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New UK Government Internet Legislation
Topic Started: Apr 4 2008, 07:24 AM (139 Views)
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From the BBC

Quote:
 

Sex offenders face website bans

Sex offenders' e-mail addresses are to be passed to social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo to prevent them contacting children.

Under government proposals, offenders who do not give police their address - or give a false one - would face up to five years in jail.

Websites would be expected to monitor the e-mail address usage or block them accessing the sites.

The Home Office said the new laws would apply to about 30,000 sex offenders.

Other measures in new government guidelines include a "kitemark" for filtering software.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she wanted children to be "free from fear".

However, BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said ministers admitted that details of the system were still to be worked out, including how it would work with websites based abroad over which the UK has no jurisdiction.

Both Facebook and MySpace are based in California.

'Working together'

The new government guidance comes after the telecoms regulator Ofcom talked to 5,000 adults and 3,000 children and found nearly half of those aged between eight and 17 had a profile on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.

It also found 41% of the children surveyed had their profile set so anyone, rather than just friends, could view it.


Social networking guidance

The recent Byron review also found about a third of those aged between nine and 19 who used the internet weekly had received sexual comments via e-mail, instant message, chat or text message.

Announcing the new guidelines, the home secretary said: "I want to see every child living their lives free from fear, whether they are meeting friends in a youth club or in a chat room.

"We are working together with police, industry and charities to create a hostile environment for sex offenders on the internet and are determined to make it as hard for predators to strike online as in the real world."

Shaun Kelly, from the children's charity NCH, told the BBC that he welcomed the new measures.

"We feel it will add protection for children using the internet.

"It will mean that those who have previously offended against children will be stopped from accessing certain websites and certain social networking sites that children and young people are known to use.

"I think that will increase children's online safety."

The Social Networking Guidance contains recommendations for service providers and safety advice for first-time users.

They also include:

    * Arrangements for the industry and law enforcement agencies to share reports of potentially illegal activity and suspicious behaviour

    * Making it more difficult for people registered over the age of 18 to search for users under the age of 18

    * Encouraging children not to provide excessive information about themselves

Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency Jim Gamble said the guidance had the "real potential to accelerate online child protection".

"It will provide parents with those crucial indicators as to which sites and providers they should be using, allowing children the chance to get on and enjoy the full benefits of the internet with vital reassurance," he said.



Hmm...
While I think it's great that the government are trying to protect children there are a bunch of problems with what they are proposing here...

The obvious one is handing over email addresses of known sex offender. How hard is it to get a new email addy? It takes an entire MINUTE (if you type slowly!)

How does it help anyone if they have a list of OLD email addresses? It doesn't

Having social networks more closely monitor who they allow to register is a better idea, but even then there are problems
Just take a look at the arbitrary way that MySpace polices its users, with no obvious code or guidelines as to what they allow (despite the prominently displayed rules)

Other networks are worse still (Netlog comes to mind) where they allow thirteen year olds to post photos of tehmselves in their underwear
If my daughter tried to do that I'd ground her for LIFE!

Not that she's allowed on any of the social networks anyway.

Which kinda brings me to my last point...responsible parenting.
I NEVER allow my kids on websites that I haven't checked out personally first. If there's anything even slightly "off" about it they simply aren't allowed on.

This ISN'T Nazi parenting, it's SAFE parenting.
It falls under the same category as allowing your kids to play in the street.

You HAVE to inform them of the dangers, make them aware of what can happen and sometimes stop them from doing stuff that they think is fun (and you know is potentially dangerous) despite them giving you lip and filthy looks for a week afterwards!
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You are plugged in where most parents are casual observers, and if your instincts tell you to keep them off of social networks, I completely agree. I’d so be doing the same thing if I had youngins to look after. I’ve seen WAY too many people on video game forums and the like turn into something less than pleasant when you get them into a private chat. The thing is, I’d be willing to bet that most of those people were not registered sex offenders… yet.

I have to agree with you that trying to keep track of a sex offender’s email addresses would an impossible task, and I hope they are not going to expend a lot of energy trying. It is a good rule though. That way if they suspect a sex offender is up to no good, and he or she has an unreported email, they have something they can charge them with and they don‘t have to wait for some horrible crime to be committed. And if they bust some sex offender offending, that unregistered email address they used can be just one more charge, and might make a prison sentence that much longer.

But you are absolutely right that nothing the police can do is a substitute for parenting.
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