Lawmakers seek to ban convict use of social media [View All]

[The Straight Story]

Lawmakers seek to ban convict use of social media

BATON ROUGE — Prison inmates and sex offenders who have been released should be banned from utilizing social networking sites on the Internet that could be used to solicit victims, state lawmakers say.

Bills addressing separate issues have been approved in the House and Senate and have been sent to the other body for consideration.

HB55 by Rep. Ledricka Thierry, D-Opelousas, bans certain sex offenders, especially those whose crimes involved minors, from accessing social media like Facebook or MySpace, or going into chat rooms or peer-to-peer networks. It has been sent to the Senate for review after receiving 76-0 approval in the House Thursday.

"Currently, we have laws that tell sex offenders how many feet they have to stay away from our children and what places they can go near our children," Thierry said. "With the increasing rate of usage of the Internet and usage by our innocent children, I think it's only proper that we have this legislation so we can tell them how far to stay away from our children on the Internet."

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20110522/NEWS01/105220325/Lawmakers-seek-ban-convict-use-social-media