肯塔基州众议院防止虐待和剥削儿童工作组目前正在考虑几项不同的提案，其中一项可能要求对营地人员进行背景调查。根据位于路易斯维尔的肯塔基州新闻台 WLKY 的报道，该工作组于 10 月 25日星期二上午集合，听取州官员的建议。
总检察长安迪·贝希尔在会议上提议修改立法，所有这些都旨在改善肯塔基州的儿童安全和福利。其中最突出的是改变肯塔基州关于在该州运营的青年服务营地的现行法律的提案。根据现行法律，营地雇员和辅导员不需要接受背景调查。Beshear希望对所有营地员工进行背景调查。
为了支持他的提议，Beshear指出，研究表明，三分之一在夏令营寻求职位的人的背景调查中有危险信号，这可能会使他们失去与儿童一起工作的资格。Beshear认为，如果这一统计数据在肯塔基州成立，那么大量的营地辅导员或工作人员可能会对他们负责监督的孩子构成危险。“我们甚至不检查，”他总结道。“这不是必须的。”
要求对所有在青年服务营地工作或做志愿者的人进行背景调查的提议只是Beshear演讲的开始。司法部长希望制定一项“全面”的计划来保护儿童。根据提交给防止虐待和剥削儿童工作组的统计数据，仅 2015 年就有 73,102 名儿童“参与了虐待和忽视儿童的报告”。Beshear认为他的提议可以帮助减少这个数字。
除了营地背景调查计划之外，Beshear 还向工作组提出了以下想法：
1. 创建一个注册表，学校和家长可以通过该注册表对未来的教师或托儿服务提供者进行背景调查。
2. 将注册的性犯罪者在公共游乐场的场所内定为非法。
3. 将被定罪为促进人口贩卖的人列入登记的性犯罪者名单。
4. 要求所有公立学校张贴并突出显示人口贩卖热线号码。
5. 要求所有公立学校实施关于人口贩卖和性虐待的“适龄”教育。
工作组表示将讨论和研究提出的每一个想法。另一次会议定于 11 月下旬举行，届时工作组成员可能表示有兴趣将其中一些提案转化为实际立法。
th to hear proposals from state officials.
Attorney General Andy Beshear proposed legislative changes at the meeting, all with the stated goal of improving child safety and welfare in Kentucky. Prominent among these was a proposal to change Kentucky's current law regarding youth-serving camps that operate in the state. Under the current law, camp employees and counselors are not required to undergo background checks. Beshear wants background checks for all camp employees.
To support his proposal, Beshear pointed to studies that suggest one-third of people who seek positions at summer camps have a red flag on their background checks that might disqualify them from working with children. Beshear argued that, if this statistic holds true in Kentucky, a huge number of camp counselors or staff members could pose a danger to the kids they are in charge of supervising. "We don't even check," he concluded. "It's not required."
The proposal to require background checks for all people who work or volunteer at youth-serving camps was just the start of Beshear's presentation. The Attorney General wants a "comprehensive" plan in place to protect kids. According to statistics presented to the Task Force on Child Abuse and Exploitation Prevention, 73,102 children were "involved in reports of child abuse and neglect" in 2015 alone. Beshear believes his proposals could help to cut down on that number.
In addition to the camp background check plan, Beshear pitched the following ideas to the task force:
1. Create a registry through which schools and parents can run background checks on prospective teachers or childcare providers.
2. Make it illegal for registered sex offenders to be on the premises of public playgrounds.
3. Put people convicted of promoting human trafficking on the registered sex offender list.
4. Require all public schools to post and prominently display the human trafficking hotline number.
5. Require all public schools to implement "age-appropriate" education about human trafficking and sexual abuse.
The task force said that it would discuss and research each of the ideas presented. Another meeting is scheduled for late November, at which point task force members might express their interest in turning some of these proposals into actual legislation.
