Oklahoma Governor Henry Signs Bill to Keep Sex Predators off MySpace, Internet Chat Groups

May 31, 2007 -- Oklahoma City -- Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry signed a bill today aimed at keeping registered sex offenders from prowling MySpace and other online web sites where they might come into contact with children.

House Bill 1714 allows a judge to prohibit a registered sex offender from accessing a social networking web site in which he or she has the potential of contacting a minor. In addition, the measure gives courts the ability to require that a convicted sex offender register any email addresses and other Internet-related identification for communication.

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“This is commonsense legislation that will help protect children using the Internet, and it builds on the progress of Oklahoma’s Safe Net initiative,” Gov. Henry said.

That initiative, which the Governor signed into law last year, established a fulltime Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit in the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

HB 1714 is authored by state Rep. Paul Wesselhoft (R-Moore) and Sen. Jonathan Nichols (R-Norman).

Source: Oklahoma Governor