I applaud Monday's show and efforts being made to combat these predators. While I welcome such a database to be used by law enforcement and other officials only, I think it's time we seriously took a second look at the effectiveness of the national and state registries for such offenses. It has been well established that public sex registries such as these have done nothing but destroy the lives of ALL who are on these lists. These people are forced to live in seclusion (and often on the run), and therefore, these public lists defeat the purpose of tracking only serious habitual repeat offenders so that officials know exactly where they are. They do not prevent crimes from happening because of their immense overuse and application to too many people. Now, don't get me wrong, offenders who are truly dangerous to children need to be punished for their crime and privately tracked. However, once we start making lists of people who have committed certain wrongs and publish them for all the world to see, where do we draw the line? Why not have public lists of murderers, liars, cheaters, shoplifters, thieves, etc.? I seem to remember reading a little book in high school called "The Scarlet Letter", and isn't that what we're doing?

Law enforcement agencies and related officials should track and carefully monitor offenders and their whereabouts. Offenders should be fully and fairly prosecuted and punished. But as for the general public somehow being served by these lists, that's a bunch of malarky. Ironically, it's also been well documented that most offenders are family and friends of those abused. So I think the best way to prevent such abuse is to know your children, their friends, their whereabouts, and their schedules. Keep on top of things and PAY ATTENTION! I think there is so much of this stuff that can be prevented if parents would just focus on their children and affirm with them that they are loved. Let's work together to do our own homework on the people in our lives and keep our kids safe.

A woman at my medical school turned in an internet sexual predator who was also attending our school and now my school is punishing her due to information about her personal life that came out in the process. He victimized children and victimized the woman as well and then the FBI and our school victimized her all over again. Our society should be making it EASIER to turn someone in, not harder. She is being treated like rape victims often are: Her sex life is not the issue, a man seeking to rape and torture children is. She did a brave thing but has received nothing but punishment since then.

Dear Oprah, God bless you for raising this sad, sad topic. Man kind is headed to hell for real. I am a very grand christian and have prayed for years for God to help me protect all children all over the world because of what happened to me as a child. You know we men don't talk about that kind of stuff, especially we black men. I will make this short, you know this past week, I was on vacation and didn't have much to do except fast and pray as usual. I guess he led me to dive into the unknown, and as i started exploring this evil ploy, i felt sick in my stomach. i wanted to leave this scene, but he would not let me. i kept on going back to it even after promising myself that my eyes will never see those horrible pictures of babies being molested by these perverts. AT THE END OF THE FORTH DAY' HE ASKED ME TO GO TAKE A COLD SHOWER. I obeyed him and took cold shower, after that, i busted into tears. my own child hood opened up to me and he told me these are the children i want you to fight for. How do i start i have not stood up for anything in my life. How do i go about this? He told me to talk to TD Jakes. TD Jakes? i am not familiar with him, i don't belong to his church, how are my going to present myself to him. What if he rejects me and makes a fool out of me. He told me to go, he will go before me and make away. he told me that all i need is some who knows how to make things happen. He keep telling me of TD JAKES, but i have been questioning the validity of my association with TD, till I saw this on your show. i wasn't going to watch your show but he keep pushing me to turn it on. the first thing i saw was this show that will be coming on next week. i knew then he is "I AM I AM".

Sorry i am writing too much, but this is an important matter and we all need to team up and fight for all those defenseless children all over the world. it is horrible how the whole world will be looking the other way while the precious assets of the world are being wasted away. i will be happy to see all those grandfathers brought to justice.

Oprah, i am willing to sign up full time for this cause. it is very important to me. i am willing to stand before the congress and force them to watch those sordid pictures and see how they like it. i am willing to go to our ministers all over the world and force them to watch those demonic bastards abuse those babies and see if they will like it.

i love your show and i love what you are doing in Africa.

God bless you and keep you safe.

Jonas Ehiogu (JONAH)

I love that people like all of you and I are so against this and want to pass a law to get this predators off the streets once and for all. I myself am a survivor of sexual abuse. I am currently taking class to get my bachelor science degree in Criminal Justice and have done a lot of papers on this issue. Most statics that I have come across is that every 2 seconds in America someone else is being victimized, this is sad but true.It can get extermely tough to lisen in class others talk about victims of sexual abuse, because I am that victim sitting there. I am determined to speak out to others about my story and try to save and help the lives of other victims. We must do something and end this, it is causing too much hurt to lives!

Meeting those families was a life-altering moment. The girls were so brave and strong. It was my honor to sit beside them.

I will never be able to look at the maps in the same way. Those girls will drive me forward.

Thank you...
Flint Waters

Hi Oprah,

I feel it is important that your fans know that a man who was convicted of Child Pornography trying once again to destroy a political candidate. Jerome Corsi "The Obama Nation" was convicted of Child Porn. As the book is on the NY Time #1 best seller list I believe people should know a little bit about the authors background.

In early 2003 Jerome Corsi was indicted and convicted for the distribution of child pornography.¿¿The scandal mushroomed when Corsi was handed a lenient sentence that included no prison time. Conspiracy theories surrounding Judge "Murkie" filled Ohio newspaper for weeks.¿¿Within a year, Corsi and friend John O'Neill published Unfit for Command, a fictional retelling of John Kerry's role in the Vietnam War. The American press, always in the pocket¿of the Republicans, told America those false charges were true and the Quitter lost the election.¿¿Well, if you can't trust a child molester, and convicted distributor of kiddie porn, who can you trust?

