In a bittersweet ceremony, John and Reve Walsh stood with the President of the United States in the Rose Garden at the White House on the 25th Anniversary of the disappearance of their son Adam Walsh. Reve Walsh shed tears and held hands with John, as the President signed HR 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 into law. Adam Walsh, would be 33 years old this November, he was only 6 years old the day he disappeared from a Sears store in Florida where he had been shopping with his mother Reve Walsh. She had left him, in the toy department where he was playing video games, and was gone less than 10 minutes, but by the time she returned Adam had disappeared. Reve Walsh searched for over two hours by herself before the local police were called in to investigate Adam's disappearance.

Ironically, the Hollywood Florida police department is located directly across the street from the shopping mall. Adam Walsh's parents never gave up hope in finding their son, in addition to making public television pleas for his return; they also passed out thousands of fliers with Adam's picture and information on the front. Two weeks after Adam's Disappearance his severed head was found in a Florida canal by two fishermen, approximately 100 miles from where he disappeared. Adam's body has never been recovered and his case has never been solved. There was a self confession by a jailed killer Otis O'Toole. However, O'Toole recanted his confession years later, and when he died in prison O'Toole took the answer to his grave with him as he never told another person whether he was Adam's killer or not. Adam's parents like all parents of missing children would like to know, have a need to know, what happened to their child, after the child they love was taken from them.

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, requires sex offenders to appear in person to register. By appearing in person the bill makes it difficult for sex offenders to avoid or refuse to register by moving around the nation. If a sex offender knowingly does not register it could cost the offender 20 years in prison, as it is now a felony offense. The National Sex Offenders Registry will be available online and is a synchronized effort amongst law enforcement. The availability of the National Sex Offender Registry on the Internet provides parents information at the click of a mouse about sex offenders that might be living in their neighborhoods near their children.

There will be heavier penalties for the more serious crimes against children, including sex trafficking, and child prostitution, and Adam's Bill provides states a way to institutionalize repeat offenders who continue to do harm to children and show no desire to change their behavior. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 will help make the internet safer for children, as the bill provides funding and training at both the state and local law enforcement levels allowing agencies to implement Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force units. These task force units will help fight sexual exploitation on the internet, especially targeting pedophiles lurking in cyberspace waiting for an innocent child to log onto the home computer.

Finally, a National Child Abuse Registry will be implemented as part of HR 4472. This means all adoptive parents and foster parents will have background checks completed before being allowed to care for or take custody of a child. Since this will be a National Registry child protective workers in all 50 states will have access to the registry increasing the continuity of care for high risk children currently in the system and investigating children at high risk for abuse. By having a National Child Abuse Registry one can hope that we will prevent tragic situations like Rilya Wilson age 4, who was lost by the State of Florida's Child Protective Services for 16 months before anyone knew she was missing. Rilya's foster caregiver confessed to killing Rilya while she was in jail on fraud charges, although Rilya's body has not been recovered, she has been charged with her murder. Ironically, Rilya is an acronym for Remember I Love You Always.

America's children are definitely safer today than 25 years ago due largely to the love for one child and two bereaved parents who turned grief into action so that their only son did not die in vain. The Walsh's are directly responsible for the creation of the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children in 1981, the Missing Children Act of 1982 and the Missing Children's Assistance Act of 1984, which paves the way for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Due to his strong victim activism skills John Walsh is asked to host the television show America's Most Wanted in 1988. Adam will live forever in the heart of America through the passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.