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| NSW CoalitionTo Investigate Sex Offender Chat Rooms/Social Website Bans |
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Sunday May 27 2007 The NSW Coalition will look to establish an advisory panel to investigate ways to ban convicted sex offenders from internet chat rooms and social networking web sites, Shadow Attorney General Greg Smith SC and Shadow Youth Affairs Minister Mike Baird said today. ‘’Chat rooms and social networking websites like MySpace are a hugely popular forum for children and teenagers. Unfortunately they can also attract those who are seeking to do harm to our young,’’ Mr Smith said. ‘’About 3 million Australians, the majority between the ages of 14 and 25 use MySpace along and we urgently need to send a strong message that we are prepared to do whatever we can to insulate our children using these services from convicted sex offenders. ‘’That means we need legislation which ensures children and young people logging-on to chat with friends will not be at risk.’’ Popular social networking website MySpace recently highlighted the potential scope of the risk to young people when it struck 7,000 sex offenders from its service in the United States. Meanwhile several bills are before the US Congress seeking to place a check on the internet activity of known sex offenders and recently a 13-year-old girl in NSW was allegedly raped by a man she first met over the internet. Mr Baird said: ‘’When an issue is as important as keeping our kids safe it is above politics. We can’t be under any illusions that convicted sex offenders in Australia aren’t using chat rooms and similar internet sites for devious purposes. What this advisory group will do is investigate ways to protect our kids from any convicted sex offenders using the internet as a mean to re-offend.’’ ‘`As a parent of three young children I have expressed concerns over who my kids are communicating with over the internet. People are not always who they say they are and our proposal would be an important step towards greater internet safety for NSW families.’’ The proposal will be put to the NSW Coalition Shadow Cabinet this week. Child protection experts, representatives of the Information Technology industry and NSW Police Force would be invited to join the advisory panel. Add to: Write Comment
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