PROTECTING CHILDREN

Today's news you can use:

Today Congress passed the "Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act," named for the 6-year-old whose kidnapping and murder touched off a nationwide campaign to track and punish child molesters. President Bush plans to sign it into law Thursday. I thought you should know what it will do:

• Establishes a national sex offender registry online. All 50 states now have them, but they are not coordinated, and they're not always up to date. This will be an Internet database available to the public and searchable by zip code, so you can see exactly who's living in your neighborhood. The bill creates penalties for convicted offenders who don't keep their information up to date. Shocking fact: According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 100-thousand convicted sex offenders are MISSING from existing databases!
• Establishes a federal DNA database for sex offenders. In many states, sex offenders are already required to give DNA samples. This bill makes that requirement a federal law. The samples will be entered in a national database to make it easier to compare cases and find or rule out suspects when a child has been harmed.
• Eliminates "electronic privacy" for sex offenders. They'd have to make computers and other data storage devices immediately available for search by police without a warrant at any time. I'm curious if the ACLU has or will weigh in on that.
• Establishes mandatory minimum sentences for a number of sex offenses involving children. For example, a minimum 30 years for rape of a child. Up to 20 years for selling date rape drugs online. Up to 20 years for using misleading words to lure children to pornographic web sites (remember WhiteHouse.com?) And 10 years for transporting children across state lines to molest them.

There are concerns about that last provision. Technically, an 18-year-old who lives in Maryland and takes his 17-year-old girlfriend to a friend's house in Virginia to have consensual sex with her, could get 10 years behind bars. Supporters say that's not the intent and prosecutors shouldn't use the law that way. But opponents are concerned. that it could happen, and that the punishment is way too harsh. As one lawmaker put it: "Prom season in the Maryland-DC-Virginia area could have nightmarish consequences."

Another concern: is this yet another law with no teeth? Though the penalties are harsh, the offenses to which they apply are generally state offenses, not federal crimes.

Finally, this is interesting: the bill provides federal money for states to run three-year pilot programs using GPS technology.

John Walsh, Adam's father and "America's Most Wanted" host, plans to be on hand when President Bush signs the bill Thursday.

Now let's hope they put it into action.

"T"