[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 40 (Monday, October 7, 2002)]
[Pages 1666-1669]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House Conference on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway 
Children

October 2, 2002

    Thanks for coming. One of the reasons I like this job so much is, 
you get to be introduced by your wife. [Laughter] And I appreciate 
Laura's love and compassion for all children, and I appreciate the job 
she's doing. I'm a lucky man to be able to call her my wife--call her my 
wife. And thanks for coming.
    The kidnaping of a child is every parent's worst nightmare. Yet, too 
many moms and dads have experienced this nightmare across America. Too 
many have suffered. I've just met with parents--Laura and I met with 
parents--who have had the most precious person in their lives suddenly 
and brutally taken away from them. Some of these parents were eventually 
reunited with their children. Some are still hoping and waiting. Some 
know they will never see their loved ones again in this earthly life.
    When a child's life or liberty or innocence is taken, it is a 
terrible, terrible loss. And those responsible have committed a terrible 
crime. Our society has a duty, has a solemn duty, to shield children 
from exploitation and danger. At this conference, we are discussing the 
steps that parents and community leaders and law enforcement can take to 
prevent such tragedies.
    I want to thank the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice 
and Delinquency Prevention and the National Center for Missing and 
Exploited Children for helping organize this important and vital 
meeting. And I want to thank you all for coming.
    I appreciate the senior members of my administration who are leading 
the sessions at today's conference. I thank our Secretary of State Colin 
Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary Tommy Thompson, 
Secretary Rod Paige. I appreciate the Director of the FBI, Bob Mueller, 
for coming. And I want to thank the Commissioner, Robert Bonner, of the 
U.S. Customs.
    I know there's a lot of Members of Congress who are here. I see the 
great Senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison, is here, as well as 
other Members of Congress. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for 
taking this issue seriously, and thanks for joining with a lot of 
concerned citizens.
    I appreciate so very much the National Center for Missing and 
Exploited Children. They do a really good job for America. I want to 
thank Ernie Allen--I want to thank Ernie, and I want to thank Carolyn 
Atwell-Davis, the legal consultant, for their hard work and for their 
care and concern. I also want to thank Margaret Spellings, who is 
Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, for moderating this 
conference.
    And of course, I've got to say something about John Walsh, TV star. 
But he's a guy who cares deeply about our country, about the safety of 
our citizens. And John, thank you for the service you do on behalf of 
the American people.
    Our first duty as adults is to create an environment in which 
children can grow and thrive without fearing for their security. That's 
what we've got to do. Because children are so vulnerable, they need the 
care of adults. Because they're so vulnerable, those who are cruel and 
predatory often target our children.
    We see the dangers to our children in the cases of abduction, many 
of which are known to us all. Each year, tens of thousands of children 
are abducted by non-family members, often in connection with a crime. 
And while the overwhelming majority of these children are returned from 
abductions, too many are not. One is too many, particularly for the mom 
or dad who suffers deeply.
    We see the dangers in the experience of runaway children who are 
often victims of hunger and sickness and sexual abuse. Every year, 
assaults and illness and suicide take the lives of about 5,000 runaways. 
One life is too many.
    The threats to our children are found not just on the streets, but 
they're found on the technology which we use in our homes. The Internet 
is a wonderful tool for our children to broaden their knowledge, expand 
their

[[Page 1667]]

