Protect Our Children

On Oprah today I saw a policeman who created a computer program to help law enforcement track child molesters online by the way they share pornographic videos via internet with other molesters. He says they are only able to actually pursue about 2% of their leads because they simply do not have the manpower and resources to get to the rest. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children had some workers discussing what they encounter online while tracking these transmissions and as horrific as you can imagine it was quite a bit worse. Apparently people even provide an "on demand" type feed where you can log on and actually request to view live action abuse of children. The policeman on the show said the youngest victim he viewed still had an umbilical cord stump. It's shockingly unbelievable what they do and how many there are. Even if you hate Oprah I know you disapprove of child molesting so go here and find the link to your senators and send a message (you can use the form letter that's already prepared and just copy & paste) and tell your Senator to pass this Senate Bill 1738 before the session ends 9/26/08. Don't dilly dally. The cop described it like this: imagine you have a row boat in a sea of sexually abused kids and you can only rescue who you can fit in your little row boat. But the rest are desperately waiting for you to come rescue them too. So this bill is supposed to help law enforcement make their row boat a little bigger. I have to say I have seen some pretty devastating things on Oprah but today's episode was the most shocking and frightening ever. This is a map that shows via red dots how quickly and how far an image travels via internet in one day.