MySpace Removes 90K Sex Offenders From Site

[MA-Caver]

MySpace: 90,000 sex offenders removed in two years (Reuters)


http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090203/tc_nm/us_myspace_offenders NEW YORK (Reuters) - The online networking site MySpace has identified and barred some 90,000 registered sex offenders from using the site over the last two years, MySpace revealed to an investigative task force on Tuesday.
The "shocking" number was 40,000 more than MySpace had previously acknowledged, according to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a co-chairman of the task force of state attorneys general looking into sex offenders' use of social networking.
MySpace, owned by News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media digital division, disclosed the figures to the task force in response to a subpoena.

Well this is a good thing. Part of me thinks what they should've done was shown their photos along with their screen names all over the site as a public service message... and a message saying "If you've been contacted by this person be aware that he's a sick pervert!"

 

[tellner]

Leaving them, what, thirty or forty members?

 

[grydth]

Tossing 90000 sex offenders is a good start.... now, if they can just ferret out the remaining 75% of them.......

 

[Drac]

Its all good...

 

[Drac]

Leaving them, what, thirty or forty members?

Hey,,That was hurtful....LOL

 

[crushing]

90,000? That number seemed much larger before I read that in mid-2006 MySpace attracted 260,000 new members a day and around that same time had 106,000,000 accounts. I don't know what those numbers are today.

Well this is a good thing. Part of me thinks what they should've done was shown their photos along with their screen names all over the site as a public service message... and a message saying "If you've been contacted by this person be aware that he's a sick pervert!"

Yes, if it could be guaranteed that a 17 year old with a 16 year old partner sex offenders would be left off the perv list.

 

[MA-Caver]

Yes, if it could be guaranteed that a 17 year old with a 16 year old partner sex offenders would be left off the perv list.

Well some states have statutory rape laws still in effect. I know of a guy who was 16 and had sex with his 15 yr. old gf ... her mom found out about it and he got sent to jail for 18 months. Both were under age but regardless, if the parent complains then a case is made of it. It doesn't matter if the girl was willing or not, by the law it's still statutory rape simply because she's under 18.

I do find it funny that in cases like this... the boy's parents would not complain about the girl. Funny how that works.

 

[David Weatherly]

Now they've all moved to craigslist.

 

[grydth]

Good point, they do have to go somewheres, don't they?

Um, Bob, if you note a very sudden and very marked membership increase, well..........

 

[Bob Hubbard]

We don't allow under 16 to register, so I doubt we'll see them here. Course, if they do, the 'good' stuff's for paying members only, and we ban sex offenders, and no refunds, so, sign up boys. Bobby needs a new server farm!

 

[Empty Hands]

I don't know why this is so shocking and surprising, sex offenders can use computers too. Myspace doesn't automatically correlate your IP address with your ISP records and state offender databases. No doubt someone will call for that next.

It does bother me that the registry has become a de facto method of post-sentence punishment, to follow for the rest of your life. Some states even put offenses like public urination on there. Other states enact de facto exile on registrants. Some people have been put on the list and never convicted of a crime, and the judge will refuse to take them back off the list. Meanwhile, a murderer or an arsonist can go on their way after their sentence and parole are completed, with no problems. More than anything, this says to me how messed up Americans are about sex.

So much for "paying your debt to society" and starting fresh.

 

[HeartofJuyoMk2]

PHEW, *Is 17*

 

[AoCAdam]

That is really good for everyone. Hopefully this will give myspace more credibility and a safer environment for everyone.

 

[HeartofJuyoMk2]

That is really good for everyone. Hopefully this will give myspace more credibility and a safer environment for everyone.

Practically no chance of that happening. I don't know a single "credible" social networking site that hasn't been accused of scandals of some sort or another.

 

[Ninjamom]

OK, that was just ... plain .... weird.

I read the thread title ("MySpace Removes 90K Sex Offenders from Site"), and somehow mixed it with the thread title just above it ("Coolest SciFi Ship?") and somehow got "SciFi Ship removes 90,000 Sex Offenders". I could just picture them all being beamed aboard and moved to another galaxy.

Strange, but ya have to admit it is one solution.

So much for "paying your debt to society" and starting fresh.

Aside: I always thought the whole concept of 'paying your debt to society' was a little bogus - if you commit a crime, you have a debt to your victim.

 

[Carol]

OK, that was just ... plain .... weird.

I read the thread title ("MySpace Removes 90K Sex Offenders from Site"), and somehow mixed it with the thread title just above it ("Coolest SciFi Ship?") and somehow got "SciFi Ship removes 90,000 Sex Offenders". I could just picture them all being beamed aboard and moved to another galaxy.

Strange, but ya have to admit it is one solution.

I like it! :jediduel:

What do you call 50,000 banjo players at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.

Aside: I always thought the whole concept of 'paying your debt to society' was a little bogus - if you commit a crime, you have a debt to your victim.

Interesting point...you do have a debt to your victim, but it isn't the victim that gets paid. It is society at large that gets paid (by the offender not being a free part of it), yes?

 

[Thesemindz]

Interesting point...you do have a debt to your victim, but it isn't the victim that gets paid. It is society at large that gets paid (by the offender not being a free part of it), yes?

That's just one problem with our current "justice" system.

At what point did we begin to equate acts of evil with time spent in a box? Prison is just time out for adults. Only it's time out with other, often worse, offenders there to keep you company. So we end up with criminals who,

• didn't repay their victims for the injustices they commited against them
• don't learn positive methods of conflict resolution to prevent future violence
• hold a grudge against society for how they've been punished
• were often brutalized by their fellow inmates
• and were exposed to more violent and sometimes more sophisticated ways to commit crime

There's no emphasis on the criminal to correct the wrongs he's caused, the victim goes completely uncompensated, and whatever lessons the criminal is taught about non violent conflict resolution are countermanded by the very terms of his imprisonment.

We end up with warehouses filled with criminals who only become increasingly more violent and corrupt and who often go on to reoffend upon release, and a society filled with the suffering innocent who are never made whole following their victimization.

We need to replace the current system with one which focuses on compensating the victim. We have to make people responsible for correcting their mistakes, not just suffering from them. We must reinforce personal responsibility, not divorce action from consequence.

Unless and until we completely restructure our "justice" system, and learn the difference between those criminals which can be rehabilitated and those which can not, until we make the criminals a part of an ongoing society instead of pariahs following their release, until we learn that the pursuit of justice is the personal responsibility of all free people, we will continue to create monsters. We will continue to loose those monsters on an unsuspecting population made dull and unaware by leaders who teach them to abdicate personal responsibility. And we will continue to bemoan the consequences of their monstrous acts.


-Rob

 

[Empty Hands]

Aside: I always thought the whole concept of 'paying your debt to society' was a little bogus - if you commit a crime, you have a debt to your victim.

The victim doesn't prosecute, sentence and imprison the criminal. Our system is quite clear in that crimes are offenses against the system at large, and are prosecuted as such. Otherwise, the victim would be more than a witness, which is their current role.

 

[Ninjamom]

The victim doesn't prosecute, sentence and imprison the criminal. Our system is quite clear in that crimes are offenses against the system at large, and are prosecuted as such. Otherwise, the victim would be more than a witness, which is their current role.

Still, without restitution, there is no real 'justice'.