The Digital Divide: How the Online Behavior of Teens is Getting Past Parents

Despite the obvious disconnect between teens’ online behaviors and parents’ knowledge of them, parents continue to exude a sense of confidence and control. Most parents insist they’re in control when it comes to mentoring their teen’s online behaviors. Yet, many teens believe their parents are in the dark. More than three in four parents express confidence they know how to find out what their teen is doing online, and half of parents live under the assumption that their teen tells them everything he/she does online. In reality, over two in…

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NY: Has Westchester’s Sex Offender Registry Done Anything to Make Our Children Safer?

We might feel at ease knowing that, if a sex offender moved into our neighborhood, we’d have to be informed. But does that really protect our children? In Tom Perrotta’s novel, Little Children, a convicted sex offender moves back to the town where he grew up to live with his mother. Isolated and ostracized, he nonetheless ventures to the town swimming pool one steamy summer afternoon to cool off. When the crowd begins to realize he’s snorkeling in the pool, it quickly empties as screaming mothers grab their toddlers and…

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HUD: Sex Offender Policy Requirements Updated

On June 12,  the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Notice H 2012-11 State Registered Lifetime Sex Offenders in Federally Assisted Housing, which reiterates statutory- and regulatory-based responsibilities to prohibit admission to federally assisted housing for individuals subject to a lifetime registration requirement under a state sex offender registration program, and supersedes Notice H 2009-11. The new policies stem, in part, from a 2009 OIG audit, which estimated that 2,094 to 3,046 assisted households included a lifetime registered sex offender. Full Article

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Church protests insurance rules for sex offenders

An Oregon church is challenging a requirement by its insurance company that it disclose the identity of sex offenders to other congregants, allow offenders to attend only one predetermined service and assign them an escort. Pastor Chad McComas of Set Free Christian Fellowship in Medford said his church disclosed that known sex offenders were among the 100 members. Church Mutual insurance company on May 1 responded with a letter outlining requirements to continue an insurance policy. Full Article

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