I am not a political person...I usually follow the philosophy of not discussing religion or politics with people...but I heard/saw something this week that was so disturbing that I can't get it out of my head and I felt I had to pass the word so others are aware... It's not about the upcoming election, it doesn't matter if you are Republican or Democrat...it's about our kids.  There is a vote coming up in the Senate this month and we need support.  (I say "we" but I use the term as a mother, not as an organizer or as a part of some organization, I never heard of the bill until a few days ago.)

While the internet is wonderful tool, we all know it can also be a dangerous one in the wrong hands...there's an anonymity to it that allows awful things to be made public and shared.  This is very true in the case of child abuse and how videotaping abuse and getting it online is becoming catastrophic in numbers....

If anyone saw Oprah this week, they would have seen the story on child online sites that promote sexual child abuse and give instructions on how to do it and about a $1 billion bill that is up for vote at the end of this month in the Senate...the bill is designed to help fund agencies to fight this and track down these offenders. 

The show was so disturbing I can' get it out of my head and I wanted to make sure as many people knew about it as possible!  There are "how to" videos on line raping children by age category...starting at little babies. They even have handbooks giving step by step instructions on what you can do to a child a certain ages (they show it being done!! I.e.; how you can make a pacifier a sexual toy to use. They played videos that the home audience could not view that were pulled from online sites and the audience was in tears of children being raped, toddlers included.

If that isn't enough to scare you, or to make you understand it affects you and your family: the experts are saying that the number of sites out there that offer this type of instruction and these 'rape' videos, are so large in numbers that those predators watching it are getting the 'reinforcement' they need to feel it is 'normal'.  They won't stop with watching they will act upon the urges...with our kids.  

To catch the creators of these sites takes tons of time and effort and money and frankly most people don't want to believe it's happening.  Or don't understand how widespread it is and how it is growing exponentially.  There are a few offices in the country dedicated to trying to stop these predators.  (But I think they said that they could act on less than 2% of what they were finding due to lack of resources.) 

In one of the offices that are dedicated to this effort they had to hire a full time counselor to help those agents that have to watch these videos daily.  One woman whose job it was to watch them was asked by Oprah how she could watch the videos day in and day out.  The woman's answer was that it was disturbing, it did affect her, she'd like to quit watching them, watching an innocent giggle of a toddler turn into screams of pain... but she said if she didn't watch them because it was too disturbing, if she didn't watch them to get information/clues about the children, to help find them and stop it from happening, who else would?  Someone has to watch them to get clues as to where they are located.

The bill is costly and I worry with the economy as it is many government officials will not want to put their name on something with such a high cost.  But if you watch this show and realize this is just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening...really think of the impact this has if this continues at the growth rate it's going what this will mean for our country, it is a crisis and lives are being lost...all of those children's lives are being lost.  These things are happening all around us...we just don't know it...and again the widespread availability of the videos are reinforcing the preditors...it's telling them, if all this info is so easily available it must be okay, lots of people are doing it!  (Yes that makes no sense to a 'normal' person, but these people aren't normal...they are sick!)

If there is a way for you to go back and watch the Oprah show you will be convinced that this is not a choice...the bill must pass!!!

The vote ends this month........here is info from oprah.com on who you can send your email to.  All it is, is cut and paste...easy  

IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE>>>>

TAKE ACTION WRITE OR EMAIL YOUR SENATOR (his/her name and contact info is available below in case you don't know it...embarrassingly enough I didn't know mine) >>>>>>

The info from Oprah is below

Help Pass Senate Bill 1738-The PROTECT Our Children Act

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.govto find contact information for the senators in your state. Search for your senator by name or state by clicking on the arrow from either drop down 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!

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!