The Protect Our Children Act

A few weeks ago, we got a DVR. I have resisted moving away from using VHS tapes to record shows I want to watch because I didn't want to have to pay the monthly fee for the DVR. But after repeated failures of my beloved VCR, I realized the time had come to catch up with technology and get the DVR. I still don't completely understand how to work it. For example, I have it set to record only "new" episodes of shows, and it still records every showing of it. And, in other instances, it won't record the first airing of a show during the daytime, but will record it on the replay at night. I don't get it.

In the past, if I've been home and can catch Oprah, I'll watch it. But I've never gone to the trouble to tape it and watch it later. Now with the DVR, I've set it to record (even though it won't record the 4:00 showing, only the 9:00). Which means, that last night - Tuesday - I was able to watch Monday's episode. And what a show it was. I'm still reeling from it. She is famous for, among other things, exposing the epidemic of child abuse and molestation in this country and trying to bring the pedophiles to justice. But her show yesterday was on the "new" ways pedophiles are using the internet to proliferate their crimes. Apparently, more and more, they are turning to infants and toddlers to perpetrate their crimes - because they can't articulate the abuse. And of course, its not just images of the abuse and rape - its now videos. Oprah interviewed investigators from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children who look at these images and videos all day. They said its absolutely horrific - videos of a giggling, cooing infant sucking on a pacifier turning into screams and crys of pain as they are brutally raped. This is a particular kind of evil - unthinkable, and yet so prevalent.

Yes - so prevalent, and getting worse. A police investigator has created software that tracks the exchange of child pornography. He can not only see what's being exchanged, but can see where its coming from and where its going to. And of course, one image can go out to hundreds of thousands of locations. His point was that there is simply not enough officers and investigators - MONEY - to go out and get these pedophiles, even though they know where they are. And on the flip side of that, they don't have the officers and resources to go in and rescue these children. That is what stays in the pit of my stomach: every image, every video is of an innocent, beautiful, trusting child, who is being tortured and degraded by an evil man in the most horrific ways.

There are "how to" manuals - written and video - to teach men how to perpetrate their crimes. It is disgusting. It shows how low humans can sink - how base, perverse sexuality can ruin our children. See that's the problem with pornography - and the problem I've always had with it - is that the ante always has to be upped (same with drugs). There comes a point where it has to get more and more base, more and more provocative, more and more shocking. And the internet normalizes all of this - it makes this behavior - these CRIMES - seem normal. Everyone's doing it, so it's ok. But it is so not ok.

These children are crying out for help! And there is legislation in the Senate that could provide that help by infusing money into the criminal justice system to go after these perpetrators. But the Senate goes on recess next week. Please send an email to your Senator (for those in CA, here's the website to their contact info: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=CA). Tell them to pass the "Protect Our Children Act." Oprah has a form letter on her site you can use: http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20080911_tows_predators.

We have to help these children. And we can if we put our priorities as a country in the right order. Please email your Senators. I pray they will do the right thing so that these children can get the help they need.