MySpace removes Nebraska sex offenders
Round of applause to MySpace for doing some good. During the first half of 2008, the website reportedly deleted 146 profiles belonging to approximately 112 registered Nebraska sex offenders. Nebraska provided MySpace with a list of names of registered sex offenders, a practice that many (if not all) states participate in.
Anyway, it’s obvious that while this is good news, MySpace was only able to delete the profiles of the stupid sex offenders – the ones that use real names or other true identifiers in their profiles. Imagine all the RSOs that don’t use any real identifiers. Imagine all the would-be predators that have yet to be caught in the Cornhusker state.
Obviously this is where parental control and monitoring programs like PC Pandora come in. With full knowledge of everything your child does online will keep them safe and you sane. You’ll be able to know whom they are talking to and where they are going with the monitoring capabilities of PC Pandora. There’s no reason not to know. Removing 112 individuals is great… but think of how many more there are. And that’s just in Nebraska…
MySpace removes Nebraska sex offenders
By North Platte Bulletin Staff
Attorney General Jon Bruning announced recently that social networking site MySpace deleted 146 profiles belonging to approximately 112 registered Nebraska sex offenders. The company removed the profiles during the first half of 2008.
MySpace gathers sex offender registry lists from states, compares those lists to users on its site and deletes offenders’ profiles.
This is the second time MySpace removed the profiles of Nebraska sex offenders from its site. The company deleted 247 profiles in 2007 after a working group of attorneys general from 52 states and territories, including Nebraska, sent a letter to the company demanding it turn over information about sex offenders. The working group encourages social networking sites to help protect children from threats such as sexual predators and inappropriate content.
“This is part of our on going efforts to help protect children on the Internet,” said Bruning. “Keeping sex offenders off social sites is a critical step to keeping our kids safe online.”
A bill making it illegal for registered sex offenders to use social networking sites will be part of the Attorney General’s legislative package for next year.
Internet safety has been and continues to be a top priority for Bruning. Over the last five years, the Attorney General’s Office has:
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Reached an agreement with Facebook, which restricted users from changing their ages and aggressively removes inappropriate content and groups from the site.
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Reached an agreement with MySpace that enhances online safety by developing age/identity verification software.
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Reached an agreement with Yahoo! that shut down 70,000 chat rooms frequented by sexual predators.
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Worked with the legislature to create the offense of Online Enticement.
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Worked with the legislature to pass cyberstalking legislation. LB 142 made it a felony for an adult to send sexually explicit material to a child under 16.
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Increased penalties for the possession of child pornography: one to 20 years for the first offense; one to 50 years for each subsequent offense.
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Hosted Websafe, an Internet safety conference for local law enforcement and prosecutors, educational administrators, community officials and victim advocacy groups.
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Launched www.safekids.ne.gov, an Internet safety Web site.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:36 AM
Since most (90 to 95 %) of sex offenses are committed by someoone who has never been convicted of a sex offense before, how does this help?
August 20th, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Exactly… Which is why parents need to use PC Pandora to make sure their kids aren’t talking to one of the hundreds of scumbags still out there…
January 6th, 2009 at 2:52 PM
I am a Nebraska resident and have lived here for almost 5 years. When I was 11 years old in Washington State, I committed a sex offense. That was 21 years ago. By Washington State’s laws, I still have to register as a sex offender. Nebraska does not require juvenile offenders to register, but they require me to because Washington does as such. In Washington State, I am classified as a very low risk to reoffend; now Nebraska is trying to classify me as a Level 3(high Risk) offender because my juvenile record was mostly created by a lady at an institution who was fired for falsifying progress reports on juveniles.
I can understand targeting actual predators, but this has to stop somewhere. It has become a serious discrimination issue. Children sometimes do things that are extremely stupid, but child offenders should not have to suffer, especially after 20+ years with no sex offenses. both sides of this issue should seriously be considered, instead of blanketing these violations of civil rights under the cover of “OMG, this person’s a baaad person, they committed a sex offense”.
I am being driven out of this state because people choose to discriminate against others, even those who, if they offended in Nebraska as juveniles, would not have had to register ever.
I use MySpace and FaceBook to share photos and see how family members and friends are doing, and now it appears Nebraska is going to put their foot in that as well.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Wow. I feel for you. That is pretty uncool. To make a clarifying point here: I do firmly believe there is a HUGE disctinction between you (your case) and 35-year-old guys that try to have sex with teens (on or offline – no difference). Please know that I do NOT consider you one of the ones that needs to be “watched.” I think there are so many different elements to the system that need to be cleaned up that the way it is now is almost regressive. I agree that a difference needs to be shown between cases like yours and the 35-year-old perv ones…
As for the particulars of your case… isn’t there any way to fight it? Shouldn’t all of the cases that the lady falsified been re-opened and reviewed by a new set of eyes?
May 21st, 2009 at 11:11 AM
Do you realize that it takes next to nothing to be a registered SO?
Do you realize that many SOs are on the registry because of a guilty plea DOWN from what they were threatened with in the first place? Not because they were guilty, but rather because they were afraid of the stigma of being accused.
Do you realize you can be convicted of some crimes (such as child image possession) based on accidents? Intent doesn’t matter. Got some spam? Tough… you’re going to prison.
Do you realize that in Nebraska, you can be a level 3 SO even without a contact or solicitation offense?
Do you realize that many SOs have legitimate business needs for social networking sites?
Do you realize that SOs affected by this sort of thing may lose their jobs or entire businesses by being identified or removed in this way?
Do you realize that many SOs have families and kids?
Do you realize that blanket laws such as this sort actually harm more children (such as the families of the SO) than were ever harmed in the first place?
Of course you don’t… you believe what you are told. That SOs were all convicted SOs are rapists, child molesters, and pedophiles whose only goal in life (or on the internet) is to do it again.
You’ve been had. Do the research. Ask a few SOs what they did. You might be surprised how messed up the system is.
November 1st, 2009 at 7:02 AM
I agree with the other comments. No one seems to realize that the new laws that will go into effect Jan 2010 will destroy so many more lives. The new laws compile all sex offenders into the same catagory. Many people in our society think that if a person is on the sex offender list that they are a pedofile. This is not the case. I feel this is a total invasion of privacy.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:43 AM
Most sex offenses are committed by people who have no record for committing such an offense. Most ex-offenders (an estimated 80% or more) who commit such an offense never commit another such offense. All of these child safety measures we keep hearing about do little or nothing to protect anyone, but cost taxpayers millions of dollars. If you want to keep your children safe, it is up to you to take the appropriate measures. Make sure your home is secure. Make sure you know where your children are and who they are hanging out with. Make sure they understand that not all seemingly friendly people have their best interests at heart. It is already a major felony to sexually abuse someone. Since offenders are obviously not too interested in following the law, making more and more new laws just make more and more laws for offenders to violate. None of them stops anyone from committing a crime if they are intent on doing so.
May 4th, 2010 at 3:13 PM
I agree completely!