Slashdot Mirror
Sex Offender E-Mail Registry Signed Into Law
As noted in Wired yesterday, tragedy in chaos writes, "Senator and Presidential-hopeful John McCain has managed to get a new bill signed into law, in the hope of ridding online social networks of the sexual predation of children. The 'Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2008,' as it is called, calls for a database to be made in which all registered sexual offenders must also register their e-mail addresses so that MySpace, Facebook, etc. can run current and hopeful users through it, and eliminate access to the offenders. Though a noble goal, this is not very well thought out in methodology. They are asking known criminals to be honest, and are expecting them not to utilize any of the free and readily available e-mail services that exist so as to circumvent the system. There is also a potential for the crafty sex offender to possibly cause false positives by just registering an address that does not belong to them, thereby drawing in innocent bystanders."
Well, if they did stupid mistakes, it would be their faults. A college boy having sex with a 12 girl isn't that much worse than a someone who used drug to rape someone, but the later would probably also charged with abusing illegal substances and violence, etc... Why would anyone engage in sexual activity before marriage is completely beyond me. Non of these issues would happen if people just behave.
However, there is a serious problem with the jail system if those who are imprisoned do not reform. If jail is merely for containing "dangerous" people, why don't we just ship them all to anarctica or some deserts and asked them to fend for their own? But if they are truely dangerous, they wouldn't be stupid enough to get caught in the first place.