November 29, 2007

N.J. Bans Sex Offenders From Social Networking Sites

New Jersey's parole board yesterday voted unanimously to bar those convicted of sex crimes from using the Internet to network. That this will do very little to help public safety means nothing; N.J. could pass a law requiring registered sex offenders to chop off their own hands and the majority of the public would probably cheer.

There are some questions, of course; where does the law stop? It's targetd at Facebook and Myspace, of course, but what about YouTube, which has commenting and community? Are registered sex offenders allowed to comment here? Are the New Jersey police going to ask me for the server logs so they can comb through for sex offenders? (Okay: No, but you see where I'm going with this.)

Apparently, the rule is you can't post a profile. And sex offenders can still use email. Hey, a feel-good solution that does nothing to actually prevent underage sex solicitation online!

But I think my hypothetical pales in comparison to that of a poster on the always incredible Courier-Post forums.

This is like saying you accosted a Orange once; now you're forbidden from buying oranges. So are you going to have a cop at every venue that may sell oranges?

Please, won't someone think of the oranges?

N.J. bans sex offenders from networking sites [Courier-Post]
N.J. to sex parolees: Keep off MySpace [The Star-Ledger]

Posted by D-Mac on November 29, 2007 08:45 AM
Posted to Facebook , Myspace , New Jersey , Oranges , Sex , Social Networking

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/6686

Comments