News MySpace to share sex offender details

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/05/22/myspace_to_share_sex_offender_details/1

MySpace has agreed to hand over the details of known convicted sex offenders that have signed up to the service.

 

That's good (I think), it will help authorities to understand movements and/or activities, such as parole conditions being broken.

But in a bad way, what if those people were upfront about their activities?

 

Who knows what other kind of information they pass on.

 

aslong as they had a warrent - fine

But if they didnt have a warrent, im worried

 

Why would you be? Users willingly forfeit any and all information they put on the site. Warrants are designed to protect against illegal search and seizure, you don't need a warrant to read a myspace page. Additionally, myspace has full discretion to do whatever it wants with its user accounts. On top of that, convicted sex offenders and parolees are under special limitations designed to keep them from becoming repeat offenders.

People who put up any kind of personal info on their actual page forfeit it at their own risk. What other info does myspace have that requires a log-in? Just an e-mail address, username and some profile info thats already openly viewable on the page? If they gave away stuff like SSNs, home addresses, phone numbers, etc that would be one thing, but as far as I know, none of those are needed to create a myspace.

 

Well isn't sex offender data suppose to be public knowledge, I don't see why myspace took so long to release it.

 

Are we able to distinguish between the "I raped a child" sex offenders and the "I mooned someone at a party as a joke" sex offenders yet?

 

I can understand the need for disclosure of this information and agree with the principles. I'm undecided however, about the disclosure of accounts linked to the offenders... How many people have added "friends" on myspace without ever speaking to them let alone knowing who they are. Would you be happy to have your personal details / ip's handed over without notification?

In principle I agree. In practice it could set a very scary precedent...

 

In my opinion, that is the worst problem with the sex offender list. I have no idea what the ages are that a person can be put on a sex offender list, but to my understanding if one person is 17 and the other is 16 you can find your name on the list- that sucks. Or if parents get upset and don't like who their daughter is dating your name can be put on that list forever (friend of a friend is in that scenario, yeah excellent source. . . ).

I believe if you rape a child you should be probbably be put in prison instead of let loose in public with only your name on a list, and for the guy who mooned someone at a party - his life can be ruined for a virtually harmless act.

L J