Awareness is your best defense.

We have helped millions of Americans registered offenders in their neighborhoods. Stay aware of the dangers that surround you and your loved ones.

That - combined with frightening statistics such as "one in five girls will be molested before their eighteenth birthday" - is the message of Family Watchdog, a website brought to my attention by an old friend from military school. You type in your addresss and postal code and up comes a map showing the locations of all nearby sex offenders. You click on the little markers and you get name, address, photograph, criminal record, and distance in miles (out to two decimal points) from your location of the person in question. There are also symbols for schools with information such as the distance to the nearest sex offenders. You can sign up to have regular "alerts" sent to you by e-mail.

It is no-doubt a great tool for quick and measurable social geographic research. The societal implications are myriad:

• There is obviously no such thing as a new start. Once convicted, the stigma will follow you wherever you move. Not only do you earn yourself a hole in your resume, but you get your own webpage!
• The effect of crime on real estate values is exacerbated. Anybody "shopping" for a good neighborhood - even a good block - will use this site, especially if they have children. What will be the algorythm for realtors - $10 per foot from nearest rapist?
• Since violent offenders as such are not on the site, only sex offenders, we have now learned that exibitionists are more dangerous than murderers.
• We Americans expect to be tried by "a jury of our peers," but often, to guarantee a fair trial, "our peers" are not involved. The case is taken to a distant location where nobody knows those involved. Here, with this resource, we can now socially try those who live around us, our real "peers." The sentencing will be at each individual's discretion....

Am I being too cynical if I include this in the culture of fear which seems to have overtaken much of the west - not only the United States - since "the world changed on September 11th"? No doubt the web site's claim that "millions" are "tracking" sex offenders is overblown. But something is driving the demand for a site like this.

In case those sex offenders near you don't have you scared and locked up inside, then go and sign up for one of two alert levels ("silver" for free or "gold" for $24/year) and be notified by e-mail as soon as more of them move in next door. That way, you can sit in Minot, North Dakota, nostalgic about the days when you were ground zero for a Soviet first strike aimed at the nearby U.S. nuclear arsenal, and still have something to worry about in today's post-Soviet world! (Actually, I checked and there already are four offenders in Minot.)

We recently did a unit on how not to talk to strangers at English on a Friday Afternoon, and I am a parent. I have some concern. Nonetheless, I also have concern for the values not only reflected in individual behavior, but in the values reflected by "the system" we all live with.

Here are some ideas for alternative "offender" watchdog sites we could set up:

• tax evaders
• people who say "nucular"
• people who make money off of advertizements devoid of information
• people making money off of the war
• people who write book reviews on Amazon.com without having read the book