Britain Works to Ban Pedophiles From Facebook
Posted by Nick O'Neill on April 4th, 2008 10:42 AMBritain has been announcing a number of policies over the past few days to protect children online. Today, the Home Office in Birtain released a plan which “involves forcing sex offenders to give any e-mail address they use to police, who will then ask the Web sites to block their access.” Many of the policies being instituted in Britain may force many of the large social networks to create new systems to ensure that both children are protected and that convicted sex offenders can’t register.
The NY State Attorney General’s office has also been extremely aggressive in seeking similar measures to be taken by social networks. The plan in Britain revolves around registered sex offenders registering all email addresses that they have created online. If the convicted child sex offender uses an unregistered email, they could face up to five years in prison.
This policy isn’t full-proof though since it takes seconds to create a new email address on the internet. It is hard to track who is registering what and as such there will be many challenges in enforcement. My suggestion is for the state to simply install a software on registered sex offenders’ computers which monitors their activity. If the software is disable, they’ll hear somebody knocking at their door. What do you think?
(4.64 out of 5)
(4.22 out of 5)
April 4th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
This is really really unfortunate that they will simply pull down ALL registered sex offenders.<br><br>Many 19 year old guys who have had consensual sex with their 17 year old girlfriends have become registered sex offenders and are stripped of all their rights and a treated exactly the same way as dangerous sex offenders. So what, ban this 19 year old kid for life?
April 4th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
This is really really unfortunate that they will simply pull down ALL registered sex offenders.
Many 19 year old guys who have had consensual sex with their 17 year old girlfriends have become registered sex offenders and are stripped of all their rights and a treated exactly the same way as dangerous sex offenders. So what, ban this 19 year old kid for life?
April 5th, 2008 at 7:18 am
A complete waste of time due to the extreme ease with which new email addresses can be created, as you point out. Criminalising the use of 'non-registered' email addresses should not be necessary, as any actual solicitation would be a crime already. <br><br>Implementing this is a waste of time and money on everyone's behalf.<br><br>This is another case of unjustified public hysteria leading to the police and government wanting to be seen to be doing something.<br><br>Research shows that the danger from online predators is greatly exaggerated: <a href="http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/fear_of_interne.html">http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/f…</a><br><br>PS: I think you mean foolproof, not 'full proof'
April 5th, 2008 at 8:18 am
A complete waste of time due to the extreme ease with which new email addresses can be created, as you point out. Criminalising the use of ‘non-registered’ email addresses should not be necessary, as any actual solicitation would be a crime already.
Implementing this is a waste of time and money on everyone’s behalf.
This is another case of unjustified public hysteria leading to the police and government wanting to be seen to be doing something.
Research shows that the danger from online predators is greatly exaggerated: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/fear_of_interne.html
PS: I think you mean foolproof, not ‘full proof’