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Anxiety and Stress Management

The Anxiety and Stress Management blog has now been retired. You can still find Dr. Farrell at the Anxiety and Panic Disorders message board. And you can visit the Anxiety & Panic Disorders Health Center for more information about these conditions.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Protecting Our Kids
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By now, everyone is aware that pedophiles are active all over the world and that computers, inexpensive software, the internet and accommodating governments make it possible to spread their wares and snatch up new victims.

In New Jersey, a contractor has been indicted on hundreds of counts of molesting a large number of children and of not only downloading child pornography, but of making and distributing it. Parents everywhere must be wondering how this could happen and, indeed, when I read about it, I asked myself this same question.

We live in an age where it is difficult not to feel anxious when our kids leave their home to go to school, play activities or even remain in the home when workers come in. If we were anxious before, this hasn't helped matters any.

I have a suggestion for a beginning we might all think about. The idea came to me when I was looking for items to add my website's self-help page and I was searching for information on registries of child molesters and for ways to protect kids.

What would be the problem with a national database for anyone who works with kids? I was initially thinking only of those individuals who work in the area of sports activities such as coaches. Canada has such a database, I believe, but it applies only to coaches for ice skaters.

Pedophiles
are very nice people. You'd gladly let them into your home, send your kids off to soccer with them or wave good-bye as they hopped into a van for a sleepover in the woods. I've never met a pedophile who wasn't neat, clean, polite and, seemingly, the type of person you could trust anywhere and with anyone. These are their most potent tools. The problem is that when they are caught and prosecuted in one area, they move to another feeding area and begin their crimes anew.

A national voluntary database of coaches (to begin with) would be a beginning to help with some of this anxiety. I know that some people will say this won't solve the problem and I agree, it won't, but it's a start.

Related Topics: Protecting Your Child From Sex Abuse, Child Sex Abuse Affects Both Genders Long Term

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Posted by: Pat_Farrell_PhD at 1:30 AM

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