Registered Sex Offenders Must Comply with New Internet Rules

Registered Sex Offenders Must Comply with New Internet ... (Added: January 06, 2009)

Starting January 1st, Georgia sex offenders must turn over internet passwords, their email addresses, social networking IDs. Law enforcement agencies are still trying to figure out how much they' ... (more)

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Registered Sex Offenders Must Comply with New Internet Rules

By WJBF Staff
Published: January 06, 2009

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Columbia County, GA -- When Georgia sex offenders go online, there could soon be more eyes watching what they do, who they instant message, even monitoring their email accounts. "We have people here who are involved in internet crimes, internet crimes against children, and I'm sure we'll come up with some type of plan to make sure we do monitor those people to make sure they're not doing something illegal."

Starting January 1st, sex offenders have to turn in their email addresses, passwords, and screen names to their local sheriff's office. David Rush with Columbia County admits there are some kinks for law enforcement agencies to work out, but once they do, he says it (the new law) will be a plus.

Columbia County hasn't decided exactly how they'll monitor the offenders online or how often, but says if they don't send in the information, they will be arrested. "It's just another way for these people, these sex offenders to know that we are looking at them. As long as they're obeying the law, they have nothing to worry about. But we want them to know that if they try to entice a child, or try to engage in any type of internet porn, we will be watching them and taking appropriate action if they do violate the law,"says Rush.

Next week, the Governor's Sex Offender Registry Task Force meets and could hammer out guidelines for how law enforcement agencies should validate the internet information sex offenders turn in and how often they should check on them. We'll follow up after that meeting.