter!
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