No MySpace or Facebook for sex offenders
By Ken Mitchell
New York state legislative leaders, along with state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, have presented a bill that will help protect people from sexual predators on the internet.
The legislation is primarily aimed at protection of teens or children. The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, or e-STOP for short, would require convicted sex offenders (more than 25,000 in New York alone) to register all online aliases including screen names and email addresses, with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. In turn, that data would be passed along to online services such as, Myspace and Facebook, so that the offenders could be blocked.
Though social networking sites have long been criticized for being a tool for sexual predators, both Myspace and Facebook are supporting the new legislation. Recent events have led to further controversy over the use of these sites. "We hope [e-STOP] becomes a model for other states to follow," says MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam.
In an age where computers and the internet is almost a necessity, is the government sure that "virtual house arrest" is the way to go? Sexual predators shouldn’t be allowed to use these sites to lurk for prey, but is it up to the government to enforce that? Couldn’t the government just provide the information, and let the sites decide for themselves. What’s next, are we going to ban rehabilitated bank robbers from having a checking account?
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January 30th, 2008
This isn’t going to stop anyone who has a compulsion for that sick behavior. I can think of a half dozen ways to easily bypass it. I guess it will look good anyway.
January 31st, 2008
Such as the “Anti-Pirate” campaing for DVDs. Only legitimate content owners see those ads. But it looks good to content providers.
February 5th, 2008
People Over the age of 37 should only be talking to older ppl like how old they are… If People like 75 Yr. Olds want to mess around with kids, Tell them H*ll no They can go touch them selfs… I dont want any kids hurt at my age because im only 12 and if ur younger and ur sexually abused, Run Home Screaming in fear after it and never go outside because there are millions of pedofiles. i JUST HOPE MYSPACE AND FACE GET THEIR ACTS TOGETHER AND TAKE PPL OVER 36′S PROFILES OFF MYSPACE!
February 21st, 2008
Sounds good on paper, that is. There are ways and means to go around this, obviously. So it is just a token measure.
And how do they stop would be offenders?
May 6th, 2008
Behind every bad law is a good reason.
There are the stated reasons for enacting legislation which legitimizes the government’s intrusion into every sphere of our lives. These usually employ the “the safety of children” argument.
and then there are the real reasons for the legislation, always unspoken.
In a year or two, when we see how this law is abused to prosecute people who were never the originally stated targets of the legislation, we’ll have a glimpse of the real reason NY state wanted this law.
Child safety is the perfect cover. Tyranny lies beneath.