New laws track child predators online
Two laws the president signed Monday will increase the coordination between Internet companies and law enforcement to track sex offenders online.
Child predators will be easier to track online because of two new laws President Bush signed Monday.
The Protect Our Children Act--which includes provisions introduced by Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and John McCain, (R-Ariz.)--sets requirements for Internet companies to report incidences of child pornography. It also authorizes more than $320 million for the Justice Department over the next five years for, among other things, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The president on Monday also signed the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act, which requires a sex offender to provide the National Sex Offender Registry with all of his Internet identifiers, such as e-mail addresses.
While the KIDS Act does not permit sex offenders' Internet identifiers to be made public, it does require the attorney general to share the information with social-networking Web sites, so the sites can compare the identifying information with that of their respective users. The bill was sponsored by Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in the Senate and Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) in the House.