Smart speaks up on 9-month abduction

Going to college may be one more step in putting her abduction behind her, Elizabeth Smart told Larry King in a live interview Thursday.

Smart, who's been accepted to Brigham Young University this year, said she will continue to be cautious and aware of people around her but will do her best to move on.

"I don't try to think back, I don't try to look back," she said. "I see my life before and then now and I just don't sit there and try to think about it, I just go on."

It was her first live interview since her nine month abduction ordeal that began in 2002. Despite her quiet demure, Elizabeth talked with Larry King about how her experience has affected her life.

"I hope no child would have to go through what I went through," she said. It was her faith and hope in her family's love for her that brought her through and kept her going, she told King.

Elizabeth and her father, Ed Smart, appeared on CNN's Larry King Live in conjunction with the U.S. Senate passing a bill that would require more information to be on the national sex offender registry.

The legislation, which passed the Senate unanimously, increases the severity of prison sentences when sex offenders victimize children or re-commit sexual crimes. It also lengthens the list of crimes for which a person can end up on the registry, but removes some nonsexual offenses.

"It will let every citizen know where these guys are," said John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted" and father of a boy who was abducted and murdered in 1981.

The bill needs to be reconciled with a House version before it is signed into law.

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