A series of high-profile crimes in recent years inspired United States Congressman James Sensenbrenner Jr. to propose the Child Safety Act of 2005, which closes loopholes in pedophile laws and increases penalties for sex offenders.

And, thanks to advancements in information technology, child protective services, law enforcement agencies and other organizations dedicated to the protection of children are able to make offender databases more readily available to parents. The average citizen is now able to use the Internet to locate and identify convicted sex offenders living in their neighborhood. An offender's name, address, photo and criminal record are available with a few simple clicks of a mouse, giving parents and other caregivers additional powers to protect minors from these predators.

Through the enforcement of the Child Safety Act and smart use of the Internet and other information technology, child protective services have done a better job of protecting children from criminals who had previously fallen through the cracks in the judicial system.

Information technology, child protective services

Why shouldn't children have the same protections as criminals? You as a parent can keep better tabs on minors through the same type of tracking, tailored for children. User friendly software from Life-Prints helps you create a "profile" of your child that can be easily disseminated to multiple agencies so you can relocate your son or daughter in the event that you lose track of them.

In most cases, missing children cases turn out to be benign incidents in which a youngster simply wanders off - most of the time they are found safe. But for true peace of mind, a children's identification kit - complete with fingerprints, photos and vital statistics - can be used in much the same way as law enforcement agencies' criminal tracking database, to help you locate missing children quickly.