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."

Comments

They should make a new domain

[BlowHole666]

They should make a new domain for sex offender e-mail addresses. Make every sex offender get an e-mail address at this domain and restrict their access to other free e-mail services. The domain can be called. hotmail.com

Re:They should make a new domain

[moderatorrater]

They should make a new domain for sex offender e-mail addresses...The domain can be called. hotmail.com

That sounds more like a domain for their targets.

Newest craze

[Rinisari]

"Your new account could not be created because your email address is on the US Federal Sex Offender List."

YOU GOT SEXROLL'D!

Re:Newest craze

[DaFallus]

$1 to whoever gets McCain's email added. $100 to whoever adds all of Congress!

A good first step

[Anonymous Coward]

Any law to help protect innocent children from online predators is a step in the right direction.

Re:A good first step

[interstellar_donkey]

Good thing I'm not a politician. Because honestly, if the government doesn't teach our kindergartners about sex, who will? Sexual predators, that's who. Sad, sad state of affairs.

KID SPA 2008?

[kinthalas]

Seriously? Anyone else think that's a bad name?

Re:I have no problem with it

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, I read it this way:

Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2008

KidSpa: Where the pedos go

Re:Poor arguments against it

[lupis42]

But let me tell you, it would be far more hilarious to register Sarah Palin's yahoo account than to hack it.

Re:Yes this makes perfect sense

[poetmatt]

clearly that will do plenty. Meanwhile, maybe someone can register bush's private email addresses as sex offenders? Multiple times even?

Seriously?

[jlarocco]

This can't be real, can it? Did he threaten to clog their tubes if they didn't comply?

Sigh.

Re:Yes this makes perfect sense

[boxxertrumps]

If it were not for sex offenders, it might well be that we'd be protecting the children from godless atheists...

For that, I thank them regularly for their service to society.

Re:Yes this makes perfect sense

[Anonymous Coward]

I see it as a way to tack on more charges in the future. He didn't register?! That makes him a CRIMINAL!

Haha! You'll never catch me, internets!

Re:Poor arguments against it

[boxxertrumps]

Because that's exactly what they would expect!

Re:Yes this makes perfect sense

[street struttin']

What if you don't know how many cars you own?

Re:Yes this makes perfect sense

[Anonymous Coward]

What about east asia? They're scum, and a horrible danger to our society.

Re:flaws maybe

[Anonymous Coward]

To prevent anyone from ever signing me up for one of those blights of internet cancer known as "social networking" sites.

Re:Yes this makes perfect sense

[CheeseTroll]

The ones in pieces around your front yard don't count.

Re:McCain is Computer illiterate

[geekgirlandrea]

Yeah, but they haven't figured out how to let someone without a brain use a computer yet. McCain will have to wait a bit longer.