Glad we cleared that up.
Posted on 12/11/2006 12:15:42 PM PST by Clint Williams
MySpace announced today it will begin searching its 100 million-plus user list for people listed in a national database of sex offenders. [...]
That leaves just one real disappointment in this announcement: How MySpace plans to use the data. With all that information at its disposal, and a "24-hour-a-day dedicated staff" using it, MySpace could seriously enhance its policing. Instead, the company is taking a sophisticated database and wielding it as a blunt instrument, simply banning everyone on the list from registering or keeping a MySpace account, regardless of who they are or what they did.
Frankly, I'm not sure I'm fond of the idea of a company "policing" but that's neither here nor there. Once Kevin did his screen-scrape the writing was on the wall. A panicked public sure as hell won't countenance nuance, even if he is right as rain:
This is bad because, obviously, banning sex offenders won't keep them off MySpace: it'll just give them a reason to lie about their name or location, even if they aren't up to no good. (My survey found hundreds of past offenders, many with old or minor convictions, whose profiles reflected a seemingly normal life.) Now sex offenders who want to stay on MySpace will all be using false information from the start.
MySpace is essentially refusing an opportunity to detect and imprison active repeat offenders, by moving the entire superset of ex-offenders into the shadows. Does the convicted pedophile have lots of teenagers on his friendslist? MySpace won't know, because he'll be under same veil of anonymity as the flashers and peeping toms.
We know there are some ex-sex offenders who attempt to recidivate from accounts opened under their real names. If you believe they will now stay off MySpace, then the company's policy is good for safety. But if you think they'll simply start spelling their name a little different or lying about their ZIP code, then MySpace has lost the chance to take them off the streets.
MySpace is taking the easy way out. It may be good PR to be able to say that you don't allow past sex offenders of any stripe on your website, but the company should keep its eye on the ball: the goal isn't to keep a former flasher from blogging about his cat, it's to keep current pedophiles from pursuing children. MySpace could tell the difference, if it wanted to. A smart policing effort would use the sex offender database as one of many data points in keeping the site safe. Sometimes zero-tolerance is really tolerance.
LATER: The Times reports on the development, "If registered sex offenders sign up but do not give their real names, physical attributes, locations or post their real picture, they could elude detection. Similarly, there is a chance that people who are not sex offenders might be flagged by the system."
Glad we cleared that up.
W/FOX and the socialists footing the bill and setting this brainwashing machine up for communism, just a few pantywaists perverts get the boost, while the REAL PERVERTS have a Ft. Knox.
I wish I were compute savvy enough to help the FBI capture sex offenders.
OK. Who are you and what did you do?
Just a PR move to mollify stupid parents. Absolutely ineffective, because everybody is ultimately anonymous, but a good move on their part nonetheless.
If, say an offender was named with a common name ( ie, as example John Smith), are they going to suppress everyone with that name. What criteria will be used to pick the right one? What keeps him or her from registering with another phony name? Not opposed to the general idea, but these are serious issues because many people have identical names.
Do prostitutes count as sex offenders? There are a lot of them who spam post "add me" notices (and they will even email them to people since some will block all "friend requests" from strangers (people who do not know the user's last name or email address).
What is Yahoo doing to prohibit sex offenders from using IM?
So any law-abiding person with a name similar to an offender will be banned. So any offender who wants to sign up will just use a false name.
Typical, feel good liberal nonsense.
Yeah. It's a non-starter.
Impossible to do given the parameters of the data.
Garbage In, Garbage in the Middle, Garbage Out.
This reminds me of the time I changed my name from John P. Smith to Jon P. Smith.
Dag nab it, they got me again!
I'll bet you don't have to be computer-savvy. Just go online and pretend you're a early- or pre-teen girl (I'm assuming you're not such) and wait for somebody suggesting you meet.
(You might want to arrange this with the local cops first...)
Worse. I read somewhere that about half the sex offence convictions every year are first-time. Those won't show up on the radar -- until it's too late and the stupid parents' children become victims.
Wow. I got a myspace account for the sole purpose of monitoring my daughter and her friends.
No, I did not use my real profile.
Duh.
"Yes sir" says the helpful clerk. "First I need your present name."
"Joe Sh!t."
"Oh my, no wonder you want to change your name. Now I need to have the name you want to change to."
"Bill Sh!t."
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