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Law Enforcement Requests for Net Data Multiply
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "It's not just phone companies grappling with reported potentially privacy-intruding requests from the NSA and other branches of government: Banks, Internet-service providers and other companies that possess large amounts of data on their customers say that police and intelligence agencies have been increasingly coming to them looking for tidbits of information that could help them stop everything from money launderers to pedophiles and terrorists, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'According to AOL executives, the most common requests in criminal cases relate to crimes against children, including abuse, abductions, and child pornography. Close behind are cases dealing with identity theft and other computer crimes. Sometimes the police requests are highly targeted and scrupulously legalistic, while other times they were seen by the company as little more than sloppy fishing expeditions. AOL says that most requests get turned down.'"
Remember: It's not illegal to be a pedophile.
Again: It's not illegal to be a pedophile.
It is not illegal to be attracted to women younger than 18.
See, I would really like to see the de-stigmatization of normal, healthy, male attraction. I'd also like to see people remember that it is not criminal.
People seem to forget, you see: With all this talk about punishing pedophiles, when pedophilia itself is actually the norm, and in no way illegal.
I'm not saying we should take the "18" rule away. Rather, I believe we should make it stronger, by admitting (perhaps even celebrating) in the first place that men are attracted to younger women, de-stigmatizing it. With that acknowledged, you can then say: "But, there are these horrible effects if you do anything, so therefore..."
And, don't be shy: Make your case. Be realistic. Say: "While, sometimes, relationships between 16 year olds and 40 year olds works out- it's too difficult to sort out the cases where it does and does not work out. So, it's just illegal."
Have some maturity about this. It'll make our society a much more sane place.
If you pushed down the age of the label "pedophile" to, say, 13, you'll have a much greater pool of people in social opposition to pedophiles, and you'll mentally de-criminalize the vast majority of men.