Argumentative Essay in favor of Sex Offender Social Networking Law
Sex offenders are people who have committed a sex crime. In the United States, there are more than 400,000 registered sex offenders. This led Congressman Jeff Thompson of Louisiana to create a law, effective August 1, requiring sex offenders and child predators to state in their social accounts, that they have committed a sex crime, what crime it was, and the court’s decision upon his crime. He must also state his physical characteristics and his residential address. This law will be very helpful because it can raise awareness about the crime and the criminals, protect online users, and help the social accounts to identify its users.
Indicating their crimes and their identities as criminals raises awareness among the online community. When someone comes across a profile of a sex criminal, it alerts him/her that the crime does exist and some criminals are still creeping around the online world. It allows other people to know more about the crime and its kinds. Also, it notifies them about the identity of the person they’re about to “friend” or “follow” and prevents future sexual harassment between the criminal and other users.
The passing of the law in congress will furthermore protect online users, especially children. If sex criminals do not declare their statuses online, some people may still converse with them, not knowing that they have been convicted sex criminals. Nowadays, millions of people go online every day, and if these people are not notified that some criminals are still lingering around, their protection is at risk. Requiring sex criminals to virtually announce their statuses alert other internet users to use the internet in a safer and wiser manner.
Though social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter prohibit convicted sex offenders from using their websites, some people and their accounts still slip off watch. Requiring sex criminals to post about their condition and conviction helps the management of the aforementioned social networking sites in eradicating the accounts of the criminals so they may not attempt to sexually abuse someone online.
This law has been declared the first of its kind in America and in many ways may benefit the nation. However, the government must keep a keen eye on every single account of sex criminals because information and statuses online can be changed in a blink of an eye.
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