Registering Internet Identifiers – Revised
Florida Statute 943.0435(4)(e)1 requires all registered offenders to register email addresses and internet identifiers with their local jurisdiction within 48 hours of initial use. The internet identifiers are your username (moniker, designation, screen name, or other name used for self-identification) and the software, website, or app that are being used.
Due to the vagueness of the requirement relative to the broadness of account needs through the internet, litigation was pursued to overturn this requirement.
While the language of the statute remains unchanged, the court ruling provided some clarity on what is required to register and what is not required.
If you are using the internet in any capacity where you will be communicating directly with another user (one on one) that account, website, app and/or software is required to be registered within 48 hours of its first use.
To clarify, the Judge cited a quote from the FDLE Commissioner of the time saying “the requirement to register an internet identifier is triggered only by user to user communication.”
Exceptions to this requirement are commerce, banking, government, medical and like accounts.
If you have access to the FDLE Cyber Communication System, you can update internet identifiers regularly on that site.
Questions about what should be and should not be registered arise regularly and understandably.
A memo from the Florida Justice Institute:
To: All Individuals Required to Register with the Florida Sexual Offender/Predator Registry.
As you probably know, the Florida sexual offender/predator registration laws require that, within 48 hours after using an “Internet identifier,” you must register that identifier with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). “Internet identifier” is defined as “any designation, moniker, screen name, username, or other name used for self-identification to send or receive social Internet communication.”
As a result of a lawsuit, on September 21, 2018, a federal judge in the Northern District of Florida issued an Order explaining and interpreting the law, as follows:
First, the Order summarized four situations in which you do not have to register an identifier, stating: A username need not be registered based only on [1] a communication whose primary purpose is to facilitate a commercial transaction involving goods or services, or [2] a communication over a website whose primary purpose is the dissemination of news, or [3] a communication with a governmental entity. And a username need not be registered based only on [4] its use on a website or application that does not allow users to create web pages or profiles….
Second, the Order clarified that, in addition to the four above-listed exceptions, registrants only have to register Internet identifiers after they actually use an identifier to communicate over the Internet directly with another user. We interpret this to mean that you do not have to report an identifier if it is used just to browse a website, unless and until you actually use that identifier to communicate directly with another person. This is true even if your use of the identifier falls outside of the four exceptions noted above. Third, the Order prohibits the FDLE from making available to the public the identity of a registrant associated with any given email address or Internet identifier (although it can still give this information to law enforcement agencies). This means that if someone sends a public records request to the FDLE asking for all the identifiers and emails associated with a given registrant, or the identity of a registrant associated with a given email or identifier, the FDLE is not allowed to provide that nformation. However, FDLE will still be permitted, as it has always been, to verify that an identifier is associated with a registrant (without identifying the specific registrant).
This is only a general description of the Order, which you can read in full at www.floridajusticeinstitute.org/order. There are also further requirements in the Internet identifier provisions not covered here, for which you should read Florida Statutes § 943.0435 and § 775.21 in full. If you need advice on how the statutes apply to you, you should consult your own attorney. If you are on probation, you may wish to consult with your probation officer as to whether any special conditions of probation restricting Internet use apply in your case. If you are arrested for violating the Internet identifier provisions, you are encouraged to raise the issues described in this notice with your criminal defense lawyer.
You are not required to discuss any internet identifiers with officers visiting your home. Not unless your probation conditions require that you do so. And you are not required to provide officers with any access to any of your devices, unless required by probation or by search warrant. “Don’t talk to the police” is what many defense attorneys advise for similar situations.
Internet identifiers are properly registered on FDLE’s portal or at your registration office. Once properly registered, you need not verify them except as part of the re-registration office.
Only register names you use for direct user-to-user communications, and even then only if they are used on social sites and social apps. And register email addresses you use.
Do not register names you haven’t used and won’t use for such a purpose.
Do not register names used for eBay. eBay is a commerce site. You think people go to eBay to meet friends?
Do not register names used for public comments you post on FAC’s website or any other news sites.
I am seeking clarification here. So, as long as someone’s Internet Identifier contains his or her name – I.e., – johnsmithbooboo – that Identifier does not have to be registered?
I put everything on my phone with FDLE WEBSITE, including FAC, even though they said I didn’t have to so I don’t get hit with an unwritten law, as I get visits from police 3-4 weeks…as they recheck everything
Another unconstitutional requirement that no one should have to abide by.
I moved out, now I’m free!
Where did you move Vinny?
Yes, please let us know where you moved, and the restrictions you now have to abide by.
I moved to Massachusetts. I am required to register once per year, by mail. There are no restrictions where I can live, work or go. There are no internet identifier lists or home checks. I come and go as I please, anywhere I want.
Massachusetts ahs a tier system. Only Tier 3, the most egregious violators, have there name and address published on a website. Since I am considered Tier 1 I don’t even show up on the public registry.
Massachusetts
Thank you for putting this out. I actually went this month and they gave me a hand out about the online portal. Here is my question. If you purchase a game off a website that has a community but you never speak a word or make a post just simply make the commercial purchase and play the game do you report it? What about an ebay account. Ebay is soley commercial?
Hi , any game that you can talk to or text to another person,has to be listed with FDLE, business like e-bay or wal-mart you do not have to list
I did list it but according to above If I do not use it in social internet conversations I dont. But I have been doing this a long time so I asked but I had already listed it because I have a user name.