If all this is so --
Why hasn't John McCain denied Jerome Corsi and his recent works?

Yes online predators are real and scary. But statistics show that the majority of children are sexually molested by family members or close friends. When do we get a show that tells this story? Who's writing laws to protect these kids?

WHAT?! this is such an irresponsible statement.

from Traits of a Sex Offender:

does oprah volunteer with any children's clubs/activities or youth groups? she is single and without children of her own...

I know how bad it is and I also know how bad its going to continue to get. This is why 6 months ago I started a Chapter of the Guardians of the Children in Woodbridge Va. The Guardians of the Children was founded in 2006 in San Antonio as a 501 c3 non profit biker organization to help educate the public about child abuse. I have a daughter and I worry about her everyday cause she is innocent and thinks everyone is also. I believe parents need to monitor their kids activities on the internet and find out who their friends are. I have no problem introducing myself to my kids friends especially if I have no idea who they are. I started this Chapter of GOC to help as many kids in my area which is called Northern Virginia. We are the only Chapter of GOC that is located on the East Coast, the other Chapters are in Texas, Nebraska, Oklaohma, Kansas and Iowa. I feel we need to stand up as citizens and take our neighborhoods back from the predators, drug dealers and those who prey on our children to be in gangs. In my neighborhood everyone knows who I am and what I do to battle child abuse. I wanted to show that bikers do more than what people see in the news, newspapers or in the movies. We are the only Chapter of GOC that is not solely a biker Chapter but one who allows anyone to join no matter what they ride or drive. All I ask is that have the passion I do to help stop child abuse and neglect. I want people to know that bikers ride for all kinds of causes from abuse, cancer, diabetes, hunger MDA. We put together Poker Runs to raise money for the causes we believe in. We do Toy Runs to deliver toys to kids who would never have a Christmas. We do Blood Drives to help hospitals and the Red Cross to build their blood supplies when needed. I am not sure if anyone will really know what or how much passion I have to help this monster called child abuse to stop robbing our children of their innocent childhoods and cahnging their lives forever. We know those who are abused will become alcoholics, drug addicts or even commit suicide, this is what I want to stop from happening. All children have the right to innocent childhood and live to feel safe and not being made to feel in some sick way it was their fault.

Mr. Waters, thank you for all that you have done to capture these creeps! You are very brave for what you do. I could barely stand to listen to the description of these acts, let alone watch the material. How you spend hours each day with this disgusting, depressing stuff amazes me! Thank you for doing all that you can to protect our children! I hope that this bill is passed so we can catch them all!

To Flint-Quite by accident I happened upon some testimony you gave last year. Hearing what is REALLY happening, every day in every state and country made me sick. This is like a holocaust against children. Even in my own community ,in August ,3 men who were busted by online investigators may go FREE because there was no actual victim. BUT the criminal intent was absolutuley there. The states attorney may try to prosecute federally to make the charges stick. Thanks for all the hard work-I cannot imagine the horrors you have seen and the children you have helped. I am talking to everyone I know about this and lawmakers in my state are going to know my name. KJL

Do not fall for this. It sounds good, but only throws good money dowm a black hole.

S1738 is a redundant program. There are laws confronting the problem already in place.

My parents are in their seventies now...and I have heard them time and again refer to the molesters as a thing that came to beduring their lifetime....

I often thought that no, it is not just surfacing in my lifetime...it's just that television and radio got the word out to the masses...that the problem has always been here.

good spaces

Haven't seen the show, only the preview clips and comments here, but Flint Waters? C'mon Oprah, why not have Dr. David Finkelhor and his associates from the Crimes Against Children Research Center on the show. They have exposed the media and government hype about Internet Predators, and the reality behind what motivates a teen to seek out acceptance from strangers on the Internet, "Online Predators and Their Victims". Flint Waters is the same guy who thought images of adult performers Dave Cummings and Melissa Bertsch were child pornography in the Thomas Schnepper case.

But since you had Waters available, did you ask him why the government is allowing footage prosecuted as child porn to be distributed over the counter nationwide? Why they made no attempt to identify the females they testified were being exploited, or the producers of the footage? Did you ask him why David McDade, Alberto Gonzales and Robert Mueller were not charged for re-producing and distributing child porn to civilians to advance a political agenda? I won't violate the rules by linking to the info, so just visit the wordpress blogs "trewthe", or "juridical" to get a glimpse of how the government is saying one thing and doing another in this context.

That's not to say there isn't a problem in these areas, but perpetuating the myths, unverifiable statistics, and cherry picked incidents does nothing to address the problem or educate the viewers of what needs to be done. Demonizing the Internet is a transparent ploy to regulate and control access to the Internet.

One of the main issues I see is that of how do we as a culture help/stop/teach men and some women how to handle this urge to sexually control others younger? I didn;t see the show, but i would think some type of followup is necessary. How do we have these people next door or a block away or at some appartment house? Do we lock all sex offenders away, castrate them? None of these seems right as a society. How do these people work, how do we redeem them back into society?

Mike Ellsworth