MySpace is SafeSpace for Online Predators!
Can you believe this? If you follow the issue (or even just the news), it is no secret to you that the Attorneys General from 8 states (North Carolina, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania) asked MySpace to provide the number of registered sex offenders using the site and where they live. They were tipped off by an anonymous source that said MySpace had identified thousands of scumbags. The AGs sent a letter asking MySpace to release the information to them.
MySpace, in all its sheer PR brilliance and obvious favoritism for the sex offender crowd, is hiding behind the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The site’s chief security officer said the company regularly discloses information to law enforcement officials but said the law says it can only do so when proper legal processes are followed, such as subpoenas, court orders or search warrants, depending on the information sought.
Oh really, MySpace?! Really?! So you are more concerned with the rights of convicted sex offenders who are committing possible parole violations by assaulting kids online than you are with protecting the kids who use your site?
Really, MySpace? REALLY?! Wow… I was Anti-MySpace before… but this just adds fuel to the fire…
I will step back now and say that, yes, MySpace has said they are serious about identifying and removing sex offenders from its website and wants to work with the Attorneys General. Software developed specifically to identify and remove sex offenders from the site has been used for 12 days, and MySpace has removed every registered sex offender that we identified out of our more than 175 million profiles. But how many? And who are these guys who were/are OBVIOUSLY registered and preying on kids… I’m pretty sure that convicted sex offender’s don’t get MySpace profiles to keep in touch with their homies. The public has a right to know, just as we would have a right to know if they moved in next door.
MySpace also says it is working to share the sex offender database and technology with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works directly with law enforcement officials. But when will that be?!
The bottom line is thus: Parents, that site that your child loves to socialize on is a playground for predators… and the owners of the site know it. What’s worse, they know who these dirtbags are, and they are not acting fast enough. It is up to you to protect your kids! Get your hands on monitoring software (like our PC Pandora) that will help you keep an eye on what they do and – much more importantly – who tries to talk to them!
May 16th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Actually, you are incorrect in stating that MySpace has to give up the offenders’ names. The fact is very simple: MySpace is a private entity which cannot divulge private information because of court order. There are some inherent problems to consider:
1. Anyone can set up a site in anyone’s name WITHOUT VERIFICATION. In this scenario, someone could look up ye ol’ sex offender in the registry, create one in his name, and then conduct activity that would be considered illicit, without the offender himself actually going to MySpace! That would constitute an incredibly grave situation in which the offender has to prove he never accessed the site.
2. People with the same names and general descriptions as offenders will invariably be eliminated, and then have trouble accessing the site. Those individuals will then have reason for a lawsuit. Keep in mind that just because registration is free, MySpace still is a for-profit endeavor and is subject to all fair use laws.
The bottom line is that MySpace cannot just turn over information without specific warrants or subpoenas issued through the court system. However, lest you think I’m soft on offenders, I DO support the idea of sex offender colonies where all sex offenders would have to spend their entire registration period AFTER they get out of prison. These colonies would severely restrict not just where offenders can live, work, and travel, but also how they communicate with the rest of the world through the Internet or other electronic devices. If you are interested, read on…
Although I’ve posted to several sex offender blogs, I still feel it’s very important to get this message through. Our children and families are under a greater threat of domestic terrorism than at any point in our country. We should consider not only restriction the length of distance a child molester lives from our schools and parks, but consider a concentrated place to intern registered sex offenders AWAY from ALL children and vulnerable citizens.
It is time we seriously consider building sex offender colonies throughout the western United States and Alaska.
It is obvious. Nobody wants sex offenders to live in their neighborhoods, or even their cities. I’m a parent, and I would fight tooth and nail to prevent sex offenders from living anywhere that children may live, even if their victims were people they knew. It means NOTHING to me; what means EVERYTHING to me is they committed an atrocious crime against children. That’s enough for me.
Unfortunately, these sex offenders have rights. If they are not in prison, they will probably get the ACLU to sue the city and we will have to spend thousands of dollars defending the restrictions.
The ONLY thing, therefore, is to create an amendment to the US Constitution, creating sex offender colonies to restrict where these convicted sex offenders live in the first place. How to do this?
The first thing that needs to be done is to create an outline of such an amendment. I looked at the process for how an amendment is created. Here is the process:
Under Article V, there are two ways to propose amendments to the Constitution and two ways to ratify them.
To propose an amendment
1. Two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote to propose an amendment, or
2. Two-thirds of the state legislatures ask Congress to call a national convention to propose amendments.
To ratify an amendment
1. Three-fourths of the state legislatures approve it, or
2. Ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states approve it.
I would submit that the state legislature route would probably be more effective, but the congressional method can be tried first. It can effectively be used as a litmus test for voting, i.e., if someone doesn’t want to vote for proposing the amendment in congress, their 2008 opponent can have a field day in saying that the incumbent protects sex offenders at the expense of children’s safety, etc.
Such an amendment would solve many problems. First of all, the registry would not exist in its current form. Parents don’t have to worry where the sex offenders live, as they all would, by law, have to live in the colony. This also eliminates the need for GPS, as the sex offenders would be restricted to the colony in the first place. No worries about convicted child molesters stalking your children’s school or favorite park, or trolling on the Internet.
Next, registrants would constitutionally have to be subjected to non-court ordered search of their premises within the zone. In addition, all their mail and phone calls would constitutionally be authorized to be monitored for illicit activities. Internet usage would also be strictly regulated, with all file storage for every computer actually done at the server-level. In addition, emails would be assigned by the administration, no Instant messaging or accessing MySpace or other children sites allowed, and all keystrokes and sites visited will be recorded 100%. All costs for such usage would be borne out by the offender, incidentally.
All registrants would be required to work, with their paychecks being handled by the administrators. Deductions for medical, rent, all services, and everything else would be done automatically, and any credit the registrant have be used for discretionary income ONLY from the colony store. Also, EVERY registrant will be required to go through treatment appropriate to his crime, and be certified as cured; otherwise, he can be subject to a felony charge and returned to prison.
Now, please keep in mind one thing: The sex offender colony is NOT…repeat…NOT a replacement for tough, appropriately long, non-paroleable sentencing guidelines in the first place! THAT IS PARAMOUNT. The colony would exist because society cannot handle the large amounts of offenders in their neighborhoods, with the inherent terror parents have with the knowledge that offenders are around their children. Therefore, the colony is SPECIFICALLY for offenders to spend their entire registration periods in a constitutionally-approved manner, eliminating the need for registries as they exist now.
Keep in mind, many offenders also are able to leave the registry for certain crimes after a specified amount of time has passed. Therefore, once a registrant’s time period has expired, he can petition the administration to be relieved of the duty to register and live in the SORERA zone. A panel of professionals, law enforcement individuals, and the offender’s victim representatives, will go over the request. If they feel the offender is ready to join society, then he can leave the zone and live anywhere he wants, although he will have to permanently register with law enforcement wherever he goes for the rest of his life. Bear in mind, also, that any registrant who has to register for life will NEVER get the opportunity to leave the zone. Only the most benign of the registrants will ever be allowed to leave.
So there you have it. With a constitutional amendment, we can control where they live, where they work, and how they communicate, with confidence that they won’t have a “relapse” when our own children are in striking distance.
All interested people are encouraged to write to me at man4theages@hotmail.com to further this just cause.
November 11th, 2007 at 7:15 am
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