love of local in Utah
Help Pass Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act
From Oprah.com
Hundreds of thousands of children are victims of sexual abuse each year. Due to the sheer lack of resources, law enforcement is unable to follow up on the majority of leads they have.
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!
- Warn your children about potentially dangerous people who may try to befriend them online.
- Keep the computer in a public space in your house, not your child’s bedroom.
- Don’t allow children to use a screen name profile or to give out personal information online.
- Use parental controls provided by your service provider or blocking software.
- Monitor all chat room usage.
- Insist children never agree to meet someone they’ve met online without your permission.
Types of Children Sexual Predators Target and Prey Upon
- Children with lower self-esteem
- Children who divulge too much personal information online
- Children who frequent chat rooms
- Children willing to engage in online conversations about sex
Signs Your Child Might Be at Risk Online
- Your child spends large amounts of time online, especially at night.
- You find pornography on your child’s computer.
- Your child receives phone calls from people you don’t know or is making calls to numbers you don’t recognize.
- Your child turns the computer off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.
- Your child becomes withdrawn from the family. Offenders try to drive wedges between a child and their family, trying to accentuate any minor problems at home a child may have.
- Your child is using an online account belonging to someone else. Sex offenders will sometimes provide potential victims with a computer account for communications with them.
If Your Child Is Approached by an Online Predator
Write down as much information as possible—including the screen name or e-mail address of the person who contacted the child, the URL of the chat room and the date and time of contact. Report the incident to the local police department or FBI.
In addition, you can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s cyber tipline at 800-THE-LOST. This tipline collects leads from individuals reporting the sexual exploitation of children.
