The Government Playing as Parent: Are Children Safe?

Are children safe today? This is a question that runs through a parent’s head every time their child is out of sight from them. Now a days, you can never be so sure if your child is save or not. In 2001, 837,055 people in the United States were missing at one point, out of that number 80 percent were children. The government has created systems that help parents today make sure there is safety for their children. I want to focus on two very different government ran systems that are extremely effective to help parents have more safety over their children.


The first effective government system I want to focus on for the safety of children would be the system to have registered sex offenders be known. This system is extremely effective in which it is open to the public to know whether or not parents are moving next door to a sex offender who possibly has a thing for young children. The picture shown to the left is a photo of Abel Quero who is a registered sex offender in the two mile radius of USC. By having this system it helps parents to be more aware of their surroundings to keep their children safe and secure. If I was a parent I would not want to be stressed out when my child are outside playing, because I lived in a neighborhood were there was a numerous amount of registered sex offenders. When I researched this topic I typed in the zip code of USC area and found that in a two block radius of the campus there was 93 registered sex offenders. I found that this system is extremely helpful to concerned parents who want to live within a community were their children are safe while they’re outside playing. With the help from the government on making sex offenders register helps parents to know if they are living next door to someone who has been convicted of violating a child’s youth.


On the other hand, I decided to also focus on the wonderful system that the government created which is the amber alert. The picture shown here to the right is the breaking news reports when the amber alert is put into effect. This system has been able to send out an alert across the interstate highways when a child have been kidnapped. This system has saved over a hundred children since activated in 2002. This program has helped parents feel that the government is playing a major role in keeping children as safe as possible. The power of keeping our children safe is one of the most important feelings that any parents can possibly have. It’s hard for parents to feel safe with letting their children go outside and play or even head off to school now a days with the craziness that our world has come to. I personally feel that the amber alert is a great success for parents to feel more comfortable with the government helping to protect children.

With the government playing as a parent, can a sure that children now a days are far more protected than ever before. With the focus of these two systems, parents can feel more comfortable for the safety of their children. For any parent, the concern of safety has to cross their minds everyday when their child is out of their sight. But, with the governments help behind them it makes them feel a sort of comfort.