Below The Beltway

Earlier this week, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell announced a proposal aimed at regulating Internet access for sex offenders.

RICHMOND, Dec. 11 — Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) said Monday that he will push for legislation requiring sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses and instant messaging screen names so they can be blocked from using popular online networking sites.

If it is approved by the General Assembly, McDonnell said, Virginia would become the first state to forge a partnership with MySpace.com to try to prevent sexual offenders from using the site. MySpace, popular with teenagers, hosts 135 million profiles and allows users to link up with old and new friends, many of whom have never met in person.

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Here’s how the plan would work: After the state obtained a predator’s e-mail addresses, officials would turn them over to MySpace. The company, using new software, would then block anyone using that e-mail address from entering the site

There are a few problems with this proposal. First, what’s to stop someone from using a different email address ? Nothing really. Yes, it might be a probation violation, but the odds that anyone would find out are slim. The other problem, as the Washington Post points out today, is that it doesn’t really address a real problem:

About a fifth of MySpace.com’s users are under 18. But apart from anecdotal accounts, there is no evidence — no studies, no statistics, nothing but inference — to show that many of the loathsome predators who have victimized children and young people online are convicted sex offenders. Moreover, if a convicted child molester or rapist were intent on preying on unsuspecting innocents online, it would be easy to evade the proposed law by creating a new e-mail identity. Once a sexual predator decides that he is willing to risk prosecution and imprisonment for his crime, he is unlikely to balk over failing to register an e-mail address.

Every state has enacted a law requiring convicted sex offenders to register their whereabouts with authorities and in many cases prohibiting them from taking certain jobs (as coaches for youth teams, for instance) or from living close to schools. Mr. McDonnell argues that it is only logical to add cyber-addresses to the information that offenders must furnish to the authorities. Perhaps. But there is little reason to think that move will go very far beyond symbolism.

Well, since McDonnell clearly is running for higher office come 2009, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.