Another pointless unenforcable idea - that is unless you force EVERYBODY to register every email address.
-which is in fact the underlying agenda.
Peadophiles, terrorists, drug dealers are a fear excuse used by the government to frighten the the population into accepting ever more intrusion into their personal lives.
The best tactic to protect your children from peadophiles is to talk to your friends and neighbours, and family about the people you are leaving your children in the care of and about the people who live in your neighbourhood.
And remember your kid is much more likely to die from falling down the stairs then peadophile attack.

mark, leicester, UK

Convicted paedophiles should be baned from using or owning a computer, there should be a world wide data base of people excluded from the internet. Why not concider the requirement of having a licence to use a computer? They licence could form part of a long in, and without such, operation of a computer can not be started. People who allow others to use their computer risk being branded a paedophile in error, if misuse of their machine is allowed.

RayB , Newcastle, UK

Quote "This is something that will be particularly useful in combating the possible grooming of children on the internet" Unquote

Isn't it about time that Parents took on this responsibility? I am tired of Governments legislating for incompetent Parents.

Neillg, Harlow, UK

iI is clear that the only real punishment for such an evil,activity is to ban for life such people from using a pc for private use.
They should only be allowed to use a pc, for acceptable reasons, and only through public terminals.
At all times they must be monitored in the use of a pc,and report to police when they need to use one for any reason.

bill, Liverpool, uk

Yet again we see why this lot should not be allowed anywhere near computer systems, let alone put our details on them.
Let's just think of the governments successes in the field of Computers. There was the Child Support Agency, NHS Records, oh yes Child Benefit details going missing.
These are the SNAFU'S we have found out about.
I wouldn't trust this lot with a landline phone they'd probably bug themselves.

Howard, Basildon, England

Hilarious clueless Government gibber-gabber for the obvious reasons expressed by the other people who have commented, namely yeah a convicted criminal "registers" with his hotmail address and then uses his gmail one or a new one, or whatever, to continue his nefarious activities.

Chris, newcastle, uk

With email addresses being pretty much disposable as well as being free and easily available, how is this expected to be policed?

They can simply get a hotmail/Gmail/Yahoomail or any other webmail account and access it only from public terminals.

This is yet another example of a half-baked, technically unenforceable "good idea" from people who obviously have NO grasp of the technical aspects of the internet and web.

Andrew, st neots, Cambs

Is this what the Home Office spends their time doing? Any internet novice coudl tell them that you can get new email addresses within half a minute, so registering "the email address of a known paedophile" is absolutely meaningless.

Russell Harris, London, UK

Declare their email addresses? Does the home office know how long it takes to set up an email address? About 15 seconds.

So they can hand over one email address but happily indulge in whatever they indulge in with 100 different addresses.

Beate, Vilnius,

Surely they will just create new e-mail addresses and will then go un-detected again?

Enforcing privacy settlings for certain ages etc is a much safer way of running the social networking sites and protecting users.

John, Reading,

But can't they just sign up for a new anonymous email address? I don't understand how this stops anyone from doing anything.

MrSecrets, London,

"The proposal was so hurriedly produced by the Home Office that consultation with the industry has not taken place."
You don't say.
How long do you suppose it will take these people to go get another email address.

Guy , Ipswich,

Which over-paid policy wonk dreamt this one up. E-mail addresses are ten a penny these days. Apart from the free services there a dozens of low cost options - I have 5 e-mail addresses and could set another 10 in the next ten minutes. The same ease of access is true of mobile phones - all you need is a pre-pay sim and an old phone...ebay is full of these.

This is not a deterrent, it’s political PR.

Andrew Keen, Swansea, West Glamorgan