KY moves to create email registry for sex offenders

In Kentucky, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill to require convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses and instant message, chat and online screen names.

Failure to do so would make become a Class D felony, which carries a sentence of one to five years. A subsequent offense would be a Class C felony, which carries a penalty of five to 10 years.

Norman Arflak, secretary of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, told the committee the registry would give law enforcement a place to start when investigating sex crimes against children when computers are involved. The registry would allow law enforcement to create a searchable database of the screen names.

The bill would allow for the re-imprisonment of parolees. If a paroled offender communicates with a child over the Internet -- a parole violation -- but does not actually commit a crime, the offender could still be thrown back into prison.