Palo Alto, CA- California Democratic Attorney General candidate and former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly praised today's announcement by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that more than 3,500 New York state sex offenders have been purged from social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.

Kelly worked extensively with Attorney General Cuomo in developing and passing the Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (“E-STOP”), which created the sex offender registry enhancements that allowed for this proactive purge and in promoting similar new developments for the national sex offender registry under Federal law.

"I am proud to have worked hand-in-hand with Attorney General Cuomo and Attorneys General from across the United States to help make the Internet a safer place through pioneering legislation like E-STOP and the strategic deployment of technology to support law enforcement," said Kelly.

"California should be enhancing its sex offender registry with electronic identifiers, which is now required under the Federal KIDS Act that I also actively supported.

As the next Attorney General of California, I look forward to building upon my longstanding record of technology innovation, and will continue to protect children from dangerous online predators.”

Under E-STOP, the nation’s most comprehensive law designed to enhance protections from sexual predators on the Internet, many sexual predators are banned outright from using social networking sites on the Internet while on probation or parole. Additionally, convicted sex offenders must register all of their email addresses, screen names and other Internet identifiers with the state for the purpose of blocking sex offenders from using the sites. Since E-STOP was enacted in 2008, more than 8,100 sex offenders have submitted their Internet identifiers to New York’s Sex Offender Registry.

For the past several years, led by Kelly, Facebook has been leading the charge to develop enhanced safety technology and controls in order to create a safer and more trusted online experience for users.

"Innovation designed to protect children and adults alike has been the hallmark of my time at Facebook, contributing to a safer Internet experience for more than 300 million users around the world. As California's next Attorney General, I will bring that record of innovation, forward thinking, and positive change to California," said Kelly.