minds, but the evils of the world have crept into the Internet. In one 
year alone, one in five children between the ages of 10 and 17 received 
a sexual solicitation over the Internet. With expanding use of the 
Internet and the heightened activity of predators searching for underage 
victims, more children are being lured into harmful and even tragic 
situations.
    In every region in the world, children can be vulnerable, not just 
here at home but children everywhere. Each year, about a million girls 
and boys are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced 
labor. Such trafficking is nothing less than a modern form of slavery, 
an unspeakable and unforgivable crime against the most vulnerable 
members of the global society. All these dangers put children at risk. 
All these dangers demand action to protect our children from harm.
    The Justice Department has made the prevention and investigation of 
child abductions a major priority. We're providing State and local 
authorities with access to fingerprint record and forensic experts and 
training on missing-children cases. We want the local authorities to 
have the best available technologies and skills in order to respond 
quickly. The Department sponsors a 24-hour hotline for reporting missing 
children, which is operated by the National Center for Missing and 
Exploited Children. We're waging an nationwide effort to prevent use of 
the Internet to sexually exploit children. We're seeking to almost 
double the funding for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces, 
which will help State and local authorities enforce laws against child 
pornography and exploitation.
    We're vigorously prosecuting those who prey on our children. We need 
to send a clear message: If you prey on our children, there will be 
serious, severe consequences.
    Earlier this year, in Operation Candyman, the FBI dismantled a major 
child pornography ring. They made more than 100 arrests. I'm pleased 
that the House of Representatives passed the ``Child Obscenity and 
Pornography Prevention Act'' this year to revise and strengthen our 
pornography laws. The Senate needs to work with the House to get 
legislation done before they go home. We need to do everything we can to 
protect our children from the evils of pornography.
    We will not forget the suffering and struggles of America's runaway 
children. The Federal Government supports hundreds of emergency shelters 
and programs that reach out to young people living on the street, 
offering them food and comfort and counseling. These programs are mainly 
administered by community and faith-based groups. After all, it's in our 
faith-based community where we hear that universal call to love a 
neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. It's in our faith-
based groups that we find deep compassion to help those in need and who 
are troubled. And many of the runaway kids are troubled and in deep need 
of love.
    There are as many as 100,000 runaway children every year. And these 
children are vulnerable; they're vulnerable to exploitation. There are 
some great programs in America, people who are soldiers in the armies of 
compassion, one of which is the Covenant House. We're honored today to 
have Sister Mary Rose McGeady here. She runs the Covenant House. And if 
you don't know anything about the Covenant House and if you're 
interested in helping, support the Covenant House or programs like the 
Covenant House, because these people help those on the street, those 
young, vulnerable children on the street, to realize there is love in 
our society and there is hope for a better way.
    On the international front, the United States is acting vigorously 
against the trafficking of young people. Last February, I established an 
Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The 
task force is working hard to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, 
and prevent future trafficking. The past year alone, the Department of 
Justice prosecuted 4 times as many traffickers as it did 2 years ago. We 
are making progress.
    We've got to continue to work with our friends and allies to prevent 
this scourge from not only spreading but to stop it. It is, as I said 
earlier, slavery. And this Nation stands against slavery of any kind.
    The responsibility to protect America's children is shared 
throughout our society by government at every level and by parents in

[[Page 1668]]

every home. Parents, of course, are the first line of defense against 
danger. To help our parents protect their children, the Department of 
Education has distributed a new guidebook providing practical steps that 
parents can take to make their children safer, practical steps that make 
it clear about how a parent needs to deal with their child about the 
dangers facing children. And this information, you'll be pleased to 
hear, is written in ways so that the children can actually understand 
what's on the page.
    The book tells mothers and fathers how to rehearse with their 
children what to say or do if they ever feel threatened. It's a 
practical guide to explain to children how to deal with predators that 
are smooth and seductive, how to deal with somebody that's a stranger 
that sounds sweet-talking but may in their heart be dark and dangerous 
for our children. The book also lists Web sites that provide information 
about protecting children. Information is powerful, and it's important 
for our parents to know.
    Parents need to pay as much attention to their children, by the way, 
when they're on the Internet as when they're on a playground. They've 
got to know what their children are doing on the Internet. They've got 
to know with whom they're conversing. This guidebook will help. We're 
passing it out to the Nation's schools, and the schools will then make 
it available to parents. And as well, parents can request a copy of the 
guidebook, a practical go-by as to how to train your children how to 
deal with potential danger. And you can find it on missingkids.com. If 
you're interested, if you want a practical go-by, call up 
missingkids.com on the Internet, and you'll get some practical steps as 
to how to help your children avoid danger.
    Sometimes, in spite of a family's best effort, the unthinkable does 
happen, and that's really sad. It breaks my heart to know that that 
continues to happen in America. At that point, the parents need the 
support--when their child is abducted, the parent need immediate support 
of their communities, quick action to find their children. Time is of 
the essence.
    One of the most successful programs to locate abducted children is 
what's called the AMBER Plan. It's a voluntary partnership through which 
police and local broadcasters issue urgent bulletins to the public as 
soon as a child is missing. The program began in a local effort in 
Texas, I'm proud to report, in the Dallas area in 1996 after Amber 
Hagerman was abducted.
    My friend State Senator Florence Shapiro is with us, I believe, one 
of the panelists. She helped launch the AMBER program. I know that it 
makes her feel really good to know that AMBER, when in place, can really 
help people, just like it helped Sharon Brooks and her 16-year-old 
daughter, Tamara. This summer, Tamara and Jacqueline were abducted at 
gunpoint in Lancaster, California. Tamara told us her story. The police 
issued an AMBER Alert within hours and soon received tips that led to 
their rescue. People all across America shared a great feeling of relief 
when she and her buddy were rescued. One of the reasons they were is 
because of the AMBER Plan.
    There are gaps in AMBER, however. There are gaps in the AMBER Plan 
coverage which must be filled, and we can fill them. We will develop 
more AMBER Plans and better coordination among plans. We should not 
allow another day to go by without taking steps to expand the AMBER 
Plan's reach all across our country. And so the Attorney General today 
is appointing an AMBER Alert Coordinator to help State and local 
officials develop, enhance, and coordinate AMBER Plans all across 
America.
    The Department of Justice will establish standards for the issuance 
and dissemination of alerts. The Justice and Transportation Departments 
will take immediate action to provide a total of $10 million to improve 
the growing network of AMBER Plans. We want AMBER Plan Alerts to be 
issued as quickly and as effectively as possible, including electronic 
billboards along the Nation's highways.
    I support legislation passed by Senator Hutchison of Texas and 
Senator Feinstein of California to achieve the goals I just outlined and 
codify them in law. And I want to thank you both for your hard work. The 
House hasn't acted yet, so I am going to. And that's why I've just laid 
out the initiative. If possible, it would be very helpful if the House 
passed the Hutchison-Feinstein law before they go home.

