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Thursday, February 08, 2007

Sex-offender registry upgrade in UK?

As in a law working its way through the US Congress right now, the United Kingdom may soon require sex offenders to register their online contact info too. "Home Secretary John Reid said he was also considering making paedophiles add their chatroom names to their other details on the Sex Offenders Register," the BBC reports (hopefully IM and social-networking screennames are included too). According to Home Office figures, there are about 30,000 registered sex offenders in England and Wales. Secretary Reid's announcement came "a day after three men were jailed for using a chatroom to plot the rape of two young girls" and was also timed to Safer Internet Day, celebrated around the world this week. The BBC says "as many as two-thirds" of British teens are using social-networking sites, particularly MySpace and Bebo. For more on the US's proposed law, see my 2/2 issue.

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