ALBANY, N.Y. -- Governor Paterson signed legislation Wednesday to protect children who use social networking sites from sex offenders.
The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, or e-STOP, requires sex offenders to register their screen names. Those screen names will be made public. Attorney General Andrew
Cuomo said at least two popular networking sites, MySpace and Facebook, plan to remove users whose names appear on the state's Sex Offender Registry.
Governor Paterson signed legislation Wednesday to protect children who use social networking sites from sex offenders.
The legislations also prohibits certain convicted offenders on parole, probation or conditional discharge from using the Internet to contact children.
Governor Paterson said, "It demonstrates that New York State will do everything possible to try to protect young people from the actions of convicted sexual offenders."
The Division of Criminal Justice Services will be sending out some 25,000 letters to registered sex offenders telling them to disclose their Internet screen names. Failure to comply will result in a felony charge.