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McCain, Schumer: Track Sex Offenders on Web

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Two U.S. senators said on Thursday they would introduce legislation that would potentially protect users of popular social networking sites like News Corp's MySpace from registered sex offenders.

New York Democrat Charles E. Schumer and Arizona Republican John McCain, in a press release, said they planned to introduce a bill at the beginning of the 110th Congress in January that would require registered sex offenders to submit their active email addresses to law enforcement.

The legislation would enable social networking sites like MySpace to cross-check new members against a database of registered sex offenders and ensure that predators are unable to sign up for the service.

Under the proposed legislation, any sex offender who submits a fraudulent email could face prison.

Earlier this week, MySpace said it would offer in the next 30 days a technology to identify and block convicted sex offenders from the popular online social network. It struck a deal with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp., an expert in background verification, to build the new feature.

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The top online social network, which has a large following of teens attracted to its music and entertainment offerings, has also been used by adults seeking sex with underage users.

"This legislation combined with our announcement earlier this week of plans to build the first real-time searchable national sex offender database will make the Internet a far safer place for all," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigan said in a statement.

Under the proposed bill, registered sex offenders would be required to give an email address to their probation or parole officers. Any offender caught using an unregistered email address would be in violation of probation or parole terms and face a return to prison.

According to MySpace, there are 550,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. The company said the new service will be the first national database that brings together about 46 state sex offender registries.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

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