In her continuing efforts to protect children from sexual predators online, Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani, in conjunction with the KlaasKids Foundation for Children and former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, introduced on Friday Assembly Bill 755 (AB 755), the California’s Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (E-STOP) legislation.
AB 755 will require convicted sex offenders to register their email addresses and online identifiers and service providers with the California Department of Justice. That information is then made available to social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook to assist them in removing sexual predators from their sites.
“I understand that MySpace and Facebook have long had policies banning sex offenders on their websites and they have routinely used state registries in the past to block thousands of convicts from joining.” stated Galgiani, “AB 755 will help with this labor-intensive process for social networking sites. I look forward to working with KlaasKids and Mr. Kelly on this important child protection legislation.”
“As a leader in child safety legislation, the KlaasKids Foundation realizes that few safeguards exist to protect children who use the Internet.” said Marc Klaas in a statement on Friday, “That is why we are proud to serve as a Sponsor of this bill authored by Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani that provides protection to California’s children who use Social Networking websites. By bringing a framework to California that has proven successful in New York, we can contribute to the safety of this dynamic virtual playground that has so greatly impacted society.”
At the end of 2010, New York State Attorney General Cuomo announced that Facebook and MySpace have removed approximately 11,721 profiles associated with 4,336 dangerous sexual predators registered in New York since the law was implemented in 2008.
First proposed by then-Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly in 2006, the E-STOP framework allows more effective policing and removal of sex offenders from online sites where minors may congregate.
“E-STOP’s implementation in New York and the use of sex offender registries by Facebook, MySpace, and other sites have helped build a safer Internet by removing tens of thousands of convicted sex offenders from social networks. We need to upgrade our protection systems here in California. At Facebook, we led the way in supporting E-STOP and I’m excited to stand with Assemblymember Galgiani as we put the right framework in place to build a safer California for kids and adults alike” said former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly.