The home secretary will today outline plans to increase protection for children surfing the web, including new jail terms for convicted paedophiles who use social networking websites.
The measures, which mirror systems operating in the US, include a requirement for convicted sex offenders to give their email address to the police. If they use that address to sign up to a website such as MySpace, Bebo or Facebook, they could be imprisoned for up to five years.
Five years for joining Facebook?
Isn’t it, ermm, sort of necessary to show that they actually did something wrong? You know, like groomed a child or something? Logging on to leave "kthnxbai" on a friend’s wall gets you five years now?
12 responses so far ↓
1 Tristan Mills // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:15 am
And anyone up to no good will use a different email address to the one they gave the plods…
2 Eva // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:22 am
‘And anyone up to no good will use a different email address to the one they gave the plods…’
First thing I thought of too - isn’t that what’s called a no-brainer? But coming from the government…
3 Kay Tie // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:28 am
You Can’t Be Too Careful, Something Must Be Done, and If You’ve Nothing To Hide, You’ve Nothing To Fear.
4 Kay Tie // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:30 am
“And anyone up to no good will use a different email address to the one they gave the plods…”
Jailtime.
More interestingly, the Government have assumed (one size fits all, see?) that we have unique email addresses. What about those with shared email addresses? Who ‘owns’ the address? Who will have to register it.
No wonder they said “the details will have to be worked out” (in which case why is it a law already?).
5 Andrew Ian Dodge // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:45 am
And they seem to think people only have one email address. Do these people have a clue?
6 Mark Wadsworth // Apr 4, 2008 at 11:05 am
It’s a great idea. We should also making it illegal for them to use the post or a telephone as well. And terrorists should be prevented from looking at Google earth or looking up aeroplane timetables. It’s simple to enforce really - all you do is make people hand over their ID card when they register an email address. Y’see, I knew there was a justification for ID cards!
7 Kay Tie // Apr 4, 2008 at 11:08 am
“make people hand over their ID card when they register an email address”
Not forgetting to pop fingers in the post with the ID card (biometric pixie dust, sprinkle sprinkle).
8 JuliaM // Apr 4, 2008 at 11:13 am
“You Can’t Be Too Careful, Something Must Be Done, and If You’ve Nothing To Hide, You’ve Nothing To Fear.”
Followed by the all time favourite and current top trump:
It’s For the Children!!
9 Mark Wadsworth // Apr 4, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Kay Tie, no need to chop off finger, you just take your ID card up to one of these ‘Interview Centres’ they’re setting up for people who want a new passport. Couldn’t be easier or more convenient! And once all email addresses are held centrally by the gummint, they’ll be really secure and there’ll be no identity theft any more. God, it’s so obvious, really.
10 Serf // Apr 4, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Using Facebook only has one purpose????
I’m not its biggest fan but I did manage to find old friends on it.
Even perverts have old friends surely (although they do always say he kept to himself)
11 Peter Spence // Apr 4, 2008 at 5:05 pm
5 years for signing up to Facebook isn’t nearly enough!
12 David Davis // Apr 4, 2008 at 8:14 pm
“Grooming”?
Are the government seriously believing that today’s spry, cool, feisty, worldly brit-kids, proud products of its “schools” and all with their own bebo or myspace pages (I’m told that “myspace” is the one if you want to get laid, bebo is for the 6-year-olds apparently) can’t rumble when a dirty old adult is pretending to be one of them online? Pull the other one it’s got bells on.
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