Legislator Mejias Says: We Have to Protect Our Children On the Internet

Nassau County Legislator Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale) held a Town Hall meeting at the Westfield Sunrise Mall recently inviting experts from Parents for Megan’s Law and the Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect who spoke to parents and caregivers about ways to keep our children safe from online predators.

“It is important for parents and caregivers to vigilantly monitor their children’s computers, be aware of how predators are contacting their victims, and protect their children from abuse,” Legislator Mejias said.

Legislator Mejias has worked tirelessly to pass the toughest laws in New York State to protect our children from sexual predators, and sponsored legislation implementing residency restrictions for sex offenders. Last year Mejias sponsored and passed legislation that allows law enforcement to install computer monitoring software on the computers of registered sex offenders and those guilty of endangering the welfare of a child where the crime was facilitated by a computer. By installing hardware and software onto a convicted sex offender's computer, law enforcement is able to track convicted sex offender’s activity on the internet. Last month, Mejias sponsored and passed new and tougher legislation to crack down on these predators by banning them from social networking sites, like Facebook and MySpace as well as online dating services like Match.com and E-Harmony.

“There are too many horror stories of children being lured by already convicted sex offenders misrepresenting themselves through these sites,” Legislator Mejias said. “Combined with my previous cyber monitoring legislation, law enforcement will now be able to further prevent these predators from using their preferred method of targeting our children.”

Nassau County Legislator Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale), second from right, held a Town Hall meeting at the Westfield Sunrise Mall inviting experts from Parents for Megan’s Law and the Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect who spoke to parents and caregivers offering advice on how to protect children from online predators. He was joined by, from left, Carole Aksak, Girl Scouts of Nassau County, a critical issues coordinator; Anthony Zenkus, Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect; and April Langella, Parents for Megan’s Law.