"As parents, we don't want to think about these deceitful imposters posing as children and befriending our kids online, but the awful reality is that it happens. Anyone who dares to prey on children like this should be behind bars and we need to do everything possible to make that happen," Taylor said.
Statistics show that children online are asked for financial information, personally identifying information and are sometimes solicited for some form of physical or emotional relationship. Daily, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation receives e-mail addresses of suspected cyber predators from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Because of (previous) constraints in the law, the GBI cannot easily obtain the identity connected to the e-mail addresses. This legislation technically allows law enforcement to issue a subpoena or search warrant for production of records relevant to an investigation.
"We have a covenant with our kids to protect them. This legislation will give law enforcement ... tools they need to fight cyber predators," Adelman said.
The most common means by which sexual predators contact children over the Internet is through chat rooms, instant messages and e-mail. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 89 percent of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or instant message dialogues and 1 in 5 youth (ages 10-17 years) has been sexually solicited online.
"Without this law, Georgia is giving the green light for these predators to roam free and go after our children. One victim is too many," Taylor said.
The legislation, signed yesterday, was adopted on Senate Bill 62, symbolic legislation geared toward stopping unwanted e-mails.
