Those of you who follow this blog know that I have been advocating heavily for the passage of the Protect Our Children Act, also known as Senate Bills 1738 and 3344. I wrote about the importance of this legislation for abused children in all of these posts:
- Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008
- Oprah’s Show on Senate Bill 1738: Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008
- Controversy over Senate Bill 1738 and Oprah
- Update on the Protect Our Children Act
The Senate just passed the bill!!!!!!! See this article: Protect Our Children Act Passes Senate!
I can’t find any further details online yet, but I wanted you to know that we made a difference. It did not look like the Senate was going to do the right thing, but we child abuse survivors rallied along with other U.S. citizens, and the Senate heard us. Thanks to us, law enforcement will now have the funds to track down child predators and save abused children from being abused on camera.
Here are the details I received in an email from the National Association to Protect Children:
Just minutes ago, Congress passed the PROTECT Our Children Act.
It was a long, hard campaign… one that started with committed PROTECT members like you and then grew to over half a million Americans after it was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. Many Washington insiders said we would never win. We wanted you to be the first to know that we did!
As our campaign showed America, law enforcement now knows how to locate and stop hundreds of thousands of criminals who assault children and traffic in child pornography. But despite years of empty rhetoric from politicians, less than 2% of these cases are even being investigated. That begins to change today, with the passage of the PROTECT Our Children Act.
In the coming days, we’ll share many of the details about this landmark bill and how it was passed. But we didn’t want you to wait to hear this news. Please take time today to celebrate what we’ve accomplished together, because this never would have happened without you!–The Staff and Volunteers at PROTECT
Thank you to everyone who took the time to write to your senators. We did something good today. We did for abused children today what should have been done for us. We made a difference.
Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt
Hey Faith, I just came on your blog to tell you this, BUT you already know.
IT IS a good day
Was very pleased to see this passed. I hope it’s the first of many and ones that go further and deeper. I also learned today that New York passed the Safe Harbor Act which will treat exploited minors as victims instead of prosecuting them as offenders (i.e. prostitution). The bill provides for counseling, housing help, and other services. It’s a doubly good legislation news day!
WONDERFUL!!
- Faith
WOW, some common sense.
Hope the law is just as good here in england.
Simon
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