Existing law, the Sex Offender Registration Act, requires persons who have been convicted of specified sex offenses to register with local law enforcement. Existing law requires that the registration include the person’s address, fingerprints, current photograph, and license plate number. Existing law requires the registrant to update his or her registration annually, upon moving, or upon changing his or her name. Under existing law, failure to register is a crime. Existing law provides that a person who is required to register who willfully violates any requirement of the act is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony, as specified.
This bill would additionally require that the registration include a list of all Internet identifiers and service providers, as defined, used by the person. The bill would require the registrant to update this information, as specified. By increasing the scope of a crime, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.
This would include passwords and user names to Facebook, MySpace, emails, Craiglist accounts, etc. It further puts the individual required to register per Penal Code 290 under scrutiny. The state legislator has not yet defined if the bill will apply to all Penal Code 290 registrants, or just ones convicted of certain crimes.
Certain groups such as the ACLU, and other groups have begun to monitor the constitutionality of those bill. Obviously it broadens the instruction law enforcement has on scrutinizing the lives of sex offenders.
Other have hailed the bill as needed as many California sex crimes are committed either over the internet, or aided by the internet in that “predators can use it to find their victims” as one CA lawmaker put it. The Southern California Defense Blog will be monitoring this bill as it progresses through the legislator.
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