California Passes 'Pedophile Protection Act'
Under present California law, all persons who regularly come in contact with children as part of their jobs are required to report any instance where there is reason to believe that a child has been molested or abused. The new bill would eliminate mandatory reporting for anyone working as a volunteer in any capacity.
The bill would also eliminate mandatory reporting in cases where children are having sex with each other, and would eliminate "severe emotional abuse" as a reportable event.
The bill was introduced and promoted in the legislature by Sen. Sheila Keuhl, who is openly a lesbian.
Opponents of the bill believe that it was motivated by an investigation that revealed that Planned Parenthood has been contacted by more than 30,000 children in California -- some of them as young as six years old with sexually transmitted diseases -- but has never reported a single instance of abuse to law enforcement.
"This is a reprehensible act by Sheila Keuhl," said Richard D. Ackerman, Vice-President of Legal Affairs for the Pro-Family Law Center in Southern California, "The one common denominator among civilized persons is the ability to rally around the protection of our children. Even one case of unreported abuse has the potential to begin a generational cycle of continuing abuse, and could even result in the death of a child."
Opponents of SB1313 are contacting Gov. Schwarzenegger and encouraging him not to sign the bill into law.
See also:
Bill Dubbed 'Pedophile Protection Act'
Comments
Pedophiles are people too. They should have the same rights and resourses to help protect them. If a child concents it shouldn’t be considered abuse anyway. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe some children do want to have sex?
I don’t really like the way this announcement is written. I’d call it dripping with bias. Being openly a lesbian is completely irrelevant, and homosexual discrimination to mention it, I believe.
This act is not being passed to ‘protect pedophiles’. Currently, having laws forcing VOLUNTEERS to mandatorally report things, is completely ridiculous. It is right to repeal it. That is too much responsibility to put in a volunteer’s hands.
These laws do not outlaw reporting child abuse. They outlaw necessitating it. As in there is no ‘Good Samaritan’ law. People are still free to report it.
Furthermore, naming it ‘pedophile protection’ is completely inaccurate. Not all pedophiles abuse children, and not all child abusers are pedophiles. This act is also in reference to ALL abuse, and not just evidence of sexual abuses. It mentions physical and emotioanl abuse. Meaning that it would also ‘protect’ (if you must) abusive parents. But actually it doesn’t, it leaves it up to a caregiver’s discretion to choose what they think is notable evidence and what they think is not, and doesn’t punish people for not mentioning what they think there may have been another explanation for.
Eliminating severe emotional abuse as a reportable event sounds kind of strange, but I guess since caregivers (especially volunteers) are not trained to diagnose this, there might be cause to this. Overall, it is probably to reduce overreporting which strains the justice system’s resources so that they can focus on more serious cases.
I don’t see why it is necessary to report when minors have sex with one another, I think that should be left up to a person’s discretion too, honestly. Why should people be prosecuted just for giving someone their privacy? It is not their responsibility! If they weren’t there, it would have happened anyway. Not reporting it doesn’t mean they’re encouraging it, or that they’re even allowing it to continue, or not addressing it in their own way.
Planned Parenthood is doing a great service by providing counselling where none exists. The aim of forcing them to report is to strip them of their trustworthiness and cripple them as a safe place for hurt people in need to go, reprehensible.
the last two posters sound like leftist NAMBLA members who left their brains in the commode the last time they sat on the john
Why no comments on this for four years?
The article sounds biased, and seems like it came from some other source. Several sites reported the same thing in slightly different words around the same time. By the way, this law was signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger.
I think having laws which mandate the reporting of any suspicion of abuse is not necessarily a good thing, especially for volunteers. It puts people in the awkward position of having to figure out whether something they see represents abuse or not, even though they are not qualified to determine that. When potential abuse is reported, it can make life a living hell for those people responsible for the child, even if no abuse ever took place. Also, if you report abuse, you could become a suspect yourself. It also gives far too much power to the government, which has become our “nanny state”, watching out for “the children.”
