http://facereviews.com/2008/10/14/facebook-puts-the-smackdown-on-child-predators/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:50:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://facereviews.com/2008/10/14/facebook-puts-the-smackdown-on-child-predators/#comment-104528 Lmom Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:35:19 +0000 http://facereviews.com/2008/10/14/facebook-puts-the-smackdown-on-child-predators/#comment-104528 There are many problems with this. First, this relies on sex offenders being on the registry. About 90% of all new sex crimes are committed by someone who is NOT on the registry, in other words, it is a first time offense. Second, it relies on everybody on the registry being totally honest about what ALL their identifiers are. Those who are trying to comply with this law are not the ones you need to worry about. The ones to worry about are those NOT complying. And that would be easy to do. Third, there are problems with this legislation. It is like giving the government the right to open all your mail. It is a most basic infringement of privacy. Fourth, what about the children who are on the registry? In Wisconsin, they have an eight year old on the registry. In Texas, they are pursuing a case of a 13 year old who received (unsolicited) a questionable photo on his cell phone from a classmate. If convicted, he'll be on the registry. Do we ban those kids too? And lastly, we are relying on the government database to be totally, 100% accurate. The registries are not accurate as they stand! It has been estimated that 25% of the information on the registry is inaccurate. What if they type in one wrong character? It's YOUR email they may list as belonging to a registered sex offender! Think it can't happen? There have been totally innocent people, who are not even involved with a sex offender targeted for vandalism because they were listed as an address where a registered sex offender lived. It can happen to you, folks! There are many problems with this.
First, this relies on sex offenders being on the registry. About 90% of all new sex crimes are committed by someone who is NOT on the registry, in other words, it is a first time offense.
Second, it relies on everybody on the registry being totally honest about what ALL their identifiers are. Those who are trying to comply with this law are not the ones you need to worry about. The ones to worry about are those NOT complying. And that would be easy to do.
Third, there are problems with this legislation. It is like giving the government the right to open all your mail. It is a most basic infringement of privacy.
Fourth, what about the children who are on the registry? In Wisconsin, they have an eight year old on the registry. In Texas, they are pursuing a case of a 13 year old who received (unsolicited) a questionable photo on his cell phone from a classmate. If convicted, he’ll be on the registry. Do we ban those kids too?
And lastly, we are relying on the government database to be totally, 100% accurate. The registries are not accurate as they stand! It has been estimated that 25% of the information on the registry is inaccurate. What if they type in one wrong character? It’s YOUR email they may list as belonging to a registered sex offender! Think it can’t happen? There have been totally innocent people, who are not even involved with a sex offender targeted for vandalism because they were listed as an address where a registered sex offender lived.
It can happen to you, folks!

]]>