January 30, 2003

COLUMN

SENATE WEEK IN REVIEW

Submitted by Senator Denise Harper Angel

FRANKFORT — This week in Frankfort we concentrated our efforts on protection. We passed legislation that potentially will provide better health care for those that protect us, our veterans. We continued to make Kentucky's sex offender laws some of the toughest in the country by passing legislation that will protect children from Internet predators.

With the wonders and advances of new technology also come new dangers, as any parent will tell you. Recent years have seen explosive growth in the number of children and teenagers who use the Internet on a regular basis, and many of them go online without parental supervision. Recent studies have shown that one in five young people between the ages of 10 and 17 have been approached online by someone seeking sex. In fact, the anonymity of the Internet has made it easy for child predators to get together and share information on who to target.

That's why we took a step this week that could be the first in the nation. SB 65 would require every registered sex offender in Kentucky — more than 6,000 in all — to list their online identities along with their name and address. Their e-mail addresses, instant messaging screen names, names on their personal web pages such as MySpace, and other online IDs would be included, and they'd be listed on the state sex offender registry at http://kspsor.state.ky.us. Parents could check the screen names of the people their children are chatting with and make sure they're not convicted child predators.

Law enforcement, including probation and parole officers, would have one more tool when it comes to dealing with sex offenders. It would also give police one more primary resource when a child goes missing. It's common to check a child's computer when that happens, and instead of wasting time contacting the computer company to locate the real names of the people they were chatting with, leads could instantly pop up on the registry.

Failure to register would be punishable by up to five years in prison for the first offense, and up to 10 years on the second and later offenses. It's a stiff penalty, but we think it's worth it to protect our children.

Going back to our efforts to recognize our military veterans and take better care of them, we approved a measure that would give state employee-veterans access to better health care coverage. SB 22 would allow those 2,000 or so workers to forgo the state's health plan, and instead the state would pay for supplemental coverage under the military's TRICARE plan. Not only would they have access to a wider array of benefits such as dental coverage, the state could save millions of dollars because of the reduced premiums. There's a side benefit as well — this could serve as incentive for more veterans to work for state government, which can use their skills and experience.

We're nearly halfway through this year's session, so the pace will stay fast in Frankfort. Remember, you can always make your voice heard by calling our Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 or by e-mail me at denise.harperangel@lrc.ky.gov.. You can also follow our activities online at http://www.kysenatedemocrats.com.

Senator Harper Angel represents the 35^th Senate District in Jefferson County.

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