Now Internet Services Can Help You Keep Your Children Safer

One of the most disturbing trends of our time is the increase in sex offenses against our children.

A study by the US Department of Justice found
- 67% of all victims of sexual assault were juveniles, under 18 years old
- Thirty-four percent of the victims were younger than 12
- One of every seven was less than 6 years old
This is such a tragedy but at least parents are becoming more aware of the problem. They're taking steps to safeguard their children by keeping them from going out alone or from going anywhere unsupervised.

If you're a parent, now there's even more you can do to protect your children.

How the Internet Can Help You Protect Your Children

Your computer and the Internet can play a major part in helping you keep your children safe. If you're like most folks, you probably have at least some experience looking up information online, using Google or Yahoo search perhaps.

What you may not realize is how much information you can uncover online about sex offenders and other criminals who pose a threat to your family.

Specialized background checking services now exist that take you directly to criminal histories and sex offender records. While the common search engines are good for finding general information on a variety of topics, they're not so helpful when you want to search for criminal records. The specialized services make it a whole lot easier and faster.

I became familiar with these criminal background checking services from my work as a professional writer and researcher. If you're a parent trying to protect your children, you'll want to find out as much as you can about what's available.

You Can Now Find Out Secrets Once Deeply Hidden While Sitting at Your Computer

It used to be time consuming and costly to check someone's background to see if they had a criminal history. You had to hire a private detective or go through some expensive reporting agency. Not today - not with Criminal record databases so readily available to us.

Sometimes referred to as Internet Detective sites, or Personal Search sites, these web-based search services give you the low-down on all kinds of formerly-hidden information.

They let you make complete criminal background checks and give you access to detailed information including:

- Sex Offender Status Records
- Geographic Locations of Registered Sex Offenders
- Criminal Records for all kinds of crimes
- Prison Records
- FBI and other Law Enforcement Agency Files
- Criminal History

Why Checking Criminal Backgrounds Can Help You Spot Crime Before It Happens

The unfortunate truth is that many offenders commit crimes again and again. The DOJ tracked one sample group of around three hundred thousand offenders and discovered an amazing fact. This one group of felons has so far accounted for nearly five million arrest charges over their recorded careers.

Here are more disturbing findings from US Department of Justice studies:

- When criminals were arrested for a new crime, more than half of them were out on probation, parole or pretrial release for a previous crime.
- 39% of jail inmates had already served 3 or more prior sentences.
- Of the hundreds of thousands of criminals released from prisons during a one year period, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.

And the most chilling statistics

- Sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison.
- Of released sex offenders and child molesters arrested for committing another sex crime, 40% perpetrated the new offense within a year or less from their prison discharge.
It's extremely troubling but the very fact that so many criminals are repeat offenders is what makes using criminal background checks so effective. Those past crimes leave a trail. Access to that trail, that criminal history, is easily available through the specialized background check services.

The criminal history you can easily find out there can forewarn you. You'll know if someone has a criminal background and is therefore likely commit a crime again. It's not pre-judging. It's just being realistic and practical.

Experts Recommend Parents Use Criminal Background Checking Services

Safety experts are starting to recommend that parents use a criminal background checking service regularly. By running a criminal background check on anyone you find suspicious or even anyone your child might come into contact with, you'll know if there's anything to worry about. You'll be armed with the knowledge you need to take appropriate action.

You can use the search services to check out your baby sitter, nanny, au pair, day care center and staff, and even school teachers and workers.

You can use it to search geographically and find out if known sex offenders live near you. It's now possible to determine exactly where they live.

When You Choose a Criminal Background Search Service, Here's What to Look For

To help you find the best possible service for criminal background checking, here are the things I've found important to consider during a review:

1. Free versus Paid

I've been disappointed by the free services. Better to pay the small fee and get quality information you can trust. Many of the better services have special offers of multi-year memberships for a low one-time fee. The cost can be less than what you'd pay for a low-priced blouse or golf shirt.

2. Speed

You want a service that responds quickly and gives you exactly the information you need. Make sure you try it out. Check both speed and accuracy!

3. Proprietary Database

If a service compiles their own database, it's a sign they're more likely to be in the business for the long term. That's because a proprietary database is costly to build and maintain. A company wouldn't invest if they didn't expect to stay in business.

From a usability standpoint, a dedicated database is better too. You get a single interface that you can quickly learn.

(One note: I've never seen a free service that has its own database. Most of the free services I've checked out are really just link farms - they just point you at some public or government database. You could get that from the general search engines.)

4. Training and Support

Be sure you can easily learn to use any service you choose. Actually, you'll find that the better services are pretty intuitive: you'll know what to do just by looking at it. But better services will also provide extra, in-depth searching. If you ever need the extra, it might require you dig into it a bit before you can fully use it. Just make sure your service has easy, accessible ways to learn, like tutorials.

And don't ignore support. Sooner or later you'll have questions or there will be something you need help to get resolved. The best services offer free, live support with a phone number or live chat where you can talk directly with a person.

