It gets easier every day to track down someone in cyberspace.
You can find lost friends and make new ones with the likes of MySpace, Match.com, YouTube and good old-fashioned Google.
On the repulsive Web site run by former Arlington resident Jack McClellan, you can learn where to go to watch little girls.
McClellan is the self-described hands-free pedophile who’s become a celebrated pariah no one can figure out how to lock up.
He loves to discover where best to sit and stare at young girls. He shares his experience online and until recently included photos.
It started at a home in Arlington a couple years back. Hounded by public exposure, he moved to a suburb of Los Angeles and then last fall to Portland, Ore.
No matter where he settles and no matter how closely law enforcement watch him — from Snohomish County deputies to Portland police — he’s yet to be charged with a sex crime.
His Web site’s stated purpose is to “promote association, friendship and legal, nonsexual, consensual touch (hugging, cuddling, etc.) between men and prepubescent girls.”
While he said he does not practice “sexual touching,” he provides links to sites that do.
It is all very icky and very legal.
California legislators tried without success to pass a law criminalizing the behavior of him and his ilk as surrogate stalking.
This Wednesday, Washington’s Legislature pursues a different tack when the Senate Judiciary Committee goes after the intent in spreading the information.
Senate Bill 6301 would make it illegal to publish specific details on where and when to find children “for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of any person.”
Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland, a father of two young children, is the author.
He was alerted to McClellan’s Web site by a constituent in 2006 and checked it out.
“I was just appalled,” he said. “What this sick pervert was doing was imperiling these children by putting a sign up in cyberspace that here they are, come and get them.”
The challenge is crafting legislation in line with the U.S. Constitution.
“If someone wants to talk about pedophilia as a lifestyle choice on a Web site, it is protected speech,” he said.
Publishing specific times and places to find little girls is not protected, he contended.
It won’t be an easy sell to legislators concerned this well-meaning effort unintentionally curbs free speech rights.
Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, is trying from another angle.
She’s introduced legislation to make it a crime for someone to publish personal information about a child, including where the child might be at a certain time, if they know doing so will put that child in danger.
She said it’s based on a law protecting cops from having their personal information published.
“If we can do it for police officers, we can do it for children,” she said.
Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. He can be heard at 8 a.m. Mondays on the Morning Show on KSER 90.7 FM. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfieldheraldnet.com.
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