RSSBritain wants to ban sex offenders from social networking sites
By Michael Hatamoto | Published April 4, 2008, 1:16 PM
The British Home Office today announced it wants to stop convicted sex offenders from using social networking Web sites by making it illegal for them to sign up. Parliament is scheduled to take a look at the legislation before 2009.
Registered pedophiles would be forced to give their e-mail address to police authorities, who will turn the e-mail over to social networking sites for them to be blacklisted. If caught violating the law and using an e-mail address not given to the government, convicted child sex offenders could face up to five years in prison.
"We are working together with police, industry and charities to create a hostile environment for sex offenders on the internet and are determined to make it as hard as possible for predators to strike, as in the real world," Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in a statement.
Critics pointed out that nothing will stop sex offenders from creating more than one e-mail address and using computers in Internet cafes and other locations. Furthermore, police authorities likely don't have the financial resources or man hours to check if offenders have more than one e-mail account.
More than one-fifth of Internet users who are at least 16 years old use at least one social networking site, Ofcom reported earlier this month. In fact, even though some social networking sites have a minimum age of 13, more than one fourth of kids between the ages of 8 and 11 years old have a profile on MySpace, Facebook or Bebo.
Other critics of the Home Office's decision said a bigger emphasis needs to be placed on parents who allow their young children to have access to the Internet anytime, anywhere. The director of Glasgow-based Netintelligence, Phil Worms, recommended parents keep the PC in the family room or other public place, inform children about possible dangers, make sure children use nicknames on social networking sites, and even share an e-mail account so parents know what kind of e-mail their children are receiving.
If passed by parliament, the legislation would have an impact on more than 30,000 sex offenders in the UK.
"Registered pedophiles would be forced to give their e-mail address to police authorities, who will turn the e-mail over to social networking sites for them to be blacklisted. If caught violating the law and using an e-mail address not given to the government, convicted child sex offenders could face up to five years in prison."
Yeah, that will definitely work! Unless they sign in with a different name and e-mail address. ph***!ng Retards!!!
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|I say they ban them from living. Also apparently alex_sporik thinks its normal to have sex with children as long as they are not the same sex as the offender....wow. People like you make me sick.
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|Idiotic Britons. They ALLOW and MADE LEGAL gay sex and marriages, BUT prohibit NORMAL sex.
Welcome to GAY BRITAN!
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|Sex is legal, contrary to what you think.
Sex with children, however, is not legal. The age of consent is 16 in the UK.
Being gay, unfortunatly, is legal. The law was changed to allow equal rights to gays thanks to europe.
This is why they can have a same sex partner, and those rights allowed them to be recognised by law so that If you died your "partner" would be regarded your next of kin. It also allowed pensions and and whole lot of other things to be included so that gays are not discriminated against.
Id rather we didnt promote gay relationships, but I dont make the law.
Because Europe HAS a history, we have allot of laws that have never been revoked. I personally like a law made in York where it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.
To be honest, the US has some strange laws also. I was on a site that listed some and they were quite laughable.
Did you know In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle ?
Or perhaps in Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk.
Maybe in Miami, Florida, it is illegal to skateboard in a police station.
In Boulder, Colorado, it is illegal to kill a bird within the city limits and also to “own” a pet – the town’s citizens, legally speaking, are merely “pet minders”.
In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.
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|I can see the reasoning behind that last one, which actually has some distant relationship to the topic.
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|True, but in defence I was bored, and the site never updates on a weekend.
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|"in York where it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow."
LOL- if you can get the Scotsman to spend the money on a bow and arrow to begin with
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|Learn to spell, pervert.
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|They should cut off the Testicle's thus reducing the sex drive that causes the problem .
Or Chemical castration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_castration
Would be the best !!!
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|Agreed.
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|It's actually been proven that castration (chemical or otherwise) doesn't make a difference. It's an issue of neurochemical wiring, and there is unfortunately very little that can be done about it, other than removing the person from society.
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|im other words a SOCIAL ISSUE ?
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|There is an easier way of keep convicted sex offenders away from social websites!! Let the ****ers die after conviction thats all they deserve anyway!!
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|Personally Id like to round them all up and ship them to Australia. Sadly we don't do that anymore.
Making it illegal to use social networking web sites wont stop them doing it, but it will allow the authorities to charge them when they do.
Innocent until proven guilty is the basis of our law, its not perfect but I prefer it to guilty until proven innocent.
Right now if a convicted pedo is using these sites to talk to vulnerable people there is nothing the authorities can do about it, this is a step in the right direction.
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|Australia has it's fair share of 'guilty until proven innocent' and trust me, that's NOT something you want. And piss off sending your creepy pedophiles here. Your society created them: you deal with them. We've got enough Catholic priests of our own, thank you very much. :p
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|What? Australia is not a jail anymore? When did this happen?
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|I guess this government figures out its going to be impossible to sign up with the email provided.. i mean, how on earth could they get another email address! gasp
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|this is stupid
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|Sex offenders do not show up at the doors of adolescents without invites and/or names and addresses to guide them there.
Parents allowing children to display this information on the net in places like MySpace are just as guilty as if they had handed the child a beer and the car keys.
I never allow children to have unmonitored internet access while in my home... not my son while he was growing up, nor my nieces and nephews when they come to spend the night on weekends. The same rule will apply to my granddaughter when she is old enough to have an interest.
Guidance and teaching children how not to be a victim is key.
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|Although I am all about trying to keep convicted sex offenders away from social networking sites where young children hang out, I think we need to find REAL ways to stop them from registering for these sites.
The criminals could also face jail time if they lie about their primary e-mail address, but I still don't think that will stop the problem at all - but at least the government is thinking that sex offenders chatting with young children online is a problem.
But Owilliams, I agree that teaching children how to spot the problem is a very important step in the right direction.
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|Riiiiiiight... Like that's going to keep a sex offender from signing up.
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|No, you're right. It won't.
But at least if a sex offender is caught and is subsequently found to have flouted this law then he'll get an extra 5 years in jail.
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|Does the ban include people fathering illegitimate children, committing adultery, living together when not married, prostitutes, and politicians having sex with their staff?
If the ban included the above, you have my vote. In many countries, many of the crimes above carry the death penalty. Maybe the UK needs to wise up.
People like John Major, Prince Charles, Prescott fall into one of the above categories. Banning them from free speech sounds wise.
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|You're an idiot. Fathering bas**** children or commiting adultry in no way compares to raping babies.
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|Are you from the bible belt, per chance?
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|Funmaker.
In many countries, just talking like an idiot (or a zealot, or both) is a good reason to make you walk down the Green Line. Careful what you wish for.
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|And raping babies doesn't compare with having sex with your own bicycle....but that will land you on the sex offender's registry in Britain, as well....
http://www.telegraph.co..../2007/10/26/nsex126.xml
People need to actually look at the Department of Justice statistics..or talk to professionals who deal with this problem, instead of the hysteria surrounding the problem. A great number of the offenders are actually family members of the victim, or an authority figure who has a supposedly professional relationship with the victim. Far fewer perpetrators are lurking outside your door in the shrubbery or on social networking sites.
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