The plans mean the Government can reveal sex offenders' email addresses to sites like Facebook and Bebo, giving the sites the power to ban the offenders from chatting online.

The measures are intended to protect children from being contacted by sex offenders. Nearly half of children aged between eight and 17 have a profile on a social-networking site, according to a recent report by telecoms regulator Ofcom.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "We need to patrol the internet to keep predators away from children in the same way as we patrol the real world."

Shaun Kelly of children's charity NCH said the measures would add protection for children using the internet. "It will mean that those who have previously offended against children will be stopped from accessing certain websites and certain social networking sites that children and young people are known to use."

As well as Bebo and Facebook, the Home Office has been in talks with MySpace, Piczo and Yahoo. Smith added: "I have been very encouraged by the willingness of industry to actually work with us. They want children and young people to be safe when they're using their sites. They want to make sure people get the benefits whilst we minimise the risks."

About 30,000 sex offenders will be targeted under the new laws, according to the Home Office. Offenders who refuse to give their email address when asked, or who give a false one, face up to five years in jail.

The precise details of the scheme will be worked out by the government's Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre and internet firms. One concern raised by internet security experts is how Ceop will prevent sex offenders using unregistered multiple email addresses.

www.homeoffice.gov.uk
www.ceop.gov.uk
www.ofcom.org.uk

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