The Family Watchdog Website

As a parent, I worry. It's part of my job. Unfortunately, in today's world there are too many things to worry about with your children. One thing that is a constant thought in the back of my head is sexual predators. As the parent of a teen girl and with little ones coming up, I worry about who lives in my neighborhood and who is moving in. One way to get some piece of mind is to search the National Sex Offenders Registry at Family Watchdog.

Family Watchdog is a website with a search feature linked to your neighborhood. You enter your address and it pulls up information concerning the home and work addresses for sexual offenders in your area. It shows you a map with little dots on it. Yellow dots are convicted rapists, blue dots are those who have been convicted of sexual battery, and red dots have been convicted of sex crimes against children. When you click on one of the dots, it pulls up the specific information for each offender including a picture, name, address and convictions. The site is also searchable by name to find out where a specific offender is living currently. Within an approximate 10 mile radius of my home, there are 58 offenders. That's scary. But, it is also very nice to know where they are! You can also request email alerts when a new offender moves into your neighborhood within a five mile radius of your home or school.

Basically, Family Watchdog is a site to set your mind at ease. It is a way to gather information and help to keep your family safe. Family Watchdog states their mission as being "to build awareness of nearby threats by providing accessible and accurate sex offender location information." The website was started in 2005 after the death of Jessica Lunsford in Florida. By using this and other websites to locate sexual offenders in your area, you can open communications with your children. Show them the site for your area. Show them who is a sexual offender and talk to them about what to do if one of these people approaches them. This is the best defense against sexual abuse of our children. Having them aware of the issue and prepared to deal with it if the need ever arises. You can search for offenders near your home, your child's school, your church or youth center or anywhere you are concerned about.

In addition to the sexual offenders registry, you can also find tons more information on Family Watchdog. Product recalls, food and drug recalls, safety tips and even alerts when crimes occur in your area. The site is updated daily with new information as it is received from the federal database. All of the services are free and even updates and alerts are completely free.

http://www.familywatchdog.us/Default.asp