New legislation could team California and MySpace, the nation’s largest state and the popular Internet portal, in an innovative but controversial way to fight sex offenders who prowl chat rooms for child victims, the Sacramento Bee reports.

The proposal calls for California to require registered sex offenders to report their e-mail addresses and Internet identities to the state, which would make them available to MySpace and other social networks to block participation.

“It is not a divine right that someone who is a registered sex offender should have access to a chat room of 15-year-olds,” said Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Ca & #324;ada Flintridge.

Portantino and Republican Assemblywoman Shirley Horton of San Diego are pushing Assembly Bill 841 in conjunction with MySpace, a massive, virtual community that enables users to share profiles, photos and e-mail.

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