KXAN TV - New Act Targets Sex Predators Online

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KXAN TV - New Act Targets Sex Predators Online

By: Ellen McNamara

Federal lawmakers team up with the Texas Attorney General to create more restrictions for child predators surfing the Internet. Sen. John Cornyn and Congressman Lamar Smith hope the Internet Safety Act will pass.

The act requires Internet service providers save user information for two years in a criminal investigation. The act would also increase penalties for online sexual predators and add $30 million to a national program aimed at stopping online child sexual predators.

Smith said he is not worried about securing the added funding, in light of the recently passed stimulus act. Lawmakers in Texas are also considering two bills that would require registered sex offenders to submit any online addresses they may have. Lawmakers said the new laws are necessary and would not be difficult to enforce.

"If they are required to register Internet-based identifiers, such as e-mail or MySpace registration forms, they're going to leave trackers," said Attorney General Greg Abbott. "That is going to make it easier to track them through Internet-based searches."

"If the requirement is to register their information as a condition of their parole, the burden is going to be on them to do it, and if they don't do it, then it is a short trip back to the slammer," said Cornyn.

The bills come after officials said more than 90,000 registered sex offenders had accounts on MySpace.

Internet Safety Act would:

* Create a new federal offense for the financial facilitation of child pornography
* Create a new federal offense for facilitation of child pornography or child exploitation by an Internet content hosting provider or e-mail service provide
* Require the U.S. Attorney General to promulgate regulations regarding the record retention of subscribers' Internet Protocol addresses or user information by Internet Service Providers
* Increase penalties for sexual exploitation of children
* Increase penalties for activities relating to material involving the sexual exploitation of children, and those constituting child pornography
* Provide $30 million a year over five years for the Innocent Images National Initiative .

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