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Legislation Would Restrict Sex Offenders' Use of Web

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 January 2008, 09:00 CST

ALBANY -- Convicted sex offenders would have to register their e-mail addresses with the state and would be blocked from joining social networking forums on the Internet, under a deal reached Tuesday by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders.

The measure, backed by Internet companies MySpace and Facebook, also would make it a parole violation and create a new state criminal penalty for the most serious of convicted sex offenders who try to join social networking sites or communicate with minors online.

Cuomo called his measure a cyberspace addition to Megan's Law -- which did not envision keeping track of online sexual predators when the law was created 12 years ago.

"This is another evolution of Megan's Law," Cuomo said.

The deal still is subject to approval by both houses of the Legislature and Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer.

Cuomo said the two big social networking sites had asked for laws that would let them block convicted sex offenders from joining the Web sites, which are popular online gathering places for teenagers. Currently, there is no law banning convicted sex offenders from joining these sites.

"The Internet has become the playground for sexual predators," said Sen. Dean Skelos, a Nassau County Republican and sponsor of the measure in the State Senate.

Currently, about 25,000 people are on the state's sex offender registry, with about 6,500 considered Level 3 offenders with a high risk to commit another sex crime.

The new measure would require all registered sex offenders to submit e-mail addresses, instant messaging and Internet accounts to the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services. The information then would be shared with the social networking sites, which would be able to prescreen applicants. Law enforcement agencies would be notified to determine if any laws were violated.

Under the bill, if a different e-mail address were created by anyone on the list, the state would have to be notified within 10 days -- or that act would be considered a crime.

The measure would impose new restrictions on sex offenders who were convicted of crimes involving a minor, if the Internet were used to commit an offense or if the offender were on the Level 3 list.

For these individuals, it would be illegal if they sought to join a social networking site, access pornographic materials or communicate with minors via the Internet.

The proposal would put no legal burden on the Internet sites, but Cuomo said it was important that the nation's two biggest social networking sites voluntarily agree to the deal's provisions.

"Our laws need to keep up with the times," said Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer of MySpace and Fox Interactive Media. He called the bill "a powerful new tool to protect our users."

The Center for Missing and Exploited Children said Tuesday that one in seven teenagers reported receiving regular sexual solicitations on the Internet.

MySpace said 11 states have passed similar legislation, in which sex-offender e-mail addresses are kept in a database.

Source: The Buffalo News

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