I am a father of a two and a half year old boy.  Like all parents, I am concerned about the safety of my Tommy.  While channel-surfing a few days ago, I came across re-runs of the Dateline series about sexual predators trying to have sex with children   What shocked me about these deviants were they were of all races and religion.  I was shocked at some of the “professions” represented by these pedophiles.  You truly would not know if your neighbor were a convicted sex offender. 

One of the things we can do as parents is to look up our neighborhoods to see if a registered sex offender is living among us.  One way to do this if to go to the website provided by California’s Attorney General office which posts the location and identity of sex offenders.   By law, they have to register themselves; this is public record.  

Typically we do these searches as a part of a home purchase, but after seeing that show, it has raised concerns for me.  Tommy may be too young to be on the internet chatting with these predators, but I know which registered sex offender lives in my neighborhood.  If you have children and you don’t know how to look up registered sex offenders in your community, here is how you can find out:   www.meganslaw.ca.gov   This website gives you an address and a photo of the registered offender and their offense. 

I am providing this information only because it is public record.  I am not encouraging anyone to violate these registered offenders’ rights, but I think as parents, we have the right to know who lives among our children.  Knowledge is power. 

Steve Mun, Silicon Valley Realtor
www.stevemun.com