The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was signed into law by President Bush on July 27, 2006, the 25th anniversary of Adam's abduction and murder. The Act helps protect America's children against the dangers posed by sexual offenders.
The Act has a number of important provisions:
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales praised the Act as a valuable tool in keeping children safe. "America's children will be better protected from every parent's worst nightmaresexual predatorsthanks to passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006�The protection of our nation's children has been, and will continue to be, one of the Department's highest priorities, and we believe this bill will help us do our job even better."
In keeping with the Attorney General's focus on protecting children, OJJDP supports and works in close cooperation with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). John Walsh, of the television program "America's Most Wanted," founded NCMEC following the abduction and murder of his son, Adam, in 1981. NCMEC's mission is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation; help find missing children; and assist victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them.
OJJDP also helps protect children from sexual predators through the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Program. In response to the rapidly increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims, the ICAC Program helps State and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to cyber enticement and child pornography cases.