House Passes Bill to Track Sex Offenders Online
By Ken Dixon, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
May 25–HARTFORD — The House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would require Connecticut’s 4,100 registered sex offenders to submit their e-mail addresses to law enforcement authorities.
The bill, which passed 149-0, next goes to the Senate.
If approved there and signed into law, it would update the state’s Megan’s Law and sex-offender registry, while addressing “cyberstalking” on social networking sites such as MySpace.
The bill would also give a risk-assessment panel the power to prohibit individual sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools or day-care facilities.
“It appears to be a critical tool for the law-enforcement community,” Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the legislative Judiciary Committee, said during a half-hour House floor debate.
The bill would require registered sex offenders listed on the state Department of Public Safety’s Web site, to provide their current e-mail and instant-message addresses. The registry currently includes their pictures, home addresses and details of their offenses.
Rep. Lawrence G. Miller, R-Stratford, during the brief floor debate, recalled a recent Connecticut Post report in which three unregistered sex offenders were located in his hometown.
“It was kind of embarrassing to have a local newspaper find that out,” Miller said. Speaker of the House James A. Amann, D-Milford, who pioneered the state’s efforts to protect children back in 1995, said Thursday that regulating cyberspace is a natural progression, as sexual offenders think of new ways to contact and entice youngsters.
“The Internet represents a new frontier of sex predators,” Amann said.
“To be effective, our sex-offender registry must always be an evolving piece of legislation with the times,” Amman said during a morning news conference with lawmakers, Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane and a representative from MySpace.
The new law would include requirements and procedures for social networking sites to inform Connecticut law enforcement of possible violations.
Another provision of the bill would require computer-repair workers to report possible instances of child abuse to the state Department of Children and Families if they find such evidence. “Megan’s Law is based on keeping track of where sex offenders reside, so it makes sense to track their location in cyberspace,” Amann said. “Convicted offenders who choose to flout this requirement will face stiff penalties and when caught will be hauled back to prison.”
The bill would also make it a crime for someone to misrepresent their age on the Internet while enticing a minor.
“If it turns out you’re on the Internet using a fake e-mail address or an e-mail address that you didn’t provide to the Connecticut State Police, then that by itself is a separate crime,” Lawlor said during the morning news conference.
Kane said the legislation represents a synthesis of several bills that were active this session.
“With the Internet today, that’s a whole other area for us to be concerned about,” Kane said.
Rep. Steve Dargan, co-chairman of the legislative Public Safety Committee, credited MySpace with being proactive on the issue. Earlier this week, the Los Angeles-based social networking company came to an agreement with attorneys general around the nation and has removed the names of 7,000 sex offenders from among its profile users after using innovative software programs.
Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace and Fox Interactive Media, stood next to Kane and Amann and said the company supports the bill.
“As social activity on the on-line communities increasingly mirrors the off-line world, our laws need to change with the times,” he said. “We can no longer unwittingly provide an advantage to predators on line.”
Earlier this week, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that there are about 100 registered sex offenders who were among those with profiles listed on MySpace.
“I have strongly supported the proposal to require convicted sex offenders to register e-mail addresses and other Internet information with the state,” Blumenthal said Thursday after the House vote.
“This step would be historic — but this one step alone is insufficient,” he said. “Many predators have never been convicted of any sexual offense, and many more use aliases and fake information. Against this threat, we need age verification, identity checks and other measures to protect children on social networking sites.”
Ken Dixon, who covers the Capitol, can be reached at (860) 549-4670.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
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