BILL ANALYSIS
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1204|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1204
Author: Runner (R), et al
Amended: 5/6/10
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/20/10
AYES: Leno, Cogdill, Cedillo, Hancock, Huff, Steinberg,
Wright
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 9-0, 5/10/10
AYES: Kehoe, Cox, Alquist, Leno, Price, Walters, Wolk,
Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Corbett, Denham
SUBJECT : Social networking Web sites: prohibition
applied to paroled
sex offenders
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires all registered sex offenders
to provide all of their e-mail addresses, online addresses,
and instant messaging user names to the local law
enforcement agencies no later than December 31, 2011, and,
thereafter, at the time of original registration and within
30 days of establishing a new online account. Failure to
register this information will be punishable as a
misdemeanor.
ANALYSIS : Existing law requires persons who have been
CONTINUED
SB 1204
Page
2
convicted of specified crimes, and other persons as
required by a court, to register as a sex offender.
Existing law sets forth the procedure for doing so and
provides that a violation of the sex offender registration
law is a crime, punishable, as specified.
This bill requires a person who is required to register as
a sex offender to inform the law enforcement agency with
which he/she last registered of all of his/her online
addresses, e-mail addresses, and instant messaging user
names no later than December 31, 2011, and, thereafter, at
the time of original registration and within 30 days of
establishing a new online account, and makes it a
misdemeanor to fail to do so. This bill permits
information received pursuant to these provisions to be
shared with the Department of Justice and other law
enforcement agencies, upon request.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Register new information Potentially minor local
costs; unlikely Local
with local law enforcement to be considered a
reimbursable mandate
New misdemeanor Unknown, non-reimbursable local
costsLocal
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/11/10)
California State Sheriffs' Association
District Attorney of Riverside County
Junior League of California
Peace Officers Research Association of California
San Bernardino County Sheriff
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/11/10)
CONTINUED
SB 1204
Page
3
American Civil Liberties Union
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
California Public Defenders Association
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office:
"With passage of this bill, California would be the
second state to enact such a law. New York became the
first when it passed a similar bill in 2008, known as the
Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act
(e-STOP), which was sponsored by New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo.
"Under e-STOP, convicted sex offenders must register all
of their e-mail addresses, screen names, and other
Internet identifiers with law enforcement.
"On February 2, 2010, Cuomo declared that more than 4,336
registered New York sex offenders had been purged from
major social network websites since the bill passed,
including a man convicted of assaulting a 14-year-old boy
and another man who raped a 2-year-old girl.
"SB 1204, California's version of e-STOP, will allow law
enforcement to better protect children from sexual
predators who establish online addresses in order to
develop 'cyber-relationships' with young people.
"As John Walsh, co-founder of the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children and host of 'America's
Most Wanted', stated in a press release issued at the
time of the New York law's passage, 'Social networking
websites have become the private hunting grounds for
sexual predators and they use the safety and anonymity of
the internet to groom their next victims.'
"It's time that California's laws catch up with the
social networking trend."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : No letters on file.
CONTINUED
SB 1204
Page
4
RJG:mw 5/11/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED