The Child Protection eNewsletter
 The wisdom of Solomon was demonstrated when he intuitively knew that the rightful mother of a boy was the one who was willing to give her son up to save him. By now you’ve undoubtedly heard of the interstate custody battle for 3 ½ year old Evan.
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com and http://www.bloggingbaby.com) Given the way all of the prospective parents have behaved, one has to wonder if any of them would pass the Solomon test. When the Florida judge released documents related to the private adoption last week, (http://www.bradenton.com) it was revealed that the adoption contract only allowed Dawn and Gene Scott to adopt Evan if they would allow the biological mother, Amanda Hopkins, frequent visitation and with the stipulation that they would return him to her if the adoption fell through. The adoption was ruled invalid in March of 2002. It was also revealed that although White, the biological father, established his paternity, the Scotts denied him visits with his son 16 times.
 The number of child pornography reports made to the government Web site cybertipline.com last year increased nearly 40 percent—to more than 106,000. http://www.family.org and http://www.internetweek.com This is in line with previous years when it was estimated that amount of child pornography available online increases by about half (50%) every year. http://archives.tcm.ie Since the late 1980s, the number of child pornographers has grown 1500%, in large part because of the growth of the internet. http://www.silicon.com Just last week a Minnesota school administrator was arrested on child pornography charges after a pornographic picture was found in a printer at the school district’s offices. http://wcco.com The picture had come from the administrator’s laptop computer which contained more than 100,000 pornographic pictures in one folder alone.
In other news...
UNICEF unveiled five steps that need to be taken to protect children in the tsunami zone from exploitation, abuse, and criminal trafficking. http://www.pnnonline.org  The five steps are: (1) Register all displaced children, (2) Provide immediate safe care, (3) Locate relatives, (4) Alert police and other authorities, and (5) Special national measures such as a temporary moratorium on children under 16 traveling outside the country without a parent. We applaud the effort, especially after a UN Office on Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigation into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of local Congolese women and girls by UN soldiers concluded that the problem was serious and ongoing. http://www.un.org According to OIOS Investigation Division Director Barbara Dixon, with new peacekeeping missions being opened in areas where similar problems could arise, the UN should consider wider application of prevention and detection policies aimed at protecting against sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers.
New scanners at the U.S. border with Mexico may not have caught any terrorists, but in the first four months they have netted more than 200 sex offenders and 100 homicide suspects. http://www.azstarnet.com
Because of the volume of news in the Child Protection arena, the Child Protection eNewsletter will be published more frequently in the coming weeks so that we may bring you news in a more timely manner.
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