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Klaas Family Introduces New Child Safety Tools

MORGAN HILL (KCBS) – Polly Klaas, the Petaluma girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1993, would have been 32 years old on Thursday.

Her family marked the day in Morgan Hill by unveiling new child safety measures aimed at protecting the online privacy of children.

At a news conference held at Burnett Elementary School in Morgan Hill, which now serves as the Find Sierra Search Center, Marc Klaas, Polly's father, said that there is no better way to commemorate her than by introducing these services for families.

Family Of Missing Petaluma Girl Introduces New Child Safety Measures

"This is called Polly's Guardian Angel. It's a smartphone app which is a parent-initiated missing child alert," he said. "It's really the first one on the market specifically for children and nothing but children. It prompts you to call 911 and it contacts anyone that has the app within the community."

Steve LaMar, the father of Sierra LaMar, who remains missing, said the technology will hopefully be able to help families in the future.

"I think all of that is really good. It's great technology. Hardly anyone else is doing anything like this, which makes it really unique," he said.

The KlaasKids Foundation also unveiled a new child safety website, Cocoon for KlaasKids. The website will allow parents to deflect and block tracking mechanisms triggered by websites and apps aimed at children 13 and under.

They also announced the Klaas Family Housing Fund, a housing program to aid families of missing children.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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