NY Bill Aims to Out Sex Offenders Online
- February
- 1
3:20 am Live Window
Keeping Up With the Times
Cuomo — who announced the bill Tuesday with the support of Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — said he started working on the issue after lengthy discussions with Facebook and News Corp.’s MySpace.
As the state urged the sites to make changes to protect children and teens, the sites found it difficult to act without legislation in place.
“You can’t say to MySpace and Facebook it’s not illegal, but I want you to stop it,” Cuomo said.
“Our laws need to keep up with the times,” said Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace. “We keep a watchful eye on predators who leave jails and prisons in our physical world. If we fail to do so in our online world, we unwittingly provide an advantage to these predators, an advantage that they can and will exploit.”
Reporting Changes
Under the “Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act,” or e-STOP, sex offenders would have to report their online information to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. That includes all e-mail addresses, chat and instant messaging names and online social networking identities.
If offenders don’t report changes in their online identities within 10 days, they can be charged with a felony.
The bill applies to all sex offenders.
However, additional parole and probation mandates would be applied for Level 3 sex offenders — considered the most likely to offend again — those who have committed crimes against minors and offenders who used the Internet to find victims.
A Certain Level of Naivete
While on parole, Level 3 offenders could not use social networking sites, access pornography, communicate with minors online, or communicate with anyone for the purpose of sexually abusing children. The bill would make New York the first state to make those restrictions mandatory, said John Milgrim, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.
It would not apply to sex offenders who live in other states but attempt to contact children or teens in New York.
“I was aware of this issue, not as attorney general, but as a parent,” Cuomo said. “I pose the classic difficulty, I have three young girls … they are frankly better on the computer than I am, but there is a certain level of naivete.”
Parole officers would have the authority to check the offenders’ hard drives, but the legislation wouldn’t require tracking of IP addresses, which identify particular computers. The sex offenders would bear most of the responsibility for reporting their online activities, officials said.
Reviewing the Proposal
If passed, the law would be retroactive for all offenders listed in the registry.
“It is essential that we restrict the ability of sex offenders to use the Internet to prey on children,” said Gov. Eliot Spitzer in a written statement. “I have asked my staff to review this proposal, and to work closely with the Legislature and the attorney general to enact legislation that accomplishes that goal.”
At least 13 other states have introduced legislation limiting the online activities of sex offenders. Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arizona, Illinois and Colorado specifically require offenders to provide the Internet communication identities to a state agency or registry system.
Improving Safety
The federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 includes “Internet identifiers” among the information collected on registered sex offenders, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
MySpace.com agreed this month to take more steps to protect children and teens from online sexual predators and bullies.
The hugely popular online hangout agreed to create a task force of industry professionals to improve users’ safety, and other social networking sites will be invited to participate.
New York state has nearly 26,000 registered sex offenders, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited children. Nationwide more than 627,000 people are registered offenders.
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