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Japanese Court Demands 'Right To Be Forgotten' For Sex Offender (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the burn-your-clippings-too dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A Tokyo court has ordered that Google remove any results linked to the arrest of a sex offender, after a judge ruled that he deserves to rebuild his life 'unhindered' by online records of his criminal history. Citing the right to be forgotten, the Saitma district court demanded the removal of all personal information online related to the conviction. Judge Hisaki Kobayashi argued that, dependent on the nature of the crime, an individual should be able to go through a fair rehabilitation process, which would include a clean sheet on their online records after a certain amount of time has passed. In this case, the unnamed man had requested that information from more than three years ago, related to his child prostitution and pornography crimes, be removed from Google's results.

5 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Seems reasonable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do the crime, do the time, that should be the end of it.

    The West's obsession with adding people to lists, especially "sex offender registries" which make it nearly impossible to live in any city environment, really amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. If you're still supposedly a threat to society then you should still be in jail. If you're OK to be released from jail then you've paid your dues to society and you should regain all of your rights.

    1. Re:Seems reasonable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It is near the top of a very short list of big affronts, because the implementation does not live up to the spirit of the law. Registries increase the risk of recidivism because they ruin the life of the person.

      A criminal who is ready to change his ways finds out that nobody will hire him, nobody will lease to him, and because of this he cannot make ends meet. Even if the frustration alone wasn't enough to push him right back into a life of crime (which it understandably is), the inability to afford food and heat force the issue.

      There is also the issue of vigilantism, which is itself illegal, but registries enable it. These self-appointed judge/jury/executioners decide to dish out a little more punishment whenever they feel like it, and people who are trying to put their lives back together are made vulnerable to injury/death because if the registries.

      I realize the intent if registries is noble. But the application is far from it. Since they don't work out in practice as they are envisioned in theory, they should be eliminated.

      Justice isn't just about protecting the innocent, but also about correct treatment of the reformed.

  2. Re:Who? by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had no idea who this guy was. Now I do. May I introduce you to the Streisand Effect?

    Do you really?

    Or did you, in your rush to smugly "introduce" the Streisand Effect (which hardly needs an introudction, as it is practically a meme here), fail to realize that you actually don't know who this guy is.

    His name's not mentioned in the summary.
    Its not mentioned in the article.
    Its not mentioned in the article the article is linked to.

    I mean sure, I expect if you put on your detective's hat and went looking for it specifically you would find it, but if you have to use google-fu just to find out that's not really the Streisand effect at all.

  3. Increase the punishment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the punishment is not adequate, then increase the punishment. When the punishment is fulfilled, the criminal has paid his dues in full. That's the way justice works. You don't get to pick and choose where and when to apply justice. Either you apply justice consistently or you admit that you believe in inequality.

    1. Re: Increase the punishment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I WAS molested as a kid, and the registered sex offender list is meaningless. I'd rather have had my attacker stay in prison until he's rehabilitated, not put on the same list two teenagers that sexted are on.

      The whole idea is ludicrous. On top of all that, the moment a sex offender moves intuitive the area, property values tank. There's no good result from it, since most sexual attacks come from someone the kid knows anyway (in my case it was my piano teacher).

      It's just far too nebulous to take seriously. I suppose a repeat offender might need to be tracked, but unless you know how to look up penal codes all sex offenders look like cold molesters, and that's just not true.