Catching online parole violations

States are now catching violations of convicts on parole with the information MySpace is supplying attorneys general. USATODAY reports that “many convicted sex offenders who had profiles on the popular MySpace website are on parole, and some may be sent back to prison for emailing minors.” Connecticut’s attorney general told USATODAY that “more than half of the 210 sex offenders from his state who used the social networking site are on parole. One was returned to state custody last week for using the Internet, a violation of a condition of his release.” MySpace has been lobbying for federal legislation requiring convicted sex offenders to register their email addresses and other online contact data (not just street addresses and phone numbers); such legislation, which also attaches penalties for failure to comply, is now working its way through the US Congress.