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A new bill announced last week by the State Attorney General, and members of the State Senate and Assembly seeks to ban dangerous sex offenders from social networking Web sites and force convicted predators to register screen names and e-mail addresses with the state.
The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, or e-STOP, will also allow sites such as MySpace and
Facebook to screen for and block offenders.

Assemblywoman Ellen Young (D-Flushing) said restricting predators from the popular sites will help prevent them from using cyberspace to prey on children.

“Sex offenders using social networking sites pose an immediate risk to innocent and unassuming children. As our society’s technology continues to expand, so too must our vigilance in keeping this technology safe,” Young said. “We must ensure that we pass this legislation to safeguard our young people from the criminal minds who would do them harm.”

According to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the e-STOP Act covers three areas: requires sex offenders to register all of their Internet accounts and Internet identifiers, such as e-mail addresses and instant messaging screen names, with the State Division of Criminal Justice Services; authorizes the Division of Criminal Justice Services to release state sex offender Internet identifiers to social networking sites and certain other online services, that may be used to prescreen or remove sex offenders from using the site’s services, and notify law enforcement authorities and other government officials of potential violations of law and threats to public safety; and requires, as a condition of probation or parole, mandatory restrictions on a sex offender’s access to the Internet where the offender’s victim was a minor, the Internet was used to commit the crime or the offender was designated a level 3 (highest level) offender.

Such offenders would be banned from accessing social networking Web sites, accessing pornographic materials, communicating with anyone for the purpose of promoting sexual relations with a minor and communicating, in most circumstances, with anyone under the age of 18.

“We have seen far too many times that in the hands of a sexual predator the Internet can pose a clear and present danger to New York’s most vulnerable,” Cuomo said. “With the Internet, sexual predators have found an ideal tool to prey on the innocent with anonymity. While government has enacted dramatic protections from sex offenders in recent years, existing laws have not kept pace with the rapid advances in technology.”

Assemblywoman Marge Markey (D-Maspeth) co-sponsored e-STOP. Markey’s own Child Sex Abuse Victims Act of New York, which will extend the statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes and provide a one-year window to bring civil actions in New York State, was adopted by the Assembly last year.

“New York is the first state in the country to craft legislation with such strong online prohibitions and mandates requiring registered sex offenders to keep law enforcement informed of their online activity,” Markey said.