KEN-TON SCHOOLS: Attorney general touts successes, dodges questions

By Daniel Pye<br><a href="mailto:pyed@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Dan</a>

Social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace have given thousands of New York registered sex offenders the boot, but State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to get sites for even younger children on board.

The operation began last year, when the Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act — e-STOP for short — went into effect. When 15 sites cross referenced the state’s list of sex offender e-mail addresses and screen names with their own members, Cuomo said he was amazed to find that more than 4,000 sex offenders maintained profiles on the sites.

“That’s over half the population of convicted sex offenders in the state of New York that we have addresses for,” Cuomo said.

Profiles for 150 sex offenders from Erie County and 75 from Niagara County were among those removed. For many offenders, simply having a profile on a site that would provide contact with children is a violation of parole.

Now that sites mostly serving teenagers have voluntarily removed thousands of sex offenders from their ranks, Cuomo is expanding the scope to 14 pages serving a younger audience. Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law, said children as young as 7 are using sites related to Barbies and teddy bears. But those sites have a chat function that would allow anyone to send them messages, and without proper supervision that could be a dangerous proposition.

“Predators are using your pages like a virtual menu to shop for who will be their next victim,” Ahearn said.

But Cuomo said those warnings, much like those to look both ways while crossing the street and not to do drugs, are repeated so often that they can end up falling on deaf ears. The attorney general said his office prosecutes crimes against children so horrible that it would be difficult to discuss with other children without seriously upsetting them.

“It’s worse than you think,” Cuomo said. “It’s worse and more dangerous than you think.”

Behind an anonymous screen name, a sexual predator has a comfortable platform from which to pursue potential victims. Ahearn said one-third of teenage students chat on-line with people they’ve never met. Solicitations for sexual encounters are up sharply for boys and have nearly doubled for girls since 2000.

Safeguards like the ones instituted by e-STOP chip away at the issue, but underlying problems still exist. Offenders on probation or parole face further felony charges if they maintain on-line profiles that they haven’t confirmed with authorities. Some have their computers routinely monitored and inspected to prevent unauthorized contact with children.

But when questioned about the possibility of offenders still being able to access social networking sites despite the best efforts of police, Cuomo admitted that an offender willing to go to jail for a sex crime could be willing to risk imprisonment again to re-offend.

“Without question, sexual predators, by virtue of the decision they made to commit a sex crime, they are dangerous,” Cuomo said.

That’s why the attorney general cautioned both children and parents to be cynical, skeptical and questioning of motives when chatting with strangers on the Internet. Even seemingly harmless questions — where a student goes to school, what sports they play, what type of hobbies they enjoy — could provide enough information to put children at risk.

Cuomo urged students to be more discerning about the people they communicate with on-line and turn a wary eye to anyone asking questions that don’t seem quite right.

“You have to keep yourself safe first,” Cuomo warned. “No one else can do it for you.”



SITES TARGETED FOR MORE SAFEGUARDING

• Webkinz

• BarbieGirls

• Build-a-Bearville

• Girlsense

• Neopets

• Club Penguin

• Stardoll

• Secretbuilders

• Teen Second Life

• Toontown

• Tootsville

• Whyville

• Supersecret

• AllyKatzz

Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.

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