The Protect Our Children Act
I Tivo the Oprah show and usually watch the shows that interest me when I work out. Yesterday, I watched probably the most difficult episode ever and I wanted to delete it after the first few minutes and not watch because it was so horrific and upsetting. But I didn’t, I made myself watch it to learn what I could do to help stop such heinous acts from repeatedly occurring.
The show was all about pedophiles in America called “Fighting Internet Predators.” It is unbelievable how many there are online (over half a million) and how they network with each other everyday and what they do. Oprah was very explicit in this show, no sugar coating at all. The experts interviewed on the show that work with tracking these men online, seeing the videos and dealing with the abused children -some of who are just INFANTS – well these people said they even need some therapy to deal with all the horribleness they have to witness everyday at their jobs. One man , Flint Waters of the Wyoming Internet Sex Crimes Against Children Task Force created software that is able to track the men who are sending out the images (whether videos or photos) to their homes and go in and arrest them. The problem they are having is they are underfunded so there is not enough police to assign to jobs like this. He said when he goes home at night, the unfinished work on his desk are innocent children that will still be raped by these men and probably that night, too. He has trouble with that everyday. I’m sure some women are involved as well but this show didn’t focus on that.
They said that it’s such a big market for these addicts that they are now going into filming live, on demand videos of the rapes happening and it’s becoming increasingly more brutal. One expert said you would hear the little girls giggling from the man tickling and playing and then she’d start screaming from the pain of the rape &/or torture. Some of the perps were the fathers, a close relative, family friends, the child’s friend’s father or a coach or teacher. Only a very small percentage were stranger abductions.
There are now instruction manuals these pedophiles put out teaching the men on how to groom both the family as well as the child you want to molest to get away with it and “desensitize” them. One part Oprah read said to use the pacifier for the under 2 year olds or a pencil for the 3-5 year olds and have them try to draw or write with it in them to make it go in further. There are also animated and cartoon videos using familiar characters produced by the child predators to show to the kids to teach them about molestation and “keeping it a secret.”
Needless to say, I was horrified and angry and bawling my eyes out. I want to do as much as I can to help save these kids from being subjected to further abuse and torture for no other reason than for mentally sick men to get off on.
Here is what we all can do right now to help these innocent victims – contact our senators who will be voting on this act on September 26th, 2008. We don’t have much time so please call both of your senators and just ask them to vote “YES” on passing Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act. We can also spread this message to everyone we know to help get this act passed and stop these brutal attacks on children.
Here is some more info from Oprah.com about this Act:
The PROTECT Our Children Act will:
- Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.
- Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.
- Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.
Act Now!
Your U.S. senators will be voting on the bill soon, so it is crucial you contact them immediately.
Go to www.senate.gov to find contact information for the senators in your state. Search for your senator by name or state by clicking on the arrow from either dropdown menu. Contact information is provided here. To send an e-mail, click on “Web Form” below his or her name, and e-mail your letter to make a difference!
Call Your Senators
If you choose to contact your senators by phone, be sure to tell them, “Vote yes on Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act.”
Write to Your Senators
If you choose to write a letter, fax, telegram or e-mail, you may use the following sample letter—and modify it how you see fit.
Dear Senator:
I know that you believe, like I do, that we must do everything possible to protect children from sexual predators. That is why I am asking for your help.
Last year alone, U.S. law enforcement identified over 300,000 criminals who were trafficking in movies and pictures of young children being raped and tortured. Experts say that one in every three of these criminals has local child victims. Child pornography trafficking over the Internet has given us a trail of evidence that leads straight to their doorsteps, but the vast majority of these children will never be rescued because investigators are overwhelmed, outnumbered and underfunded.
As your constituent, I urge you to do everything in your power to pass the PROTECT Our Children Act (S. 1738, Biden-Hatch). This bipartisan legislation passed the House 415-2, but it is now the victim of petty partisan politics.
Now that we know where these children are and how to protect them, there is no excuse for the Senate to fail to take action this session.
(Your name here)
Instructions for How to Copy and Paste the Letter
To copy and paste the letter into your senator’s web form at www.senate.gov, point your mouse arrow at the beginning of the text that you want to copy. Click your left mouse button and hold it down. While holding the left mouse button, drag your arrow to the end of the text that you want to copy. Release the button. The text should be highlighted. Place your mouse arrow over the highlighted text, click your right mouse button once and let go. A new menu should appear. Select Copy from the drop down menu. When you get to the message form field for your senator at www.senate.gov, point your arrow at the beginning of the message field that you want to copy your text to and right click with your mouse. Click Paste from this menu. Submit your form and help our children!
September 16 2008 04:18 pm | activism and government and news and parenting and political and society and special events
September 18th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Horrible!! These child porn cases were a lot of what T was doing when he was having that terrible, insane time at work. You need to go through all of it and “certify” that the victim is under 14. There used to be so little child porn that there was a database of “knowns” so you could go match your victim w/ the database and have their age certified. The child porn industry has exploded so that there are now so many victims out there that they can no longer certify “knowns.” So now prosecutors are left to figure it out themselves. It’s hard to be a husband, lover or father when you see these things at work – and that’s just collateral damage, not what the poor victims experience. It’s so awful on SO many levels.
And you’re right, the vast, vast majority of perps are relatives or friends of the family. Not strangers.
OK, off to do what small thing I can!
September 19th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Nicole,
We are lucky to have such good people like your husband who will fight to help save these poor kids. This is why it’s so important for us all to call our senators right now to pressure them to pass this Act that will help fund the technology in place and add some law enforcement to arrest these criminals.
I can only hope that what they experience in prison will be worse than what they have been inflicting on these small, innocent children.