Plan to list paedophile web names

The announcement coincides with Safer Internet Day

Sex offenders could be forced to register their e-mail addresses and chatroom names, the government says.

Home Secretary John Reid said he may make paedophiles put online identity details on the Sex Offenders Register.

Mechanisms would be set up to "flag up" approaches by them to sites popular among youngsters, he told the BBC.

One computer expert said this was a step in the rightdirection, but added internet identities could be changed "in a matterof seconds".

Broader

Mr Reid said: "We already have probably the toughest regime in Europe for identifying sex offenders.

I have about five e-mail addresses. It's easy to set up a new one in seconds Cliff Saran, Computer Weekly

"But although we are strong, we have to keep ahead ofthe game and I want to bring in stronger, broader powers to protect ourchildren."

He told the BBC: "If we did that we would then be ableto set up mechanisms that would flag up anyone using those addresses orthose identities to make approaches and contacts through some of thevery popular internet spaces which are used by kids."

Cliff Saran, technology editor of Computer Weekly, toldthe BBC News website: "I have about five e-mail addresses. It's easy toset up a new one in seconds... it's going to be hard to track that."

The same applied to chatrooms and networks like MSN, he added - "Come up with a suitable name, and off you go."

INTERNET ABUSE Nearly a third of young people have received unwanted sexual comment online or by text Just 7% of parents know their child has been subjected to such material 4.2 million websites contain indecent images 100,000 websites contain indecent images of children Source: Ceop World net safety day

He said the government's move was a step in the rightdirection and the industry would co-operate - but opportunities wouldarise for organisations to market "premium" - allegedly untraceable -e-mail accounts.

If everyone had a single internet identity for life,like a National Insurance number, this would make it far easier totrack people, he said. Child internet safety expert John Carr, ofchildren's charity NCH, said: "This is a very welcome move.

"It will mean that we can extend the Sex OffendersRegister regime into cyberspace and that will be a great comfort tomany people."

Alert

Under present rules, sex offenders must list their nameand address on the Sex Offenders Register for a period of years afterconviction or even for the rest of their lives.

However it is feared that some continue to find a way around the existing system.

Last month newspaper reports said police forces acrossthe UK had lost track of 322 convicted sex offenders. The News of theWorld claimed one paedophile who had breached register conditions hadgiven his address as "woods" after moving from "a tent near Guildfordleisure centre".

The latest proposal means their online identities wouldbe treated in exactly the same way as their real name, a Home Officespokesman said.

Failure to divulge all the information required could lead to a jail term of up to five years.

Prof Allyson MacVean, director of the John Grieve Centrefor Policing and Community Safety at London's Metropolitan University,said police should be able to search sex offenders' homes andcomputers.

"Internet addresses are so easy to make up and itdoesn't give any sense of who the person is or where their locationis," she told the BBC.

She said this was why the police needed access to sex offenders' computers without needing to apply for a warrant.

Mr Reid was visiting the headquarters of Ceop (ChildExploitation and Online Protection Cetnre) in London on Safer InternetDay, a worldwide event, organised by European Schoolnet, intended toraise awareness among parents, teachers and young people of the risksassociated with use of the net.

Events are being held in 31 nations and a blogathon will record activities held as far apart as Australia and Canada.