UPDATED: Rep. Garlick Working with Norfolk County DA Against Internet Predators

Editor's Note: Article updated Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 3 p.m. with comments from Representative Denise Garlick. 

The stops at the door to the Internet.

But Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, Representatives Denise Garlick (D-Needham), who represents Medfield, William Galvin (D-Canton), Louis Kafka (D-Stoughton), John Rogers (D-Norwood) and a dozen other legislators are teaming up to try to change that.

“Registering as a sex offender means giving police your name, home and work address, and any alias you have used,” said Morrissey. “But sex offenders aren’t required to give their screen names, online aliases, email addresses or web addresses – and that is a dangerous omission.”

That means that predators can pretend to be anyone they want in chat rooms, on social networking sites and in email correspondence without violating the sex offender registry.

“The registry was designed before electronic communication became so much of everyday life,” Morrissey said. “It is time for the registry to reflect the realities of this generation.”

Said Garlick: “The scope of public safety has to be expanded into these new technologies. In addition to protecting children, this legislation will discourage sexual predators from using the anonymity of the Internet to create a false online identity that can be used to probe for potential victims of all ages. With the growth in online dating sites, online personal ads, and other Internet-based forums, E-mail addresses and log-in handles are becoming just as important pieces of personal data as residential addresses and cell phone numbers.”

Said Rogers: “The legislation expands the way we protect our families from potential danger by sex offenders.  So much of our lives are connected through the Internet and identities we created.  We must update our laws to reflect the high technology world we live in."

Said Galvin: “This legislation creates an additional barrier to known sex offenders who want to start communicating with children under false pretenses, and eventually gain access to them. The information will be useful for police, it will create a disincentive for creating misleading online identities and it will criminalize creating identities that aren’t shared with police.”

Said Kafka: “In addition to protecting children, this legislation will also discourage sexual predators from using the anonymity of the Internet to create a false online identity to probe for potential victims of all ages. With the growth in online dating sites, online personal ads, and other Internet-based forums, Email addresses and log-in handles are becoming just as important pieces of personal data as residential addresses and cell phone numbers.”

Morrissey, who served as state Senator from Quincy for more than a decade before his election, reached out to Garlick, Rogers, Kafka, Galvin and other Norfolk County legislators to create support for the change.

“We go into the schools reminding kids to be safe online,” Morrissey said. “This is something we can do to make that environment safer. It is a common-sense modernization that should bolster public safety while costing virtually nothing to implement.”

The Joint Committee on the Judiciary is slated to hold a public hearing on the bill, House Bill No. 3587, on Sept. 27.