Orange County Register

I’ll always be a child molester.” That’s what I remember the convict saying as we filmed him at a high-security prison in the Bay Area.

In my previous life, before I was married with children, I was a television associate producer in San Francisco. One project I worked on has left a lasting, haunting impression. It was a child safety video called “The Look Project.”

The creation of the show was sparked by the abduction of Polly Klaas in nearby Petaluma. If you remember, directly following that particular abduction there was an enormous amount of attention on the subject. As I recall, it was a pretty challenging show to produce. We interviewed a convicted child molester in prison, shot abduction scenes on the streets of Sausalito, and spent hours carefully writing the script.

I suppose this is what has made me extra cautious with my own kids–I never post pictures of them on the internet and never let them out of my sight when we’re in public. The man we interviewed deep inside a prison looked just like an ordinary guy, he was a dad and husband–no sinister look in his eye, nothing that would make you think, “I am going to keep my kids away from him.”

“The Look Project” I think only exists now in a box somewhere in my garage, but there is a stranger safety video that I would highly reccomend to every parent. Every child should watch it, repeatedly.

“The Safe Side: Stranger Safety” is produced by the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children. It is a project by Julie Clark (as in “Hi, I’m Julie Clark founder of the Baby Einstein Company”…which we ALL know by heart from the begining of every BE video) and John Walsh, host of “America’s Most Wanted.”

My kids beg to watch the “The Safe Side” DVD. The producers have found a way to tackle this scary and complicated subject in a fun and nonthreatening way. If you have tried “the stranger talk” with your kids, you know it can be filled with tough questions and ginormous pitfalls.

If you think you have this area covered, just remember this video from Oprah a few years back. Man lures child right behind the mom’s back. **Shudder** Truly frightening **Shudder**

It just reminds me I can never do enough to protect my precious kids. I ordered “The Safe Side” for all my friends with kids this week and I hope you will look into it, too.

Such a scary subject, so important…

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