Proposal Would Force Va. Sex Offenders to Register E-mail Addresses

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 11, 2006 - 3:42pm.

Richmond, Va. - Marking the first legislation of its kind in the nation, convicted sex offenders in Virginia could soon be required to register their e-mail addresses, instant messaging screen names and chat handles into a statewide database. Under the proposal by Attorney General Bob McDonnell, websites would be able to use the list to block sex offenders, and law enforcement officials could also use it as a tool to fight online predators. "We require all sex offenders to register their physical and mailing addresses in Virginia, but in the 21st century it is just as critical that they register any e-mail addresses or IM screen names," said McDonnell, whose Youth Internet Safety Task Force worked with social networking site MySpace to craft the legislation. Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer of MySpace, called it "an important recognition that the Internet has become a community as real as any other neighborhood and is in need of similar safeguards." MySpace last week announced plans to build its own searchable national database of sex offenders.
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