New York state's Attorney General and legislative leaders present legislation to keep people online safe.On January 29, New York's attorney general and state legislative leaders put forward a bill whose objective is protecting people from sexual predators on the Internet. Facebook, MySpace and Yahoo offered their support.
In a press conference, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver made known legislation they referred to as "groundbreaking" in what concerns its intended restraints and controls of sexual offenders' activities on the Internet.
"Today I believe we're proposing the most comprehensive, smartest, toughest law in the nation to keep people safe online, especially minors," Cuomo declared.
The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP) comes as a response to the extensive activity of the sexual offenders on the Internet, especially through social-networking sites, which involve stalking and abusing people, particularly minors.
e-STOP would make a specific request for convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses, instant message screen names and any other online identifiers with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. The purpose of this would be the availability of such data to social-networking companies and other online services in order that they will be able to block access to sexual criminals and not allow them on their sites.
Additionally, the bill demands allowing sentencing courts and the state's Parole Board to limit the online activities of those who have used the Internet to indulge in sexual offenses, abused a minor or are expected to relapse into their wrongdoings. The bill would especially interdict the use social-networking sites by numerous sex offenders.
As WashingtonPost informs us, there are currently over 627,000 registered sex criminals in the U.S., about 25,000 of whom are in New York.
State attorneys general gave voice to their concern over online safety, especially of minors who fall victims to sexual offenders on social-networking sites, which are very popular with youth.
It wasn’t seldom that the attorneys general have brought critics to Facebook, MySpace and other sites for, in their opinion, not becoming more involved in protecting minors, but the two parties have lately appeared to reach common ground and have come up with several mutual security initiatives, partnerships and accords.
The need for such an e-STOP bill is quite imperious in that it can help social-networking companies protect their sites and users better.
MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam had the same opinion and stated that laws must match the times and technology. "We hope [e-STOP] becomes a model for other states to follow," he added.
In Cuomo’s view, preferably, legislation like e-STOP would be broadly endorsed in U.S. states and also at the federal level.
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