A Site that Can Be Your Family's Best Friend

What I found amazed me. There is of course good and bad to everything. The first thing I noticed was a spot you can type in a person's email address and get information. I typed in mine and low and behold there I was with pictures of my grand daughter and everything. Sites I was a member of, etc. I have to say this is the bad part of it. I felt very uneasy over this. I have not made any of my profiles on social sites private, but am about to now. The email finder can be OK for the right reasons I guess, but if you have a problem with stalkers, or just out and out weirdos, this tool could be bad.

The rest of it I have to say was an excellent tool for parents or anybody else concerned about their neighborhood. There is an area where you put in your street and state, and your area and all surrounding areas will come up on a map showing where sexual offenders live and work. It is not quite as detailed as the Megan's Law website. This is not to be confused with a site called Megan's Law Sex Offender Reports. All information regarding sex offenders in your neighborhood is free of charge. The site mentioned latter provides you the information for a fee. The true Megan's Law Website does not. I put in PA, but whatever state you live in you can find.

Megan's Law Website offers you the offender's address, a picture, and even a car and license description. To give you an example, I used the neighboring zip. All the towns around here kind of meld together, many small towns separated by a mere street. The results were even more astounding for my own neighborhood, as it is a very small neighborhood, and the amount of offenders is staggering. Please click on this link , so you can get an example of what exactly is included in the truly free, state run website set up to protect you and your family. There are more predators out there than most realize. The total amount of predators registered under Megan's Law in PA is:

*Sex Offenders-9752
*Sexually Violent Predators-373
*Total on Website-10,125

Beware of Fake Sites

Megan's Law Sex Offender Reports says it offers free access to all the information the true Megan's Law website offers, but as you read on, it's a "free" seven day trial. You must put in credit card information and will subsequently be billed $9.95 a month after the first seven days.

Back to Information on Family Watchdog-Tools

This site actually has many useful tools in protecting your family. As I said, the information you get is not as detailed as the Megan's Law Website when searching for offenders in your area, but combine the two websites, and it's a home run. No registered offender will ever walk by your house again without you recognizing him/her. Family Watchdog has been up and running since August 25, 2005.

You can sign up for alerts which will notify you every time a sex offender moves into your neighborhood. You will receive an alert if n offender moves within five miles of your home.

You can search offenders by name as well. This is good if you just meet someone, or have that "bad feeling" about someone that perhaps works around your family. You can also just get a basic map of where offenders live in your area. Yes, this is all free.

Also on this site there is something called a safety portal. This is a wonderful tool. It is free of charge, but you do have to register. You can build your own family watchdog site to be involved in keeping your town and the families in it safe.

Other useful safety features on this website is FDA information and product recalls. This is so important for anyone at all, but especially for families with children. The latest alert on there is "McCormick & Company Recalls McCormick Fajitas Seasoning Mix Due To Unlabeled Wheat And Milk Ingredients
Company Contact:
Christopher Stevenson
410-527-6935". There is past recalls on there from the FDA as well, something very important to keep your eye on for family safety.

Under the Product recall section, the latest recall reported was: "Children's Hooded Jackets with Drawstrings Recalled by 5 Star Apparel Due to Strangulation Hazard
Name of Product: Mecca Children?s Hooded Jackets with Drawstrings
Units sold: About 11,500
Distributor: 5 Star Apparel LLC, of New York, N.Y...."

The Test of Family Watchdog's Ease Of Use

Signing up for alerts, very easy and fast. Total time to register: three minutes. You don't have to, but do have the option to enter a mobile number to have alerts texted to you. You may check off any or all alerts you want to receive via email or phone including crime alerts, sex offender moving into your area, FDA alerts and even severe weather warnings. You may choose between one and five mile radius to which you want to be alerted. Once I did this, I was informed there was 429 offenders within that five mile radius of my home.

You may also build your own Family Watchdog site as I mentioned above. This task took me twenty one minutes. I have a very poor Internet connection, so for most it would take even shorter. No need to be a webmaster genius. This was a very easy task, and the outcome professional. You may view my new Family Watchdog site here: Clifton Heights safety portal.
The more people that have them and get involved, the safer our children and families will be.

*As reported on the PA State Police Website

http://www.pameganslaw.state.pa.us/Main.aspx?dt=HCEECFDED4INEINFG4Ua&PB=True
http://www.familywatchdog.us/Default.asp
http://protecthechildren.familywatchdog.us