Plan to list paedophile web names

Sex offenders could be forced to register their e-mail addresses and chatroom names, the government says.

Paedophiles may be required to put online identity details on the Sex Offenders Register. Mechanisms would be set up to "flag up" approaches by them to sites popular among youngsters. One computer expert said this was a step in the right direction, but added internet identities could be changed "in a matter of seconds".

Broader

Mr John Reid said: "We already have probably the toughest regime in Europe for identifying sex offenders. "But although we are strong, we have to keep ahead of the game and I want to bring in stronger, broader powers to protect our children. If we did that we would then be able to set up mechanisms that would flag up anyone using those addresses or those identities to make approaches and contacts through some of the very popular internet spaces which are used by kids."

Cliff Saran, technology editor of Computer Weekly, told the BBC News website: "I have about five e-mail addresses. It's easy to set up a new one in seconds... it's going to be hard to track that." The same applied to chatrooms and networks like MSN, he added - "Come up with a suitable name, and off you go."

He said the government's move was a step in the right direction and the industry would co-operate - but opportunities would arise for organisations to market "premium" - allegedly untraceable - e-mail accounts.

If everyone had a single internet identity for life, like a National Insurance number, this would make it far easier to track people, he said. Child internet safety expert John Carr, of children's charity NCH, said: "This is a very welcome move. "It will mean that we can extend the Sex Offenders Register regime into cyberspace and that will be a great comfort to many people."

Alert

Under present rules, sex offenders must list their name and address on the Sex Offenders Register for a period of years after conviction or even for the rest of their lives. However it is feared that some continue to find a way around the existing system. Last month newspaper reports said police forces across the UK had lost track of 322 convicted sex offenders.

The News of the World claimed one paedophile who had breached register conditions had given his address as "woods" after moving from "a tent near Guildford leisure centre".

The latest proposal means their online identities would be treated in exactly the same way as their real name, a Home Office spokesman said.

Failure to divulge all the information required could lead to a jail term of up to five years.

Prof Allyson MacVean, director of the John Grieve Centre for Policing and Community Safety at London's Metropolitan University, said police should be able to search sex offenders' homes and computers. "Internet addresses are so easy to make up and it doesn't give any sense of who the person is or where their location is." She said this was why the police needed access to sex offenders' computers without needing to apply for a warrant.

adapated from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6333673.stm

6 Feb 2007

Cross-border cooperation in the European Union to prevent sex offenders from working with children.  Read the briefing from the NSPCC, February 2007

Research shows that children are more likely to be sexually abused by someone they know including relatives, family friends and people in positions of trust than by a stranger.  Children do not always tell about abuse and abuse can continue for years.  Read the NSPCC Sexual Abuse Briefing, 2006

Downing Street says there are "genuine difficulties" in allowing the public to have more information about the whereabouts of paedophiles. 

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