KIDS and PROTECT Acts Signed into Law
Bush is grasping at straws and doing whatever he can to try and make himself look good and not the colossal calamity he has been for 8 years. Thanks to mounting pressure after the Oprah show from Americans across the country, Bush signed into law two Acts this Monday:
[From: S E N A T U S]
President Bush has signed the KIDS (Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators) Act into law. The bill is S. 431.
The bill provides for the following requirements, according to an official White House statement:
sex offenders to provide Internet identifiers, including e-mail addresses, to State sex offender registries; and tasks the Justice Department to establish and maintain a system that allows social networking websites to compare Internet identifiers of its users with those provided to the National Sex Offender Registry;
You can read the bill text here.
Additionally, the President also signed into law today the PROTECT (Providing Resources, Officers, and Technology To Eradicate Cyber Threats to Our Children) act. That bill is S. 1738. You can read the bill text here.
It requires “the Department of Justice to create and implement a National Strategy for Child Exploitation, Prevention, and Interdiction; statutorily establishes the existing Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program; and makes other amendments to Federal child pornography laws,” according to an official White House statement.
There has been a lot of buzz on the internet about how the law is bogus, it’s flawed and it clearly shows how out of touch our lawmakers are. On the contrary, it shows how short-sighted idiots on the Internet are and how gullible american parents are presumed to be.
Did you really think this was going to fix everything? Of course we know that the KIDS act relies on the honesty of predators. But NOW, if they DO lie, and are caught lying, they can be dealt with properly.
As you may or may not know, the system until now is flawed because a predator is able to be caught multiple times and released on probation or parole or with a small fine or minimal jail time. Now it makes it a federal offense for an RSO to be on a social network site, especially if using a fake name/profile. Don’t you see how good this is? No it won’t stop them from lying. Of course not! But now, when they are caught lying – they can REALLY be punished.
And thanks to PROTECT, law enforcement now gets the grants it needs ($320 million over the next 5 years) to inter-train and pursue these scumbags.
Of course, this isn’t going to solve anything in the short term. If the scumbags are going to get back on the social networks, they will be able to play until (if ever) caught. Some argue that the passing of these laws will give parents a false sense of security. I really hope not.
Fortunately there is some security. Parents can do their part in the home by utilizing computer monitoring software like PC Pandora. Our software will give you a visual record of everything your child does online. If they are talking to strangers, you will know. What better security can you get than knowledge!?
