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Richmond Times-Dispatch
Dec 13, 2006
Good ideas occasionally do find their way into the Code of Virginia. State Senator Ryan McDougle of Hanover and Attorney General Bob McDonnell have proposed one such example for the upcoming General Assembly session.
The two want to require people included on the state’s Sex Offender Registry publicly to reveal their e-mail addresses and instant messaging screen names. This would be in addition to information mandated currently — a physical description and addresses for home and work. Such a change would allow Virginians to cross-check the information on the Sex Offender Registry with the e-mail addresses and screen names of those with whom they and their children are communicating. It would also make Virginia’s the most comprehensive offender database in the nation. Last month’s Public Square conversation devoted to social networking vividly demonstrated the practice’s place in contemporary culture. Participants of all ages testified to online networking’s promise and its perils. Parents in particular sought reassurance.
Some sex offenders might use an e-mail address or screen name not registered with the state if they wanted to target a victim secretly. Yet the activation of a non-registered account for electronic communication would constitute a separate offense, and could send a violator back to prison before another victim suffers harm. If such an account were discovered after someone was victimized by a registered offender, additional prison time could be tacked on to the criminal’s sentence — and keep him separated from the general public that much longer.
Social-networking Web site MySpace.com has announced a plan to block its services from use by sex offenders listed on Virginia’s registry. A listing of e-mail addresses and screen names would aid such an effort, and might persuade other sites to follow suit.
Virginia’s Sex Offender Registry should offer as much information as possible so people can protect themselves and their children from sexual predators. As MySpace.com’s chief of security pointed out when praising the legislation, “[It] is an important recognition that the Internet has become a community as real as any other neighborhood and is in need of similar safeguards.”
As the times evolve so, too, should this public-safety tool.
