Almost Doesn't Count: Is It Always True?

A legislative bill was introduced recently in the state of California, barring sex offenders from “using social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace under a proposed law aimed at making the Internet safer for children as more and more of them flock to the Web.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reported: “Citing horrific cases in which children were sexually assaulted by men they met online, Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona (Los Angeles County) introduced the bill last month, which would make it a crime for Californian's 63,000 registered sex offenders to use any social networking site. The proposed law defines those as a Web site ‘designed with the intent of allowing users to build networks or connect with other people and that provides means for users to connect over the Internet.’”

Apparently, some states already have similar legislations, like Illinois and New York. However, as the article noted, all of the laws depend to some extent on the assumption that sex offenders will police themselves. It is apparent why this kind of legislation is flawed.

In the Philippines, there is nothing requiring a person to disclose their real identity through websites. More often than not, the only time a person’s real identity is required is when transactions are being made which involve online payment. Even then, real identity is required only in credit card purchases. Other than that, anyone can hide behind a cloak of anonymity that is the magic of the web. Thus, the implementation of any law that seeks to prohibit something and yet relies on the goodwill of those people to restrain themselves from such prohibited thing seems illusory. Especially when the persons dealt with by the law are sex offenders. What would prevent them from making fictitious identities and accounts just to get on with their “business”?

I know the legislation is a step towards preventing sex offenders from reaching children. However, as with much legislation in the Philippines where an enormous amount time and effort are put in into making it one, laws like this more often than not just end up being mere pieces of paper.

Read more of the article from San Francisco Chronicle here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/02/BAIN1C98UB.DTL#ixzz0hBawA7Vo

12th.