December 16th, 2007
Bill to add emails to sex registry
The latest wrinkle in the battle against sex offenders: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill to include email addresses and online IDs in offenders’ records in the national registry of sex offenders, The Washington Post reports.
The legislation is called Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act or, wait for it, KIDS. And it’s supported by MySpace and Facebook as well as children’s advocacy groups.
“We commend the Senate Judiciary Committee for passing the KIDS Act that requires convicted sex offenders to register any e-mail address or online identifier they use, so social networking sites can block them from accessing their communities,” said Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace’s chief security officer. “This legislation is another important tool that will make MySpace an even safer place for all.”
The Post quoted a law professor who questioned whether the requirement is useful, since people can easily create new email addresses and Facebook IDs.
