Talking about this in
class got me thinking about if sex offenders were allowed to have online social
media accounts. I did a little research and as most of us know it is required
for the sex offenders to register with the FBI’s sex offender registry by law.
But I wasn’t sure if they were allowed to have a Facebook or Twitter account.
I did find that in most
states they are allowed to have such accounts as long as they register their
online identities with the state. The most recent state to pass this law is
Kentucky.
This is what the new Bill entitles: “Thanks to Senate Bill 65, they're now required by law to register online addresses and identities, just as they've long had to reveal their physical addresses. Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer MySpace says ‘those that don't follow the law, and register and use that email address, will get a ticket back to jail, just like they do in the physical world.’”
The biggest concern is
for the children who have access to the internet. MySpace is working to create
a database of registered sex offender users. I mean how do you really know who
your child is talking to online anyway? In this day and age with technology
soaring this is becoming a huge problem. But by taking these small steps state
by state and making those convicted of sex crimes against children register
with the state is making the internet a little safer for children today. We can
never really know what kids are looking at online but this Bill makes it a
little safer. But this is just one small step, parents must monitor their
children closely when it comes to the internet because with technology
advancing so quickly, someone somewhere is going to find a way around this
eventually.
Like we talked about in
class, we never really know who is on the other side of the screen. Let’s say I
wanted to try and dig up information on my sister who is a senior in high
school. I can go on Facebook and create an account just the way I want to. I
can find some random picture on Google and pretend to be a 17 year-old who goes
to the same High school and start friend requesting all her friends. They would
never know it was really me behind that random Google picture. But the point is
it’s just that easy. Hopefully all 50 states will follow Kentucky and create a
Bill just like it for their state.