[[Page 1669]]

    I also am pleased that good corporate citizens are involved with 
helping our children. And I particularly want to point out Toys R Us or 
Wal-Mart, Home Depot, as well as Ford Motor dealerships, which are 
providing free child photo IDs, so that parents can provide law 
enforcement with sharply focused head-and-shoulder pictures along with 
relevant biological information in the event of emergency. By the end of 
this year, more than 2\1/2\ million children will have been photographed 
and identified to help recover them if they're ever abducted.
    I hope a lot of other companies follow these good citizens' example. 
I hope you make available resources necessary to help us combat--to 
fight against abduction and to help save those lives--save the lives of 
those who have fallen prey to one of the worst crimes in our society.
    This White House Conference on Missing and Exploited and Runaway 
Children is important for America. It just is. And I want to thank you 
all for coming. This is the beginning of a refocused effort at the 
Federal level to help save people's lives. This is an attempt--more than 
an attempt--this is the beginning of a successful strategy implemented 
at all levels of government and all parts of our society to recognize a 
real threat and to deal with it, to recognize there are some so evil in 
our society that they're willing to harm our most precious and most 
vulnerable citizens, and to be prepared to respond quickly when that 
happens, to help people prevent it from happening in the first place, to 
make it clear, if you do it and we catch you, there's going to be 
serious consequences for you.
    We can deal with this problem, because this is America. This is a 
country full of people who love and care. It's a compassionate and 
decent nation. This is the beginning of a concerted effort to do our 
duty as responsible citizens of the greatest country on the face of the 
Earth.
    Again, I want to thank you all for taking your citizenship 
seriously. I want to thank you for understanding that a patriot is 
somebody more than who just puts their hand on their heart; a patriot is 
somebody who is willing to do whatever you can to make this country the 
best--continue to be the best on the face of our Earth.
    May God bless your efforts. May God bless our children. And may God 
bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 12:09 p.m. in the Atrium Hall at the Ronald 
Reagan Building and International Trade Center. In his remarks, he 
referred to Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer, Carolyn 
Atwell-Davis, government relations liaison, and John Walsh, co-founder, 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; Sister Mary Rose 
McGeady, president, Covenant House; Texas State Senator Florence 
Shapiro; and Jacqueline Marris, who was abducted with Tamara Brooks in 
Lancaster, CA, on August 1. The President also referred to H.R. 4623, 
the proposed ``Child Obscenity and Pornography Prevention Act of 2002,'' 
and S. 2986, the proposed ``National AMBER Alert Network Act of 2002.''