The 25,000 sex offenders registered in New York now will have to report their online identities to the state, in a new effort to safeguard children using social networking sites.
A law signed Wednesday by Gov. David A. Paterson targets sexual predators using the Internet, by including their online personas in information they are required to report.
“The Internet has become a playground for sexual predators,” said Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the author of Megan’s Law, the state’s first sex offender registry law enacted in 1995. He called the new law “an important step that will help prevent dangerous sex offenders from hiding behind a veil of anonymity and preying upon our children online.”
According to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, MySpace and Facebook have already agreed to use the database and block registered offenders.
Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace, called the measure “a landmark step in making the Internet safer for everyone and should serve as a model for other states to follow.”
Facebook officials also applauded the legislation.Read the full article
