Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal recently signed a law adding to the state's requirements for registered sex offenders. This new law requires offenders to list their status as a sex offender, a notice of the crime they were convicted of, where they were convicted, a description of their physical appearance, and their address. This law was created in response to a previous law which banned sexual predators from using the internet when it was declared unconstitutional by the courts.
Laws like these create a balancing act between the rights and safety of an individual versus the rights of the public. The American Civil Liberties of Louisiana argued against the previous law based on it infringing on constitutional rights while proponents of the law argued for the rights of the public.
Although many social network sites, Facebook included, prohibit sex offenders from having an account, many often slip through the cracks. States have started requiring registered offenders to release email addresses to them, but without a connecting system, social network sites cannot screen out user accounts as sex offenders on their own. Perhaps then, Louisiana's new law is the answer. Rather than risking the possibility of a predator slipping through the currently loose safeguards, it would essentially broadcast a warning. It is far easier for a parole officer to verify an offender's compliance by checking their account than it is to dig through all of the accounts, over 300 million on Facebook alone. Plus, is it really that much different from providing an offender's address on the sex offender registry?
Back in 2006, Kevin Poulsen, a writer for Wired Magazine, tested whether or not sex offenders could be identified as having a MySpace account, something MySpace denied was possible. He wrote a computer code which compared the sex offender registry to MySpace accounts and proceeded to physically verify the data, going over pictures and information to make sure they matched up. Not only did he find offenders with MySpace accounts, but he was also instrumental in the arrest of Andrew Lubrano, an offender that was actively preying on teen victims.
When offenders are already required to notify neighborhoods and schools of their status, is it too much to require them to also make that information available online? When there's a risk of them preying on new victims, the answer is no. When it's possible for anyone to have any number of fake Facebook accounts, it's a bit comforting to know somebody else is keeping their eye out.
