By Monica Rodriguez on March 5, 2010 7:46 PM - SOURCE

Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Ontario, announced this week she has introduced legislation intended to keep registered sex offenders away from social networking sites.

Assembly Bill 2208, sponsored by San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, would make it a crime for any person required to register as a sex offender in California to use a social networking site, according to a statement from Torres' office.

If adopted, registered sex offenders who violate the regulation would be jailed for violating the terms of their sex registration, the statement said.
"Despite efforts to educate parents and children about the dangers of the Internet, sexual predators continue to prey on innocent children who use networking sites," Torres said in the statement. "Currently there is nothing preventing sex offenders from surfing the Internet looking for children to prey on."

Social networking sites have doubled in the number of users since 2007 and have become hunting grounds for sexual predators. A study showed that 1 in 33 children were aggressively solicited for sex on line, yet only 25 percent of those children solicited for sex online ever told their parents.
Harris said laws have been adopted meant to keep predators away from places such as parks and school and now regulations are all also needed to protect youth while using the Internet.

"By preventing sexual predators from 'friending' our children, this bill will ensure that our laws keep pace with technology," Harris said in the statement.

To underscore the problem Torres and Harris pointed to three 2009 case that children and teens victimized through the cyberspace. Among the cases is one in which a 14-year-old Pomona boy met a 47-year-old man online who later pleaded guilty of sodomizing the child.