It’s becoming dangerous to be near children anymore because of an overbearing pervasive state, a society that worships children, and the resulting pedo hysteria, our modern witch hunt.
Melissa says:
Pedophiles are people too. They should have the same rights and resourses to help protect them. If a child concents it shouldn’t be considered abuse anyway. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe some children do want to have sex?
Melissa, Pedophiles like you should be used as target practice by the mob.
Melissa, if you want to say something I would suggest to report yourself as pedofile and clean the air.
ok, first of all, why do 6 year olds need to know how to have sex anyways, shouldnt that be told when theyre like 30 or something, and another thing, somebody has to do something about abuse. a lot of abusers make their “abusee’s” keep their mouths shut, and if they squel, well, more beat down. if teachers, nurses, principals, dont report these things it could mean the serious injury, emotional injury and even death for a child, this law sounds like a death wish to me. probably another way to perform abortions which are WRONG by the way, just sayin, and melissa, tyciol, and corax, you guys need to chill. im gonna get rightious, the cerebral cortex is the last thing in the brain to fully develop, and coincidentally also controls reasoning in the brain, if a child “wants” to have sex, they may not think of the consequences of their actions, that would probably also be why 18 is considered the legal adult age, in which people have to suffer for what they do, if a person older than 18 has sex with someone under 18, they should be considered a pedophile, unless theyre married, then thats a whole different story.
NO ABSOLUTELY NOT PEDOPHILES SHOULD NEVER EVER EVER HAVE RIGHTS!! THIS IS WRONG THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!! PEDOPHILES ARE NOTTTTTTTTTTTT AND I REPEAT NOTTTTTTTTTTT PEOPLE THEY ARE SICK AND DEMENTED. THESE ARE OUR CHILDREN AND YOU PEOPLE DONT GIVE A DAMN. STOP TRYING TO MAKE LOOPHOLES FOR THIS RIDICULOUS WAY TO MOLEST CHILDREN THEY NEED PROTECTION!!
Melissa….something is terribly wrong with your thinking. In fact you sound so corrupt i beleive it would be impossible to reason with you!! Sexually abusing a child is pure evil. Shame on you!!!
Yeah Melissa, you are a really messed up person. Are you serious right now? You believe a 3 year old, a 5 year old, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 year old wants to have sex? You need to be locked up, or at the very least get yourself to a psychiatrist. Maybe YOU wanted to be raped or molested as a child, but that does not mean that the rest of the children in the world do. Seriously GET SOME HELP before we read about your arrest and trial next.
Hey Melissa, is your last name Huckaby? It would be interesting to trace this comment to see who Melissa actually is.
I am stunned this ridiculous bill was even considered!! How many children will it take to convince lawmakers there is no cure for pedophiles
and lock the freaks up and throw away the key.
They found that poor little 7 year old that was missing in Florida in a landfill tonight. If the
judges won’t do their jobs, maybe the people will
have to take matters into their own hands! yeah yeah
I know, that simply won’t do. Are we really that desensitized to violence on innocent kids? The pedophiles do not have rights after they have stolen
a child’s “life” emotionally, or out and out cold blooded murder! It is a privilige to live among civilized society, not a bloody right!! Round ‘em all up and open Alcatraz again.
Did I read this correctly
“Pedophiles are people too. They should have the same rights and resourses to help protect them. If a child concents it shouldn’t be considered abuse anyway. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe some children do want to have sex?”
is melissa actually advocating paedophiles????? They are children for heavens sake!! People who sexually abuse children should be punished to the maximum potential of the law without question. Innocence is the first victim of child abuse and can never be returned! People who act like animals should be treated as such!
the law is way to short for this crimes. and what do you do, slow it even more, to give pedophiles even more rights. the only way to stop a pedo, is chemical castration. that way u r certain he won’t molest anyone again. I can’t believe this law passed. shame, shame, shame.