An innovative but controversial way to fight sex offenders

By JIM SANDERS
Monday, April 16, 2007

New legislation could team California and MySpace, the nation's most populous state and the widely used Internet portal, in an innovative but controversial way to fight sex offenders who prowl chat rooms for child victims.

The proposal calls for California to require registered sex offenders to report their e-mail addresses and Internet identities to the state, which would make them available to MySpace and other social networks to block participation.

"It is not a divine right that someone who is a registered sex offender should have access to a chat room of 15-year-olds," said Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino.

Portantino and Republican Assemblywoman Shirley Horton are pushing the bill in conjunction with MySpace, a massive virtual community that enables users to share profiles, photos and e-mail.

Opponents argue that the state should not distribute personal identifying information to a profit-making firm, and that the measure would infringe upon free-speech rights of many convicts who have not acted suspiciously. The legislation also raises questions about whether the state would be contributing to a new form of punishment for the 88,000 sex offenders who have been freed from prison to resume private lives.

Former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Democrat, said the proposal could hurt many offenders who are turning their lives around or whose crimes involved a spouse or adult acquaintance, not a child or stranger.

"At some point, we have to separate the guilty from the less guilty from the innocent," she said. "But we're not willing to do that because there's too much politics in this crime-and-punishment business."

California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, representing defense lawyers, said the bill would accomplish little because predators easily could change their e-mail or instant-message addresses after reporting them to authorities.

The public is best served by rehabilitating offenders, and "demonizing them is truly counterproductive," the group said in a written statement.

This measure is similar to proposed federal legislation and to new laws in Kentucky and Virginia.

"MySpace is committed to working with California authorities to create ways to remove these offenders from social-networking sites and keep teens safe online," Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in a written statement.

Horton said the legislation is timely because "online chat rooms or hangouts are exploding in popularity."

MySpace, for example, serves about 100 million visitors per month.

The bill would expand a current law that requires sex offenders to report their home addresses to police agencies. The new mandate would take effect in July 2010.

The legislation also would create a new felony targeting adults who lie about their age online in an attempt to commit various sex crimes.

No statistics are readily available on the number of child sex crimes precipitated by Internet contact.

Authorities say misbehavior is common.

"Dateline NBC" has broadcast numerous shows in which alleged pedophiles are lured into a sting after sexual conversation online.

Kevin Poulsen of Wired.com, which reports on technology trends, wrote in October that he performed an automated search of MySpace that found 744 profiles of people listed on the federal sex offender registry _ including 497 who had victimized children.

Parry Aftab, a New York attorney and author on cyber-crime issues, said finding a potential victim on the Internet is like "shooting fish in a barrel."

"You can find the kids who are more vulnerable, and therefore more likely to engage in these high-risk activities by reading what they're posting on their profiles," she said.

Harriet Salarno, president of Crime Victims United, applauded the bill.

"Anything that can save a child from being lured by a child molester, we support," she said. "Even if it helps just one child."

(Jim Sanders can be reached at jsanders@sacbee.com.)