Jan30

Another law, another waste of time, another misunderstanding of the criminal mind

by Michael Farnum on January 30th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Posted In: Crime, Laws, Security, Social Networking

Here’s another law (trying to get passed in New York) to try to stop sex offenders from getting on social networking sites, and in particular those sites where they might contact minors.  I haven’t seen the bill yet, but from what I am reading, it is essentially useless.  Just like all of these laws, it is really just political posturing.

Here are some of the details I have:

  • The bill is called E-STOP, which stands for Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (very witty). 
  • According to InformationWeek, the bill “requires paroled sex offenders to submit their e-mail addresses and online identities to a central registry that will be used to deny them access to social networking sites. The bill also would forbid sex offenders, on parole or probation, from communicating online with anyone under the age of 18 if the offender is classified level 3 (high-risk of re-offending) or if the offender’s crime involved the Internet or a minor.”
  • According to cnet: “It would be a violation of parole for a convicted sex offender to change e-mail addresses without notifying authorities within five days.”

 

So from those last two points, we see that sex offenders must register their email, online ID’s etc., then the sites will deny access based on that database.  And also, it is a violation of parole if they CHANGE their email and don’t notify authorities within five days. 

First, notice the all caps above.  I sincerely hope there is a provision for adding emails and not just changing emails.  Second, it really doesn’t matter anyway because a criminal is a criminal.  If they are not reformed, then they are going to continue to do what they do.  Drug dealers BREAK laws.  Car thieves BREAK laws. And sex offenders BREAK laws.

I applaud the fact that this law is trying to be proactive and will probably stop a few people.  But for the most part, this is useless.  Sex offenders are going to get around this easily.  It is just too simple to fake your ID on the web.  But politicians have to justify their paycheck, so this won’t stop anytime soon.

Vet