Each year, countless children are harmed by individuals who use encrypted digital tools to exploit, stalk, harass, and abuse others. As someone deeply concerned with public safety and digital justice, I am calling on lawmakers to close a dangerous legal loophole that allows high-risk offenders—especially those convicted of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), human trafficking, or digital harassment—to hide their continued behavior behind locked devices.

This petition proposes a federal law: the Targeted Encryption Disclosure for High-Risk Offenders Act (TED-HRO Act). It would require that individuals convicted of digital sexual crimes, CSAM possession, human trafficking, or technology-enabled stalking must disclose their encryption keys and passwords as a condition of supervised release or parole.

These are not low-level offenders. These are predators who have demonstrated the willingness to exploit digital privacy to commit serious harm. Research and case law support the idea that certain rights may be lawfully restricted for public safety. Just as felons can be barred from owning firearms under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), this petition seeks a proportionate restriction in the digital realm.

Several legal precedents show that such oversight is constitutional and reasonable. In Samson v. California (2006), the Supreme Court ruled that warrantless searches of parolees are permissible under conditions of release. In United States v. Knights (2001), the Court reaffirmed that supervised individuals have reduced privacy rights. These cases pave the way for allowing law enforcement to inspect digital devices without requiring a separate warrant when it's part of release conditions.

When encryption is involved, the courts have also supported limited compelled decryption. In United States v. Fricosu (2012) and In re Grand Jury Subpoena to Sebastien Boucher (2009), courts ruled that providing decrypted access did not violate the Fifth Amendment when the existence and ownership of the data were already known to law enforcement. In Doe v. Shurtleff (2010), a requirement for convicted sex offenders to disclose online usernames and identifiers was upheld as constitutional.

Based on these precedents, the TED-HRO Act would:

Require password or key disclosure from convicted offenders as a condition of supervised release;
Allow parole officers or other authorized personnel to perform digital searches, even without a separate warrant, as long as it is directly related to their supervision;
Consider refusal to comply as a violation of parole, leading to reincarceration;
Protect civil liberties by including clear oversight mechanisms and judicial review.
This isn’t about broad surveillance or punishing people indefinitely—it’s about ensuring that convicted abusers can’t exploit legal protections to continue harming others. Offenders who used encrypted digital platforms to commit crimes should not be allowed to use those same platforms unchecked upon release.

We can no longer allow a blind spot in digital supervision to be the gap where new victims are created.

Please sign this petition and help urge legislators to prioritize public safety and digital accountability by passing the TED-HRO Act.

I urge Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee to introduce legislation requiring digital access disclosure for convicted predators as a condition of supervised release. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a long-standing advocate for child safety in the digital age, Senator Blackburn is in a unique position to lead this critical effort.

Her contact information is as follows 

Office of Marsha Blackburn

357 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Phone Number - (202) 224-3344