Illinois outlaws sex offenders from using Facebook, MySpace
- 17 August, 2009 05:54
- Comments 3
The state of Illinois made it a law this week that convicted sex offenders cannot use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed Bill HB 1314 this week, making it a class 4 felony for a sex offender to use or even access a social networking site. The law goes into effect Jan. 1.
"I am pleased to sign this important legislation which prohibits sex offenders from using social network sites like Facebook and MySpace," Quinn said in a statement e-mailed to Computerworld.
"I want to thank the Illinois General Assembly, who passed this bill unanimously, for their commitment to protecting the families and children of Illinois."
The new state law is geared toward making it more difficult for predators to connect with previous or new victims.
The issue, according to Dan Olds, principal analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, lies in how to put any teeth into the law.
"Whether banning convicted sex offenders from social networking is just or not can be argued, but the greater point is if it can be enforced," he added.
"It is relatively easy to build a bogus online persona so that person can still participate in any social network. The only way to have any hope of enforcing this law is to require social networks to check user identification and then cross-reference that against court records. I doubt that will happen any time soon."
Social networking sites, such as MySpace, have been dealing with the sex offender issue for some time. In 2007, MySpace came under fire when attorneys general from eight states told MySpace to turn over the names of potentially thousands of registered sex offenders who may be members of its site.
The states' head attorneys said at the time that they were "gravely concerned" that sexual predators were using the Web site to lure children to meet them offline.
They asked MySpace to tell them how many registered sex offenders they've identified on the site and what the company is doing to remove them.
Later that same year, the spotlight turned to MySpace rival Facebook when Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal warned that sex offenders were lurking on the increasingly popular social networking site.
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Comments
Anonymous
Sounds pretty lame, as usual from a 'Save the Children' concept.
Last I checked you had to be 18 to get onto FaceBook... mind you I know kids who lie about their age to get online, but still = what a load of crap.
Jack Tar
Crim = banned from society forevah!!!eleven11
Wow, so if you have been convicted of a sexual offence ( that would include things like unknowingly taking part in statutory rape etc ) you are forever barred from even taking part in any social networking sites.
No increasing/improving your public circle of people, friends and aqauintances digitally. You want human contact, go outside and do it old school. These internets are for law abiders. Good god what a stupid concept.
Wouldn't be so bad if it were, no access in the slightest from websites that have under age members as standard ( the Disney Penguin chat thing I think it was called ) but for one's aimed at adults. Err yeah, way to go overbaord guys.
Anonymous
It's actually 13 years old and above. It was previously 18 and above.
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