Final Word

It's a threatening world but fortunately, you can use modern technology to better protect your children. Like the experts recommend, sign up for Criminal Background Checking service and use it regularly.

Easily Find Someone You Lost Track Of

Recently my wife's sister got curious about what had happened to her first husband after they split. That marriage had ended badly and they hadn't been in contact for nearly thirty years. She tried searching for her ex-husband's name on Google and Yahoo but didn't get any hits. Knowing I do research online in my work as a professional writer, she asked if I could find out anything.

I write for business and technical publications, so I use a number of high-priced databases for in-depth research. But I suggested she try a simpler alternative - a solution I use myself when I want to find someone quickly and easily. I recommended she try one of the people search database services. Even the better ones cost so little, they're practically free. Most offer a trial period. I gave her the name of one to try.

She was dubious. She's not very comfortable using her computer for much more than email. Her stab at the search engines had already left her flustered. Now she was going to have to "sign up for something and learn something completely new... oh my goodness," was the way she put it.

Yet, later the same day I suggested it, she emailed back excitedly. In just minutes, she'd found out all kinds of information about her ex. It turned out that he'd done something of a turnaround after they'd broken up. Their divorce resulted from fights over his serious drinking problem. After they broke up, though, he'd eventually gone back to med school, gotten his MD and become an orthopedic surgeon. He'd even been instrumental in developing some sort of device used by other surgeons in his field.

Unfortunately, the poor fellow had passed, but at least my sister-in-law found comfort in knowing that things had worked out for him after all. She remarked that even though their relationship ended in the worst imaginable way, it had started from a good point. She said she hadnt really wanted to contact him. She just wanted to know what had happened to him.

Sometimes all we want is just to satisfy our curiosity about what happened to someone we've lost track of. Most of us have an old friend or acquaintance we still wonder about.

A Better Way to Find People

I suspect that's what makes people searching so hot. As many as half a million times a month, someone searches on Google alone, looking for a way to find a lost person. Whether it's someone from the past with whom we've lost touch, or someone we met last weekend and yearn to see again, were always searching for others.

Unfortunately, most general searches fail. Just like Googling failed for my sister-in-law. The information is out there, somewhere. But being forced to sift through so many unrelated results makes it nearly impossible.

That's why I recommended she use a people search service - sometimes they're called Internet Detective services. They pull all the information spread across thousands of servers and combine it into people-specific search databases. Then when you drop in a name or an address or a phone number, whatever bit of information you have, you get instant gratification. Up pops the latest scoop about your person.

Thats totally unlike the cold mechanical response a Google or Yahoo gives:

Results 1 - 10 of about 55,100,000 for joe smith. (0.06 seconds)

You can almost hear the search engine yawn.

By the way - most searchers don't know this - search engine results don't actually extend beyond about a thousand entries. Even when the search engine results page says they found millions and millions of hits, they don't actually bother to dig it up and give you access to all of it. They're really just estimating from their own database tables. Even they know it's a waste of time.

Yawn, yawn, yawn

On the other hand, it's exciting when you do a person search on a dedicated database. You find what you're looking for in seconds. Plus, you not only get current information, often you get historical data too. You find not only where the person is now but also where they lived or worked before that and before that and before that.

You can sort of see your old friend's life laid bare. (Now what in heaven's name was George doing in Poughkeepsie, New York, in winter. He always hated the cold)

Sometime you find a person's life didn't turn out the way you'd have thought. That's when the Criminal Check part of the service can help you find out what prison they ended up in!

When You Choose a Personal Search Service, Here's What to Look For

If you decide to try out a personal search database, here are the things I've found important to consider during a review

1. Free versus Paid

I've been disappointed by the free services. Their main concern seems to be to try and get you to click on some of the pay-per-click ads they're displaying - so they can make a little money.

2. Speed

You want a service that responds quickly. Make sure you try it out. A fun test is to do a search on yourself. You get to check speed and accuracy!

3. Proprietary Database

If a service compiles their own database, they must be fairly successful. It's costly to build and maintain. Such well-funded providers are much more likely to stay around. From a usability standpoint, it's better too. You get a single interface that you can quickly learn.

And I've never seen a free service that has its own database. Most of the free services I've checked out are really just link farms - they just point you at some public or government database.

4. Training and Support

Be sure you can easily learn to use any service you choose. Actually, you'll find the better services are intuitive - how to search will make sense as soon as you look at it. But better services will also provide extra, in-depth searching. If you ever need the extra, it might require you dig into it a bit before you can fully use it. Just make sure your service has easy, accessible ways to learn, like tutorials.

And don't ignore support. Sooner or later you'll have questions or there will be something you need help to get resolved. It's best if they offer free, live support.

Final Word

Join the millions using the web to track down old friends and new friends. But make it easier on yourself by using a People Search service rather than a general search engine. Have fun finding out exactly what did become of your old friend (or even your old, not-so-friendly ex)