In The News: New York State Senate Passes Law To Protect Teens Online

ALBANY, NY. (AP) - It's called the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act. And it's the latest attempt by lawmakers to help protect teenagers who log on to social-networking sites. The New York State Senate has approved the measure, which would require registered sex offenders to provide their online aliases to state officials. In turn, state officials would share the identities of the offenders to Web hangouts like MySpace and Facebook. It's expected the measure will also pass the state Assembly. State law already requires offenders to provide screen names, but the new legislation would expand what they must supply and permit sharing with online services. Sites could then screen or remove offenders and notify authorities about illegal behavior.

On the Net:

New York's sex offender database site: