Friday, February 01, 2008

Keeping Predators off Social Networking Sites

You've heard about them, places like Myspace, Facebook, etc., the "social media" sites built to allow people to share their world and friends with each other. You've also heard, no doubt, of sexual predators using these anonymous mediums to hone their craft. Now there's new legislation proposed in New York -

From Media Daily Online - "The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, would require sex offenders to register their email addresses and instant message screen names. That information would be turned over to social networking sites, which could then prevent people from creating profiles. Several weeks ago, MySpace said it was ousting convicted sex offenders from the site by comparing names of users with state databases."

This is good legislation, that should truly become national legislation, though obviously there are worlds of issues with respect to enforceability - we believe these sorts of convicted or charged felons should simply not be allowed to use online, electronic communications medium. In fact, all of their phone calls should be either recorded, or intercepted by proxy for approval. Just like if they tried to walk into a school, they'd be intercepted by security officials.

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