new for us friday: family watchdog site

If you have five minutes in the next day or two, I encourage you to check out this site, throw in your address, and really take a look at what you find.

The Family Watchdog site isn't new for us--we've known about it for a few years now, but I frequently return to it and know for a fact that I have come to rely on it for keeping my family safe.

Just like the Safe Side--Stranger Safety DVD that I spoke about last summer, the Family Watchdog is not the kind of thing you really love to peruse; the information it provides is disturbing and scary.  But it's something that, as parents, we need to know.

This New For Us Friday is not as light as some have been, but because I just learned that a registered sex offender has returned to the neighborhood surrounding one of our favorite parks, the information is new to me. And it's certainly worth sharing.

• Family Watchdog Site: Essentially, this site provides a free national US search for registered sex offenders.  You can enter an address, and a map with that location appears. On that map are the locations of all the registered sex offenders in that area.

You can then see all of the home and work locations of people who have been convicted for committing crimes against children, those who have been convicted for rape, sexual battery, and "other offenses".  You can view the offenders in list form or map form, and you can even see a list of recent address changes.  You can even search for convicted offenders by name if you choose.

Family Watchdog screenshot

Since August of 2005, Family Watchdog has provided a service that sends you an email any time a registered sexual predator moves within a five mile radius of a given address, which I think is an incredible service.  It's not always easy to remember to check the site, so I find this service a worthwhile safety net.

Sure, there are occasionally glitches; the site depends on public information to keep its database updated, and sometimes it may take a while for that information to make its way to the site. But when it comes down to it, Family Watchdog provides us a free service that we should all be incredibly grateful for--keeping us informed, aware, and alert.

This New For Us Friday isn't necessarily new for us, but it may be new for you, and that's why I'm sharing it.  I actually have a ton of really cool products sitting here, waiting to be tried by my kiddos and waiting to be shared with interested teachmama readers, but I just think that with spring around the corner, more kiddos playing outside, and more park time logged, this was really worth sharing.

If you haven't had the all-too important chat with your children about safety--which adults they can trust, when to call for help, and how to handle being approached by a "don't know"--then consider reading my post on Stranger Safety: The Safe Side DVD.  It's not easy, but we need to do it.