Child Molester Laws Panned

Advocates: Tougher Statutes, Enforcement, More Education Needed

(CBS)  The ordeal of Shasta Groene and her brother, Dylan, has struck a cord with parents across a country worried about the threat posed by child molesters.

Repeat sex offender Joseph Duncan is accused of kidnapping the siblings.

Over the last year, convicted sex offenders have been arrested or convicted in other, equally disturbing cases.

And two experts say there's plenty that can be done to protect children that isn't happening at the moment.

Phill Kline, the attorney general of Kansas, is pushing for harsher and more uniform laws and enforcement of them nationwide, and Erin Runnion stresses better education of parents and kids alike about child molesters. She is the mother of Samantha Runnion, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2002.

Kline told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Wednesday that a major concern is "a lack of education of parents and teachers relating to the danger that their children face on the Internet, where predators actually have Web sites that teach pedophiles how to be pedophiles, how to target children, how to befriend them as pen pals on the Internet, how to set up meetings, and how to exploit them and cover up their exploitation.

"Additionally, (there are) inconsistent and weak penalties throughout the nation, as they relate to predatory activity on children."

Kline says the nation's attorneys general want those penalties toughened.