The Family Watchdog application is used as a means to view
registered sex offenders all over the United States. There are multiple ways to
search for offenders one being by name and the other by neighbourhood. The
neighbourhood view is displayed on Yahoo Maps. According to US law all sex
offenders residing in any state must be registered with that particular state.
Family Watchdog is a website that allows anyone with internet access to view
locations and information of every registered sex offender. This application is
important because it helps members of society to be aware of the dangers in and
around their neighbourhoods. The objective of Family Watchdog is simply put on
their ‘about us’ link, “Our goal at Family Watchdog is to provide you with the
information you need to protect your loved ones.” (familywatchdog.us). This
website exists because of The Sexual Offender Act of 1994 and Meghan’s Law. The
Sexual Offender Act of 1994 requires sex offenders to register with a national
and state database while Meghan’s Law requires that this information be
available to the public. Due to Meghan’s Law, applications similar to Family
Watchdog are able to exist for the purpose of informing the American public on
the issue of sex offenders.
Nicole Berube
Meghan McIntosh
Robert Quinlan
Jackie Smith
