A Guide to Florida's Newly Released Sex Offender-Alert Web Site

Think about it: Do you have a child, grand-child, sister, brother, niece, nephew or even your spouse that you are worried may be attacked by a sex offender, sexual predator or child molester? The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has established a new sex offender reporting system at www.floridasexoffender.net . This new site allows you to enter your address and the address of your loved ones so that you can receive email updates of sex offenders, sexual predators, and child molesters within a specified radius of the address. I have my address, my grand children's addresses and the addresses of the schools my son's attend on my list. On the "Add or Update Tracked Offenders" tab, you can track specific offenders. You can even search for an offender by neighborhood, email or instant message name! You can see pictures of the offenders and their locations and status. You will receive an email alert every time there is a new offender in your selected addresses and radius. You will also receive email updates every time a specified offender changes their address, email or instant message name.

When you go to the site, you will automatically see pictures of wanted people that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is actively seeking. You can click on the photo for a flyer if you wish to help or if you think you might know one of these people. There are also useful links for National and State registries, Florida Laws, Safety Tips and Victim Information, Florida Law Enforcement and other resources. There is even a button there called "Cyber Communication System. This button is for the offenders only and requires a password to enter. This is the site where sex offenders, sexual predators and child molesters enter changes in emails or instant message names. I clicked on it and before asking for a password it says the following:

Effective October 1, 2007, sexual predators and sexual offenders who are required to register are also required to report all email addresses and Instant Message (IM) names before they are used. In accordance with the Cybercrimes Against Children Act of 2007, FDLE is providing an online option to report this information. The following system can be used by registered sexual offenders and sexual predators to maintain email and IM name accounts.

Please note that use of this system by sexual offenders and sexual predators is optional. If you choose not to use this system, all online accounts must be reported to FDLE or the Sheriffs Office before they are used.

On the left side you will see a box that says "New Offender Alert System" . Click on the Florida Offender Alert System button. You will be taken to a screen with two boxes. One for returning users and one for new users. If you are a new user, enter your email address in the "New User" section and click on "Continue with Subscription". Otherwise, if you are a returning user, just enter your email address in the returning user section. This will make the system send you an activation email. Upon receipt of the email, click on the activation button that says "Click Here to Activate Account". Clicking on the button will take you to a website to create a password. Make sure your password is at least 6 characters long. After creating your new password, enter it again to confirm it and then click on the "Login" button. You are now ready to start setting up your account and tracking those pesky sex offenders, child molesters and sexual prediters. If you need help entering the information, I have included a detailed set of instructions in this article. If you still have problems, feel free to contact me through my content producer link and I will be more than happy to help you.

Here are the instructions:

Update Your Account

This button will take you to a screen where you can optionally add your name, change your email address and change your password. You don't have to enter your name if you don't feel comfortable doing so.

Add or Update Tracked Addresses

Click on this button to start entering addresses that you want to track. On the next screen click on the "Add an Address" link. Enter your address and select a radius. The default is 5 miles. The other choices are .25, .5, 1 and 2. After selecting your desired radius, click on "Add Address". If you wish to add additional addresses, just click on the "Add an Address" link again and repeat the process.

Add or Update Tracked Offenders

Click on this button to track specific offenders that you are worried about or just want to watch or to find out if someone you know is a registered offender. I don't have any specific offenders that I want to watch that live here in Florida thank goodness. If you do, click on this button. On this screen you click on the "Search for more offenders" link. This will take you to a search screen where you can search for the offender by many different means including name, city, county, zip code, offender type and status