Western Australia is leading the way in publishing information about known sex offenders released back into the community, with a new website to be launched this week.
The Community Protection Website will go live online on Monday and provide the public with photographs and certain information on the state's most dangerous and serious repeat sexual offenders.
The website has been divided into three tiers for different types of offenders.
Tier one is for sex offenders who have gone underground and do not comply with their reporting obligations.
Information will include a photograph, date of birth, physical description, name and known aliases.
Tier two is for repeat or highly dangerous sex offenders and people can make a request to be given the photograph of an offender living in their postcode and adjoining postcodes.
Tier three will allow guardians to make a request regarding a specific person who has regular unsupervised contact with their child.
There will be nine offenders published in tier one, while 40 to 50 people will be available in tier two on Monday.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Darryl Noye said there were 120 people identified as eligible to be published on the website, but some were still in police custody and would not be published until they were back in the community.
He said precautions were also in place to mitigate the risk of the offenders being "annoyed or harassed" by the public if they find out the offender was living near them.
If someone searches in their area, their name will also appear watermarked over the image of the offender to deter people from republishing the images, he said.
Det Snr Sgt Noye said vigilantism was never acceptable because it could be a case of mistaken identity.
"It puts them at risk of a criminal conviction for a criminal offence that they really shouldn't be committing in the first instance," he said.
"There are other ways of dealing with it."
WA now had the largest sex offender management squad in Australia with the team boosted from 48 to 72 staff to help with the website, Det Snr Sgt Noye said.
"It is leading Australia in providing parents with what would (previously) have been confidential information," he said.
