10 things you can do to protect children instead of ranting about Jon Venables

This year over 20,000 children will be abused in the UK. That's a lot of perpetrators who definitely aren't Jon Venables.

You could waste your energy ranting about the crimes of somebody who's already under police custody, or you could take some of these steps to really make a difference.

1. Donate to The NSPCC to help protect children in the UK.


2. Donate to Save the Children and make a difference to children all over the world.


3. Learn the signs of child abuse and consider the safety of children that you know.


4. If you suspect that a child is being abused, do something about it. You can get advice on how to help from the NSPCC.


5. Realise that a history of murdering toddlers is not the only sign of an abusive personality. Learn to spot a bully and be extra vigilant about allowing potentially abusive people access to your children.


6. Volunteer with ChildLine ChildLine urgently need to recruit and train more volunteers to ensure they provide counselling and support to every child who needs it.


7. Get a job preventing child abuse If you're criticising the people who work with offenders because you could do a better job, go and do it. Or get a job actively supporting children.


8. Stop looking at porn Do you think child pornography is the only form of porn where any exploitation takes place? Don't have double standards just because the people exploited to pamper to your tastes happen to be over age. If you need something to ignite your imagination, try erotic fiction instead and stop supporting an industry with a child abuse department.


9. If you're an abuser, get help There are many circumstances which may have lead you to start abusing others and there are many ways to stop.


10. Stop lynching ex-offenders David Calvert is said to have feared for his life when he was mistaken for Jon Venables. If the public could be trusted not to take the law into their own hands and harm ex-offenders, there would be no need to hide their identities, we'd know who they are and therefore be able to keep children away from those who might re-offend. If you abuse a former peodophile or child killer you're only going to encourage future identity protection, no matter how tempting it might be.

Your own behaviour is the easiest to change. So, to the many people criticising those who work hard to rehabilitate and accurately risk-assess offenders, until you've done everything you can to prevent child abuse yourself, perhaps you should stop throwing stones.