'Strongest' Law Against Online Sex Predators Announced In Florida

'Strongest' Law Against Online Sex Predators Announced In Florida
Law Requires Offenders To Register E-Mail, Instant Message Handles


ORLANDO, Fla. -- Florida's sex predator penalties became among the nation's toughest Monday as a new law took effect tripling maximum sentences to 15 years for solicitation and child pornography.

State Attorney General Bill McCollum said new cyber-crime law announced Monday are the strongest in the nation and are designed to deter would-be sex offenders and hand down harsher punishments.

"Child pornography is terrible," McCollum said. "You often have children under the age of five and actual sexual penetration pictures up there. People are sick. They go up to collect these pictures. They make them and distribute them. And they are addicted to this."

The law makes Florida the first state to specifically criminalize trips to meet minors for sex -- regardless of whether a child is actually contacted -- and requires offenders to register e-mail and instant message handles with authorities. That information will be shared with social networking sites like Myspace.com and Facebook.

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It's as simple as that. None of these people are going to say to themselves "Well, eventually I'm going to be caught, and a longer sentence scares me more than a shorter one, so I won't do this." They always think they can get away with it.

I consider it keeping creeps away from children, and after the second offense they shouldn't get out at all.

is actually significantly lower than the recidivism rate for convicted criminals overall, despite the common perception we seem to have to the contrary.

Someone being labeled a "sex offender" can mean any number of things. People picked up on prostitution charges, lewd conduct, or even underage teens having sex can share the title the same as rapists, child molesters, etcetera. Any crime related to sex is eligible for the term.

However, it's true that the recidivism rate is still pretty low. This is in part due to the fact that most cases--particularly child molestation--are based on opportunity and not predation. The "active sexual predator" is actually fairly rare--we just see them a lot because on a percentage basis, this is a country of 300 million people, and if one out of 100,000 is a sexual sociopath, that's fodder for a lot of television.

Just like I wouldn't let a murderer out after their second offense. The crime is that horrific.