Friday 14 March 2008Tennessee may soon require convicted sex offenders to provide email addresses and screen names to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) under legislation approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Judiciary Chairman Mae Beavers said the bill would strengthen Tennessee’s laws against child sex offenders and better protect children online. “Child sexual predators know how to reach their victims via the Internet ” said Beavers. “I believe this legislation will be an effective tool for law enforcement to find and prosecute these offenders.” According to the Crimes Against Children Research Center one of five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the Internet say they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the web. However only 25 percent of the children who encountered the approach told a parent or adult. The legislation would require that convicted sex offenders provide email addresses chat names instant message screen names and any other online electronic communications information to the TBI as part of their routine and annual information collection requirements. The TBI would be authorized to transmit that information electronically to companies that provide pre-screening services. In order to obtain information from the TBI this bill requires the requesting business or organization to agree to notify them when a comparison indicates that a registered offender’s email address instant message chat or other Internet communication name or identity is being used on their system. Finally the bill would also provide stiff penalties and/or incarceration for the falsification or omission in providing this information to the TBI. There are 600 000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. An estimated 150 000 of these offenders have been “lost” in the system.
