Sexual Predator Email Addy Registry Proposed, But Obstacles Loom

December 8, 2006

U.S. Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Charles Schumer (D-New York) say they will introduce legislation in January that would require registered sex offenders to submit their email addresses to their parole or probation officers.

This action, the Senators implied in a statement, would equip social networking sites such as MySpace with valuable tools that would enable them to screen out registered sex offenders while they are signing up for such services.

MySpace, for one, seems to be very receptive to such legislation.

"This legislation combined with our announcement earlier this week of plans to build the first real-time searchable national sex offender database will make the Internet a far safer place for all," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigan (also a former Federal prosecutor) said in a statement.

All well and good, but cooperation between social networking sites and law enforcement is not what is going to make such a law a success.

I'd think that what we need is some sort of way to ensure field compliance on the part of probation and parole officers- some of whom are bound to be more cyber-knowledgeable than others. Yes, even in 2006. And will the database be maintained efficently, remain current, and be well-integrated into the application process these social networking sites have in effect?

And perhaps the biggest question of all: Will sex offenders be able to get around the system by furnishing other email addresses than the ones they gave to their parole/probation officers.