admin @ Fri, 2006-03-10 09:00
''Don't let your children talk to strangers,'' Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne told parents Thursday as he unveiled a new, easy-to-use website that pinpoints where sex offenders live across the county.
It is a Broward-centric alternative to the more cumbersome site listing offenders statewide that is operated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at www3.fdle.state.fl.us/sopu .
Unlike the FDLE version, the new BSO site allows Broward residents to easily and precisely map out where registered sexual predators and offenders live in the areas their children frequent.
With just one click on a yellow or red dot on the neighborhood map, parents can call up photos and criminal rap sheets on offenders and predators in their neighborhoods. They can also quickly map out danger spots along the exact routes their children walk: near parks, libraries, schools and daycare facilities.
''Parents can then have their child take alternate routes to avoid walking past or a near a predator's home,'' said Sherry Friedlander, founder of A Child Is Missing, a nonprofit organization that helps police track lost children.
'Many people are often shocked and say, `But he is such a nice man and we live in such a nice neighborhood.' It doesn't make any difference,'' she said.
Both Jenne and Friedlander stressed that the site is there to provide information for parents to better protect their children -- not for people to ''threaten, intimidate, or harass'' predators or offenders.
Friedlander suggested that those who find out that their neighbor is a sexual predator or offender should use that information to educate children on how to avoid the neighbor, not speak to them, and never accept anything from them -- and certainly never to enter their home or car.
''If you had a friendship with them before finding out, you may want to politely tell them that you are aware of their offense, and tell them to please avoid any contact with your children,'' she said.
Any child who uses the Internet is at risk, according to Friedlander, adding that 70 percent of the children who face the biggest risk of sexual assault are blonde, blue-eyed girls ages 4 to 11.
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