Paterson signs bill pertaining to the Internet and sex offenders

New York officials are sending letters to the state’s 25,000 registered sex offenders telling them to disclose their Internet screen names in an effort to keep them from secretly contacting juveniles on social networking Web sites, according to the AP.

 

Those screen names will be made public. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says at least two popular networking sites, MySpace and Facebook, plan to remove users whose names appear on the state’s Sex Offender Registry, the AP is reporting.

 

The screen name disclosures are required under a law signed by Gov. David Paterson that also prohibits certain convicted offenders on parole, probation or conditional discharge from using the Internet to contact children, according to the report.