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Photograph of Governor Paterson and Senator Schumer during an agricultural town hall upstate by David Duprey/AP
With all the horror stories about sexual predators trolling the Internet for young victims, Governor Paterson signed legislation requiring convicted sexual offenders to register their screen names with the state. Paterson said, "New York State will do everything possible to try to protect young people from the actions of convicted sexual offenders."
Called the e-STOP law, the sexual offenders must register any and all Internet and email accounts with the state, and if they don't or change them without updating the state, it will be considered a felony. Facebook and MySpace has already agreed to use the information to remove users who are sexual offenders.
Lawmakers are also trying to stop videos of violent incidents from being distributed on the Internet, such as "bum fighting," animal attacks and the recent videos of cheerleaders beating up another girl. Currently, the AP reports there's no sentence for making a video of an attack "that could continue to embarrass or traumatize a victim for years."
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This is a good move by NYS governor. (as in chest)
But I have noticed software out there
helping to "mask" your identity.
There are ways to go around this law
and not get caught.
And if caught, it is a felony.
That should be unconstitutional.
The Constitution allows permanent removal of rights from convicted criminals. I generally don't have a problem with these laws, but what I am concerned about is who gets classified as a "sexual offender". We've heard horror stories of public urination perps having to register as sex offenders.
As for the technical side, this will be unenforceable for the tech-savvy. But I'm sure some idiots will get caught up and it'll be trumpeted as a success.
The Constitution allows permanent removal of rights from convicted criminals.
News to me.
this is horrific. Now if someone gets arrested for a legitimate crime when they're 18, they're screwed for life. What if they happen to work in the tech industry? What if their job is computers?
This is utterly disgusting.
In fact... here's another thought.
What ever happened to "I paid my debt to society"? Are these debts now never-ending? Is it now impossible for people to ever pay their debt and redeem themselves and live normal lives?
This is of the same type (but not scale) as forcing sex offenders in Florida to live under a bridge because every single other residence in the city is within 5000 feet of a school, park, or museum.
The more difficult you make it to let these people attempt to live normal lives, the less likely it is they WILL be able to live normal lives, no matter how well-adjusted they are.
rawb, I completely agree with you. Why have we forgotten that prison is supposed to be the punishment? If we think the duration in jail should be longer, fine. Sexual predation convictions are starting to seem like too much of a witch hunt - people's reactions often seem more violent against a rapist than a murderer, which really seems to devalue human life.