Bill Eyes Sex Offenders, Social Networking Sites
By Erik German, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Jan. 30–ALBANY — In a bid to discourage online sex predators, state officials proposed a law yesterday mandating that registered sex offenders’ e-mail addresses and screen names be reported to social networking sites like MySpace.com.
The bill, drafted by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, aims to make it easier to prevent sex offenders from using sites that have become popular online gathering spots for youth. The measure also would place mandatory restrictions on Internet use by paroled sex offenders — barring them from social networking sites and banning online communication with minors.
“I see it as a Megan’s Law for the age of the Internet,” Cuomo told reporters at the Capitol.
Among those hailing the bill was Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos, an author of Megan’s Law, which in 1995 created the current system for registering and monitoring convicted sex criminals.
“This new legislation will help prevent dangerous sex offenders from hiding behind a veil of anonymity and preying upon our children online,” said Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).
Representatives from both MySpace and Facebook turned up outside Cuomo’s office to applaud the bill. MySpace’s chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, said the measure complemented efforts his company has already made to bar sex offenders. “You know where they are in the physical world,” Nigam said. “We need to know where they are in the online world.”
The bill seems set to pass in coming weeks as it enjoys support from Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan).
Gov. Eliot Spitzer also pledged yesterday to work with Cuomo and lawmakers to pass a law restricting “the ability of sex offenders to use the Internet to prey on children.”
But one professional who deals regularly with sex offenders expressed doubts about Cuomo’s measure. Joseph Abramo, a supervising probation officer for Suffolk’s sex offender unit, pointed out one of the bill’s provisions — requiring that offenders report their e-mail address, screen names and Internet service providers to authorities — already exists in law.
Abramo said convicts currently must disclose such information on lines 23 through 25 of the state form all sex offenders fill out after trial. The real problem, he said, lies in verifying the data.
E-mail addresses and screen names are easily falsified — even though doing so would be a parole violation under the new bill. The legislation does not require social networking sites to cross-reference online identities with other data on sex offenders, such as their computers’ IP addresses, the unique identification numbers assigned to all devices that communicate over the Internet.
About 5,000 of the state’s sex offenders are on parole and would be subject to checkups on computer use that Cuomo’s office says would probably uncover offenders operating undisclosed e-mail accounts.
As for the remaining 21,000 registered offenders who will effectively supervise their own online behavior, “A lot of it depends on self-disclosure,” Abramo said. “If you don’t go and see if it’s accurate, then you’re relying on the honor system.”
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