The ACT has ruled out following the Northern Territory's push to publish the name, image, and rough whereabouts of convicted sex offenders online.
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The Northern Territory on Wednesday signalled its intention to introduce "Daniel's law", named in the memory of murdered Queensland teenager Daniel Morcombe.
The laws, which are still to be finalised, are expected to see details of convicted child sex offenders living in the NT published on a website accessible to the public.
NT Attorney-General John Elferink said the scheme favoured the protection of the public over the rights of rapists and child molesters.
It was launched with the support of Daniel Morcombe's parents, Bruce and Denise, who were in Darwin alongside Mr Elferink for the announcement.
The proposal appears to have won support from some within federal government, with Coalition MP George Christensen urging Prime Minister Tony Abbott to follow the NT's lead and create a national register.
But ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell on Thursday reaffirmed his opposition to the creation of a register.
A spokesman for Mr Corbell said the ACT already had strong child sex offender legislation, which allowed information sharing between the police chief, government agencies - both ACT and Commonwealth - and the courts.
"The ACT will not introduce a public sex offender register similar to the one announced by the Northern Territory," the spokesman said.
Such schemes are criticised for their tendency to encourage vigilantism, their ineffectiveness and their hampering of efforts to rehabilitate offenders.
The NT's laws are based on Megan's Law, adopted in some parts of the United States.
But the US laws, which typically give more precise locations than the NT appears to be proposing, have been marred by horror stories of vigilante justice in the past.
A public register was implicated in the random murder of American sex offender, William Elliott.
He was killed after being labelled a child sex offender for having sex with his girlfriend, who was almost 16, when he was aged 19.
Similarly in the ACT, teenagers in consensual sexual relationships with girls under the age of 16 have been placed on the child sex offender register, despite posing little ongoing risk to the community.
The Australian Institute of Criminology has cited reviews of similar laws that found them to be weak and potentially dangerous.
The reviews also found they could create a false sense of fear and security among parents.
Mr Corbell's spokesman said the AIC's report also showed there was little evidence such a register actually prevented assaults on children by strangers.
"The report also noted that vigilantism in relation to these laws is likely under-recorded and under-reported."
Earlier this year, child protection group Bravehearts pushed for the introduction of a public register in the ACT.
Bravehearts acknowledged the flaws with such schemes, saying they were the least best option.
But the group said that parents should be given limited information to help protect their children.
