Government proposal calls for sex offenders to reveal email addresses

Government proposals mean that sex offenders email addresses could soon be passed onto social notworking sites.

In an effort to protect children and young people who use social networking sites, websites such as MySpace and Bebo, could soon have access to a list of email addresses of registered sex offenders. They would then be expected to either monitor or block listed addresses.

The announcement comes after an OfCom report into the dangers of social networking. With 49 percent of young people in Britain today using these website it’s not surprising to see the government stepping up to the plate to offer a little more protection. Sex offenders who do not provide police with their email addresses could face up to five years in prison.

MySpace recently banned over 20,000 sex offenders from the site, deleting their accounts and forbidding them to return. While this seems like a postitive step toward protecting the youths that frequent MySpace it’s not a flawless plan.

There is nothing to stop registered offenders from holding multiple accounts on these sites, just as there is nothing to stop them signing up for an Hotmail account, separate from their Gmail or Yahoo ! accounts.

Read the full story on the BBCOnline.