December 7, 2006
Statement: EIE responds to MySpace Plan and Proposed Legislation to Block Sex Offenders
December 7, 2006
Statement from Enough Is Enough® (EIE) President Donna Rice Hugheson the Joint Effort of MySpace.com and Sentinel Tech Holding Corp., Coupled with Senator McCain's "Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act of 2006" to Remove Registered Sex Offenders from the MySpace Community
"Enough Is Enough® (EIE) commends the efforts of MySpace.Com and Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. to block convicted sex offenders from accessing the nation's largest social networking site. Through this partnership, MySpace will be able to search existing state and federal databases to identify and delete the profiles of registered sex offenders from MySpace by using Sentinel Safe. This technology, which will be built by Sentinel Tech Holding Corp, will include a real-time searchable, sex offender database to contain detailed background information on the 550,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. from various federal and state law enforcement agencies. It will enable MySpace to cross reference and remove registered sex offenders from its community. Additionally, the database will undergird the rest of the Internet industry's efforts to remove sex offenders from their own sites and service and provide law enforcement the ability to monitor these offenders online.
The announcement of this first-of-its-kind effort comes amidst proposed legislation by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday to require convicted sex offenders to register information relating to their online identity, including their e-mail address for inclusion in the sex offender registry. Specifically, it would require sex offenders register their email addresses, as well as their instant messaging and chat room handles and any other online identifiers they use. If a sex offender failed to do so, he or she could be prosecuted, convicted, and sent to jail for up to 10 years.
While there is no silver bullet to protect all children from sexual predators, this effort exemplifies the power of the technology industry to make a substantial and significant impact to protect our children. EIE is pleased to work alongside industry leaders such as MySpace and congressional leaders to help make the Internet safer for children.
EIE has consistently maintained that the battle against Internet predators and pornographers can only be won through a shared effort between the public, the Internet industry, and the legal industry.
The actions of both MySpace and Senator McCain provide the one-two punch needed to make this effort work effectively. These are positive steps toward helping to curb the explosion of sexual predators exploiting the Internet to sexually victimize innocent and vulnerable children. However, government and industry cannot parent, and parents cannot enforce the law. Thus, in spite of these efforts, parents must remain the first line of defense, and we remain committed to educating, empowering and equipping parents to do just that."