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Politics
Bill targets Internet predators
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published February 8, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - Attorney General Bill McCollum says Florida must get tough on sexual predators who use the Internet to view child pornography and lure victims. He's pushing legislation, dubbed the CyberCrimes Against Children Act of 2007, that would as much as triple the prison time for sexual predators who use the Internet to view or distribute pornography depicting children under 5. Possessing such images would be punishable by up to 15 years in prison, compared to just five years now. Promoting and distributing the pictures or images could result in a 30-year sentence, up from 15 years. The bill also would make it a second-degree penalty, punishable by up to 15 years, to use the Internet to set up meetings with children. "All of this is tough," McCollum said Wednesday. "It sends a message we really need: that this will not be tolerated in Florida." Florida is third in the nation for the volume of child pornography posted on the Internet, according to a federal task force. A House committee unanimously passed the bill Wednesday, after amending it to require that registered sexual offenders provide their e-mail or instant messaging addresses to the state. The idea is to include them in a national sex offenders and predators, so that popular sites like MySpace.com can prevent the offenders from using the sites. The Senate's Criminal Justice Committee is expected to take up the bill in two weeks. That committee's chairwoman, Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, is sponsoring the Senate version of the bill. Enforcement of the Internet crimes would fall to the Attorney General's Office's year-old Child Predator CyberCrime Unit. It now has six law enforcement investigators and staffers based in Jacksonville, but McCollum is asking legislators and Gov. Charlie Crist for $3.8-million to expand the unit. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 850 224-7263 or svansickler@sptimes.com.
[Last modified February 8, 2007, 01:21:51]
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by Diane
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02/08/07 10:15 AM
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Finally, some common sense! I would love a job setting these sickos up and catching them. The cycle has to stop somewhere and all we can do it keep fighting them any way we can. We need to be as sneaky as they are.
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